Central America - February 2002

The Mayan Ruins in Copan and a journey by bus through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

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panama04
February 14, Valentines Day, our last day before we leave for our sailing trip. We begin by taking our laundry to a nearby laundromat. A couple of cops flag us down as we're walking back to the hotel -- it's 9:00 in the morning -- they ask us what we're doing there. Don't we know this area is VERY VERY dangerous. "Many bad boys here". We thank them and hurry back to our hotel. We wonder what kind of a place are we in when even at 9:00 in the morning we are warned to stay off the streets!
We negotiate with a cab to take us to see the Panama Canal. Hop in the car and head out for Mira Flores locks. As we leave the city the car stops at an intersection and suddenly Sue and I are joined in the back seat by another (uninvited) passenger. It was a little too crowded for my liking. Now I can tell you that the fiesta was exciting, but nothing gets my heart pumping like the experience of having a young grubby thug yelling "MONEY! MONEY!" into my face, one hand waving a pistol at my face, the other one groping around in my pants pocket. He was having a bit of trouble getting the wad of one's and five's I had in that pocket because of the zipper on the pockets of my travel pants, and because the taxi driver was 'serpenting' the cab and young Noriega had to try to keep from falling out of the open door as the cab sped along. He finally managed to get a fistful of bills and jumped out of the car, coins spraying in all directions. While my heart was racing, the taxi tried to get the attention of the police car that happened to be driving just ahead of us, but they wouldn't stop. We ended up finally reporting the whole thing to the tourist police and then heading out to the canal. Luckily I had put a few hundred dollars in my OTHER pocket, and amazingly the thief only got about 20 bucks and my hotel key, leaving my credit cards in the pocket.