Goodbye South, Hello Central.

So, after 4 months and 19 days of traveling in South America, Wyatt and I hopped on a plane in Barranquilla, Colombia, and ended up in Panama City, Panama. It is taking some time to adjust. It looks a lot like Latin America, but they use the dollar and there are packages and billboards in English, and American brands of food everywhere, and english words mixing with spanish. It is so different than South America so far too. Bumping along in the old cab we squeezed into with 3 other travelers to get into the city from the airport on Thursday night, we saw the skyline all lit up. Huge skyscrapers are something we have not seen in a while! Getting on a plane made it feel like we were going home, but after an hour of trying to avoid watching the elderly drunk couple make out in front of us, and eating something like cold chicken pate, and going through customs and imigration, we were in another country, but not home yet.
We are on our second full day, and starting to feel better about things. Not feeling sick anymore which is a huge relief, really like the area we are staying in, the old town, finding cheap deals and nice people, and an energy that feels new. The feel is just different here....its so hard to explain. I got so lost yesterday in the maze of streets. Finally a cop stopped and told me it was too dangerous to be walking by myself and where I was going. He made a map for me on his hand of the block and a half I had to walk, and asked me about myself, and was so nice. I realized I had been walking in circles, around and around the street our hotel was on. I guess I am just feeling disoriented.
We went to the Panama Canal today, which was pretty amazing. We saw a ship go through, and saw the movie about the construction of it, and dodged throngs of tourists and school kids who were just taking photos on their phones of all the exhibitions instead of reading them. It was diffeent than I imagined....I imagined it to be busier, bigger, more hustle and bustle, but it was fairly quiet and straightforward. It was still pretty awesome to see the boats going through the locks and that whole process of raising and lowering the water levels and the boats to get them level with the next body of water they are going into. And to see the small boats hitch up to the ships to guide them through, some boats being just big enough to slide through with mere inches between them and the canal walls. And it is incredible at how much some of the bigger boats have to pay to get through the canal...sometimes upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars!
I really like this city. Glad to have the extra time here.