Another Day in Panama

After this a long lie in was deserved but I had to get up before 10 because I had no extended for another night as I originally wanted to move.

I guess the experiences of previous night's apartment visit made me more immune against the current hostel situation and as I assumed no beds had become empty yet although the Carnival was over I decided to stay in the White Lion Hostel - you get used to everything I guess.

Since the city had returned to normality, the museums in Casco Viejo had also opened up now and we went to visit another museum about the Panama Canal. This however was entirely in Spanish and pretty much the only thing I understood were the American Engineering Documents and plans - they were the most interesting part anyway. But then there was the top floor that had a collection of Photos from the time in Panama City before the Canal and during its building process and after.

That was very interesting as well.

The building that the museum was housed in was also very nice. It was one of the refurbished colonial style building. Here again Panama had invested a lot to make a good impression. A little less pine wood floor and brass railings would have done as well.

The afternoon I spent in catching up on the flight and hostel bookings.

The most frustrating part of this was the fact that the flights from Santiago to Punta Arenas had gone up dramatically in price. The previous time I checked maybe a month ago they were 200 € and had crept up to more than 600 € now. I tried for a while to find cheaper flights but without a result.

No choice, we said we are going to Patagonia and so we had to take the hit and I booked them.

Kai and I arranged and agreed a couple of details and dates over facebook and email and then spent some time to fill in the ever increasing gaps in my blog.

The guys were going to head off in the morning so we went out for one last dinner but struggled to find something new, that looked good and was not too expensive. So we ended up at a sort of fancy place. The food was great and we even had live music entertainment in the square.

Yes, forgot to mention, most of the action happens outside here, especially in the evenings.

For drinks it was orange juice now... after the last couple of nights of Carnival (and the previous 5 months) I decided to do a mini lent and not drink any alcohol for a week.

Back at the hostel all the guests had other ideas and there was loads of temptation but I resisted and stuck with water for the night.