Day 25: Panama - 30/01/10

I’m supposed to meet Judith at 8.45 am to get the bus to Albrook Mall but manage to get a little behind on time.  I get Mike to radio Brown Eyed Girl so everyone hears over the air waves that not only am I going shopping ….. again, but also that I am running late ….. as usual!  This means that as I walk down the dock, I am greeted with cat calls from other crews about my shopping addiction and my propensity for being late!

We miss the bus but get a taxi which costs the same anyway.  As we arrive the doors of the mall are only just being opened so it was just as well we missed the bus otherwise we could have been standing outside in the heat for ages.

The mall is enormous and there don’t appear to be any maps, the normal sort of ‘you are here’ helpful guides, so we end up wandering around in circles for ages.  Judith buys a few bits for her and Joe and I buy yet another bikini and pair of flip flops.

We get back to the marina around 1 pm and I meet Mike and Jim in the bar for lunch and a session on the internet.  Having paid $18 for 24 hours of internet access for the boat, it doesn’t work and we have to use the free one in the bar instead.  Most inconvenient.  The connection at the bar is good but the noise level is high.  Mike needs to talk to the bank and has to resort to shielding the microphone with his hands as just at the point the phone is answered, the local chapter of the Panama Harley Davidson Appreciation Society pull up and sit revving their engines for the enjoyment of everyone sitting eating their lunch!  Thanks guys!!

Photo:  Looking like a little rodent eating cheese, Mike using Skype

Back on the boat, we have a little rest as we need our strength for tonight.  We have been persuaded to go along on the Party Bus, a bus which tours around Panama City from 9 to midnight, with loud music, a DJ and a free bar.  What have we let ourselves in for?

Mike goes to the skippers’ meeting in the late afternoon and I put another load of washing on.  My little darling is still working, then around 7.30 pm we go back to shore to go to the drinks party hosted by WCC.  It’s a good do, helped by the fact that they serve Sauvignon Blanc and the nibbles are good and very substantial.

Just after 9 pm, we hear blaring music and see flashing lights – the party buses have arrived.  Mike visibly blanches but gets on anyway.

Photo:  All aboard it’s party time!

We find ourselves seats towards the back thinking that this is the safest place but it is where all the speakers are so it ends up being the wrong thing to do.  The seating is just a long bench around the outside of the bus with the middle of the bus left open for dancing, something made mildly less precarious by the addition of ropes strung along the ceiling that you can grab as the bus lurches along.  Not a whiff of Health and Safety here.  The dancing starts even before the bus has left the kerb, and the free bar ensures that it is a little more …… energetic …… than it might otherwise be!!!

Photo:  Me having a bit of a pole dance (or just clinging on for dear life?)

  Photo:  It doesn’t take long for Jim to get up for a jiggle

Even Mike has a bit of a dance, which, given the music (some sort of Panamanian disco/rap – difficult to tell as it is so loud and distorted).

Half way through the evening the buses stop so people can get out for a little walk and swap buses if they want to.

Photo:  Me and Debbie (from Tortola – small world)

Then it’s time to get back on.  Mike and Jim get into the bus from the back but in a knickerless (what else) state, I decide it might be a bit dangerous and go back on by the front door where I am immediately put into the driver’s seat to pretend to drive the bus.  Sharing the seat is Wolfgang, the owner of our sister ship, Destiny, another Privilege 435, and incredibly, hull 24, the one that was built after ours.  We are eventually thrown out of our seat when the real driver gets on and I go back to find Mike, only he isn’t there.  He has got off to look for me and the bus pulls away before I can see if he is on the other bus.  I just have to presume that he is on the other bus anyway.

Until I find him I amuse myself by dancing and chatting away to other crew members and WCC staff.

Photo:  Honestly – I am really worried about the whereabouts of my husband!!

When the bus eventually stops back at the marina at midnight, I jump off to look for Mike, and still can’t find him.  I wait by the side of the bus until it has emptied but there is no sign of him.  Now I really am worried.  Then Nick points him coming over.  He had leapt off the bus to go to the loo – there have been no toilets on the buses and on his bus, some guys had resorted to peeing out of the open doorway!  No such lack of decorum from my husband thank goodness.

We wander back to the dinghy, wondering whether Jim will make it back to the boat in one piece.  He tells us that his hips hurt from all the dancing and that he is a little inebriated and must have had 15 drinks.  Ever the master of exaggeration (remember the hundreds of dolphins when there were just 4?) we are not sure about this, but given the slight staggering and the fact that it was a free bar, he could just be telling the truth.

We make it back to Jeannius without getting a soaking, and fall into bed, ears ringing like mad.