20K and a Year Away

When I started this post, I was sitting in Kalama, Washington, at my friend Jennifer’s house – thanks, Jennifer!! – waiting ever so patiently for the day. It has felt like forever for the day to arrive, but this is the day.

On my last day in Washington, I met with Panos, my new Greek tutor, at 9 in the morning. I was really looking forward to it because it is an amazingly fun time. I learn and it takes my mind off of things that are stressful. I have not laughed this much while doing homework ever! We start the lesson and all of a sudden, three hours have gone by and my stomach hurts from laughing – in Greek, hahaha, or should I say χαχαχα! I think it helped me get over the slight anxiety I was feeling about the journey. And I am learning Greek. And, best of all, I have a fantastic new friend who is hilarious and helps me a lot. You see, the internet is magical.

After my class, I headed to Vancouver to pack Axel’s bags. We are not doing serious backpacking – where we need to carry everything every day – but we are transporting everything without a car and will need to be able to carry it to and from taxis and airports. I rearranged my bags about 235 times, just to see what was best. HAHA! His, I only rearranged about 4 times. After I finished his bags, I went back to Jennifer’s and we had pizza. I have had a ton of pizza lately. Can’t wait to miss pizza!

I spent the next day waiting… Matilda sent me a text from the airport at 6am as she set off for Boston to hang out with my brother for two months. Our flight was not until 9pm, so I had to fill time from 6am to 5:30pm, when I planned to head to Vancouver to get Axel and a ride to the airport at 6:30pm to arrive at 7pm.

I waited, and waited, and waited. It was all I could do to find a happy place and not run around like a chicken with my head cut off. I got some texts from Jennifer about her day and some messages from Panos for a good trip which helped calm my nerves a lot. I was really anxious about the logistics of planes and luggage and transfers. It seems like no matter what you do to prepare, something gets messed up. I am pretty sure you just need to add that fact into all your planning – it is going to happen.

And… that brings me to the actual journey Monday evening. I left Jennifer’s at 5:25. I could not wait that extra 5 minutes. I was so wired I could have run to Vancouver and been on time! As I was driving, I got a text. “Are you stuck in traffic?” I call back because I am driving. “No, why.” “I heard there was a lot of traffic on the interstate.” Oh, great… guess it’s good I left 5 minutes early.

Fortunately, there was no traffic and I arrived on time. One down, 5 to go.

Axel and I got everything ready to go and his dad took us to the airport. Everything worked out great. We checked our bags and headed to the TSA line for security checks. I thought we were good to go and then I see them pull my bag out. I am curious what that is all about and then see them pull Axel’s bag out, too. Now, I am very curious what is up.

They call us over. “Is this your bag?” Yep. “Come over here, please.”

They open it and are looking for something in particular. I keep thinking, did I leave some liquid in there that I don’t remember? No, I did not. The guy rifles through the stuff and pulls out my silverware kit. It is a handy setup with a fork, spoon, chopsticks, straw, and straw cleaner. Well, that’s all it has now because the guy took the knife that was with it. Heads up if you plan on taking silverware in your carry-on – no serrated edges… at. all. Not even a butter knife. Don’t even try it.

They asked if we wanted to take our stuff back and check it so we could keep the knives. We decided to live like barbarians and let them keep the knives. The other TSA agent told us that she knew we did not have bad intentions so they had no problem letting us go, but there are people who would do bad things with their butter knives and they had to be careful. I hear you, lady. I do. We are sorry and we won’t do it again.

2 down, 4 to go.

We get to the gate and wait for our flight and no problems – smooth like butter, as BTS likes to say – and here we are with no butter knives. The plane is super empty so we get moved around for weight and balance. No problem, still smooth sailing. Everyone is on the plane, the doors are closed, and we are getting ready to taxi to the runway. And… “Hello, everyone. I am your captain.” Apparently, there was a lot of traffic in the air in Seattle, our first stop, so we had to wait a half-hour on the plane before they would let the plane take off. Offfff cooooourse we did.

Let me just tell you how calm and crazy I was at the same time right then. I have adopted the “Of Course” point of view so I don’t go insane at every turn, but this was cutting things very close. Our flight from Seattle was scheduled to leave at midnight and this delay was going to make it a tight change. Oh well, what can you do? Axel and I decided we could do nothing and just hoped it worked out.

The plane finally took off and the pilot was able to make up a little time in the air so we were only 20 minutes behind schedule. We still had to get our bags and go check them in at the other airline counter and go through security. Fortunately, our bags were the first ones off the conveyer at baggage claim. Bonus! We grabbed them and jumped on the escalator to the escalator to the train to the escalator. It was an adventure all on its own!

We made it and checked our bags and headed to security. We knew we wouldn’t have any trouble there since all our sharp knives had already been confiscated! 3 down, 3 to go.

We got on our plane with no problems, again, butter. This was to Houston. It was a 4-hour flight, more or less, and we tried to sleep the whole way. It was not easy. We made it to Houston and enjoyed a very relaxing 3-hour layover (yes, that is sarcasm). Ahhh, the lovely layover. It went by quickly, but we were completely exhausted.

Houston to Panama City was next. To enter Panama, you need to fill out a health affidavit, scan your passport, and upload your vaccination card if you have one. If you don’t, you have to upload negative COVID test results from no more than 72 hours before arrival in the country. When it is done, you receive a QR code you need to enter the country. You cannot board the plane without your passport and QR code. We were good on all counts. 4 down, 2 to go.

The flight to Panama was fine. We tried to sleep again, with little luck. Now we are completely exhausted and wishing for a chance to actually sleep. Well, that’s not happening! Oh well. Soon. We arrived and were herded through the immigration line where we showed our fancy QR codes and passports. Some people did not have a QR code and had to go to the “table.” I already had my knives taken, I did not want to see what happened at the “table.” Nothing good, I am sure! We were stamped and sent through. No problems. Our bags were scanned and we were on our way. The arranged taxi was there to get us and we made it to the first B&B stop – and beds! 5 down, 1 to go.

The B&B we stayed at was the same one I stayed at in January 2020, before all travel was locked down and the world completely changed. It was a bit of a splurge this time, but really comfortable and close to the terminal, so we went for it. While we were there, Axel met another kid staying there, Carlos. Carlos doesn’t speak English and Axel doesn’t speak Spanish, but they managed to use google to translate and played PlayStation for a few hours. Good first night.

In the morning, we had to get up and hustle again. We did not get to sleep enough. We were both still pretty tired. We had to get to the terminal and catch a bus. We got there, got the bus, jumped on right away, and 4 hours later were in Santiago, Veraguas. It was not bad at all! I was dreading a 10-hour ride because of tons of unplanned stops, but it was great! Today is Mother’s Day here and not many people were out traveling. Great luck for us. Once we got to Santiago, we got some pizza – ugh, again! – because it was fast and close, then jumped on our last bus to Santa Fe. After about an hour and a half of bad roads and bus stops, we made it to the hotel! 6 down, none to go!!

As a side note, today is also Meaghan and Milo’s (her son) birthday! Happy Birthday, you two!!

We are checked in, showered, and sprayed everything with bug spray. I am covered in little no-see-um bites because I am delicious to all manner of biting bugs and did not get the bug repellant on quickly enough. We’ll see tomorrow how bad the damage is. Never fails. I am pretty tasty. Tomorrow, we will find some food, too. The adventure of a lifetime has officially begun.