March 15- Arrival in Panama

We arrived in Panama at around noon on March 15th after leaving Guayaquil at 11:55PM the night before. It is usually a 2 hour flight between the two cities but......
Because we had booked a round trip from Miami  we decided to keep the return trip to Miami and then go to Panama. For a pair of seasoned travellers this was beyond stupid!!!
Oh well, we just love airports- NOT

At the Tucomen airport we picked up our car rental previously booked- no problems- plus bought a new Panama cell phone plus minutes and left the airport towards the nearest grocery store on our way to our rental apartment in 'Altos de Cerro Azul'. Even though our new landlord had sent us a map, I remembered the way. We bought some essentials- dinner, beer, wine- and headed up the mountain to our new home for the next six weeks.

After a 50 minute drive and following Dave's written directions ( follow yellow line, turn left at top of first hill, left at old green shack.....) we managed to find our apartment which had an incredible view over the countryside.
                          Here are some views from the large deck outside our door.

 We can actually see the lights of Panama City at night. And the towers of skyscrappers during a clear day.
                                       The house our apartment is in
                                        and the road leading up to the house

We took a long walk around to the lot we had bought 2 years ago.  It is very hilly and has lots of trees on it that would require removing if we decide to build here.

Lots of decisions to be made! The subdivion is only 30% built up and huge and very very quiet and scenic. We even saw a Tucan fly by. Our neighbour assures us that these forests have monkees that we have yet to see.