Panama – Wrap Up

I have to admit I probably doomed this trip from the start. I was going down to see if I wanted to live someplace like Panama and I will never make that the object of a trip ever again. I have to go places that have things I want to see and do and if I happen to find someplace I would like to live then so be it. I can’t make travel a chore I have to take care of.

Lessons learned

I learned a lot of important things from the trip:

I am much happier with a well planned trip that has thoroughly researched lodging, destinations, and activities. Punting didn’t work for me. I have always suspected it’s the thorough planning that makes me feel comfortable traveling solo. Maybe that will fade with experience, but for now I need a plan.

I do not do sitting around with nothing to do very well. I really don’t do sitting around with nothing to do and nothing to read very well. Some people can lay in a hammock all day and watch the waves come in. I am not one of them. I was bored out of my mind and trapped with no transportation. Really bad planning on my part. I believe downtime is important for sanity, but on the flip side too much downtime can lead to insanity…

I am most definitely a child of technology and I don’t think I could live somewhere the internet was slow, painful, and intermittent. Nor somewhere the climate eats your hardware. Most houses there have no A/C and computers don’t last long.

I am also a child of modern conveniences. I love to camp and can rough it for extended periods of time, but when I am paying for a room I love hot water, water pressure, clean drinking water, tap water clean enough I’m not afraid to rinse my contacts lenses, and cleanliness. It doesn’t have to be fancy — it needs to be clean.

I have realized for some time I am becoming less and less tolerant of heat. The heat  and humidity of Panama and I would never get along.

I absolutely adore diving and need to do it as regularly as I can afford. I have missed it terribly and don’t want big gaps of time between dives ever again.

The good thing about traveling alone is that you can abruptly change your plans. I wasn’t happy and didn’t like it so I changed my flight and came back home early. No regrets on that decision.

As luck would have it I sat next to a woman on the flight from Miami to DFW who had also been on a trip she would never repeat again so we swapped stories about Panama and Jamaica. The really cool thing is she had been to Tahiti last year and adored it and by the time I got off the plane I had my next exotic destination in mind. My guardian angels are always looking out for me.