Yet again, last nights rain is gone, and we are now convinced of the Panama rainy season weather pattern. Clear in the morning and storms in the afternoon.

An uneventful drive today of nearly 300 miles along generally good roads into Panama City. Along the way we stopped at an abandoned airfield that was Noriegas headquarters. The current CA-1 highway crosses the airfield at 90° about midway along the runway - really weird. Over the last 100 miles of the drive we saw many English language ads for resorts, resort homes and building subdivisions.

We got off course on the way into Panama City and crossed the Canal over the new bridge rather than the Bridge of the Americas. As a result we had to drive past the locks on our way to the Balboa area where we planned on staying - the first glimpse of a loaded container ship was really something, I am looking forward to the tour of the canal and locks that we have planned.

The first stop was the Balboa fire station that is Norm's plan-A for our accommodation. It seemed to take some conversation as the personnel had changed but eventually we got the OK, but come back after 4:00pm.

At the local McDonald's Norm called the shipping agent, the customs agent and the travel agent to get proceedings started. About an hour later the travel agent - named Luz - arrived to guide us to her office and we spent the next hour or so making photocopies of documents, arranging tours for us, booking flights to Colombia, and hotels for the next week both in Panama and Colombia. It was a really busy afternoon.

It feels good to be here. We are both excited about the next leg of the trip, but also nervous about not having Norm's knowledge and experience to help us through the myriad of tasks that seem to require a working knowledge of Spanish and border crossings. But I guess we will manage - because we have to. Look at the home page for whiteacorn for a few more comments.