We barely slept 3 hours and we were up and in a cab to the airport for our flight. I would like to spend more time in Guatemala in the future, but we were nearing the half way point of our trip, with the islands of Panama and Colombia awaiting us. Our airport experience was super chilled, and I considered how we hadn’t had any issues with flights so far.
David decided he needed to buy a wallet before we boarded. Henry and I waited for him and we heard our names on the tannoy as he ran towards the gate. 10 minutes before the flight left. We handed our passports to the airline staff. COVID passes. Check. Have you completed your declaration? … What declaration? Turns out we had to complete an online form to enter Panama that none of us knew about. You don’t have enough time, they said, as we scanned the qr codes to get the form. What followed was a hectic 5 minutes of charm and pressure as we powered through an entirely Spanish form, getting help from the staff as they assured us they wouldn’t allow us onto the plane. Just as they were closing the gate Henry and I finished the form, and we ran onto the plane, with David following behind without having actually done it. Christ. That was the first major stressful moment of the trip. Bossed it though.
We checked into a hotel adjacent to the airport in Panama City, with the view that this would make it easier to catch our flight to the island of Bocas del Toro the following day. Everyone had told us we had to visit Bocas while we were out here. Their eyes lit up when they spoke of it and I was excited to see it for myself. The hotel was nice, with a big pool I was too shattered to enjoy, and a $20 buffet. Which was good because we had been spending at double the rate of our budget so far on this trip. We all crashed out early, exhausted from the previous night and the days travelling.