Panama!

Well, what better to do when getting back from a two week major international, half way around the world, vacation, but to take another vacation! Sometimes I am not very smart when I book travel. I see a cheap fare, book it, and then forget about it. This time, a trip to Panama I booked a while back jumped up on me a few days after I arrived back from India/UAE/Bahrain.

I had just enough time in Miami to clean up some business issues, make a few reservations for the trip to Panama, and take a swim in the ocean just 2 blocks from my place....ahhhh...the life! Rich and I boarded our noon-ish flight out of Miami to only sit in American Airlines' VERY uncomfortable 757 slippy slope first class seat for about 4 1/2 hours as a thunderstorm quickly approached and stopped all departures and all but essential European arrivals for over 4 hours. The only benefit to being in first class was that we were given food and liquored up, but believe me, the coach seats on the 757 are WAY more comfortable. American seems to slip on the 757 and not install a simple foot rest or cloth ergonomic seats.

After arriving in Panama very late we were too exhausted to do anything but veg in the hotel room. Oh, and Panama has the WORST road signs ever! I think you are just suppose to know where to go, kinda like Beirut, but really no signs that lead an outsider into the center. It is easier getting around Syria! Over the next few days Rich and I met up with a friend of a friend of ours that showed us around. He took us to the Panama Canal, showed us the gay nightlife and helped book us at an all-inclusive in Playa Blanca. At the end of the trip we drove up to stay at the Melia Colon. Everyone told us, and I read several times, that Colon is very dangerous, but Rich and I always love checking things out for ourselves. The Melia was easy to find and in a secure compound just outside of Colon, but the hotel is quite lackluster. The smell of mold and the feeling that we were caught in "The Shining".....creepy cakes! We did make a run into Colon and take a walk through the secured free-trade zone the city created, but it is mainly filled with cheap Chinese junk and likely not worth the jaunt through the decrepit crime ridden center of town.

Now I have been back in Miami for a while and plan to settle down for a bit and get out my new release “Serbia” that you can find on my new website http://www.worldofmen.com/.