We decided to fly back to Panama City, rather than busing it. We didn’t want to spend all day traveling. When I booked the ticket, the had the flight departing Changuinola (CHX). It is about an hour north of Almirante, the landside port to Bocas Town, the hub of the islands. Turns out there is also an airport in Bocas Town, about two minutes out of town.
Carmen tried to change the flight for us, but we ended up getting up early to be sure to make it before the 1:00 pm flight. We took the water taxi from Carmen’s Place to Bocas Town at about 8:00. The water taxi to Almirante at 8:30. A shuttle to CHX, arriving around 10:00.
They wouldn’t check us in until 12:00, so we found a local restaurant and had a bite. When we checked in, at 12:30, they gave us our boarding passes and a $10 bill. Turns out they would board about 4:30. Hmmm.
We finally did board and took off. Imagine my surprise when they announced we were flying to David, not Panama City. Once there, we joined a group of passengers from, you guessed it, Bocas Town. At about 7:00 they put us all on a plane and we made it to Panama City at 7:30.
Who Knew there was so much to see in Panama (beside the Canal).
How much everybody misses! love your posts, ellie
At least you got some beautiful pictures from your day of travel. Your posts are certainly a highlight of my email feed!
All you can do is laugh. We had a crazy airline experience leaving there also. It turned out for the best though. We thought we were being put on the wrong plane or no plane. Got put on a little prop plane and the remaining 80 percent of the people got put on a BIG plane. We were confused, that was for sure. It worked out just fine. The big plane went somewhere else before landing in Panama city. We went direct and we all arrived pretty much the same time. We really had no idea what was going on the whole time but boy oh boy, were our views ever SPECTACULAR from that little plane. Travel does have its surprises, even good ones. 😊