There's no place like home

I went to Panama with no expectations.
From those I spoke with prior to the trip, I had heard mostly good reviews with a few words of caution sprinkled in. But I didn’t arrive in Panama with any ideas of exactly what sights we would see, what people we would encounter, and what adventures we would have (which were many!).
Leading up to the trip, I had been reading Richard Dietrich’s blog regularly, which prepared me for some potential rudeness and/or indifference from the Panamanians. So I wasn’t really surprised when the lady at Tocumen Airport’s immigration literally waved us away with a flip of her hand. We were not offended. In fact, we actually found it funny.
Being a third world country, we knew we would encounter many poor areas. But when you look beyond that, the overall landscape is breathtaking, especially once we were out of Panama City.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the overwhelming desire I had of wanting to hop on the first flight back home after only our second day in the country.
While I want to consider myself a woman of adventure, this was one vacation where I was completely out of my comfort zone. Thankfully, what ensued was a week filled with fun and challenging experiences as well as near death events. And we met a lot of fascinating people along the way.
I look forward to sharing them all with you.