Saturday, June 25, 2011

Panamanian Purgatory

Tocumen International Airport, Panama. Air Margaritaville Bar and Grille. Sara Bareilles playing in the background. Have emerged into the airport terminal to forage for food while spending the day in the COPA/Continental Presidents Club, a vacationing purgatory.  The lounge apparently won some sort of award in 2010, which makes one wonder about the qualifications of lounge judges. Since 11am I have:
  • Watched the end of a Wimbledon match
  • Fallen asleep to professional golf
  • Tried to fall asleep to two middle-aged Americans playing cards.
  • Consumed the vast majority of the New York Times Film Section online. 
  • Chatted with a former roommate who is traveling in India. 
  • Explored the vast annals of Wikipedia.  
How did I get here?

My 7am COPA flight from Lima landed sometime after ten, and I disembarked to discover a frenetic Panana airport beehive, with no mention of my upcoming flight  on the departure screens. After hiking over to the terminal on my boarding pass, it became clear that
a. my flight to Cancun (enroute to Dulles) was delayed, likely due to El Nino.
b. most of the Panamanian airport staff speak no more than ten words of English
c. the above staff had a relaxed atitude to getting me back to DC.
d. I had lounge access.

After my first two hours in the lounge, I was called to the front desk by a suited man, who provided a $10.00 voucher to the food court and told me that they were working on rerouting my ticket. Twenty minutes later, I was put on a direct evening flight to Washington. After some quick googling, I decided not to chance a visit to the Canal.

My flight to DC boards in two hours.

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