The Adventurous Trip Starts
Two weeks after we took the vaccination we tried our luck once again at the airport – on the 24th of December! The day before we left we realized that there was a mistake in Bonny’s documents and there were still problems with my residency – so being quite worried we went to the airport. Both of us knew though that whatever would happen is in Gods hand and if he doesn’t want us to go to the island, then it would be better for us to stay in Honduras.
At the airport we first we went to migration – the people that allow us as minors to leave the country. There we were first talking to the guy from the last time and then to the boss. The boss was only able to speak Spanish, but praise God I was able to have some type of talk with him. Since he liked us, he tried to figure out things as quick as possible.
Copa Airline Boss
After everything was fixed with migration we went to Copa Airlines to get our boarding pass. From the last time I already knew some of the workers as well as the boss. So when we were doing check-in the boss came over to say hi to me and to make sure that they were doing a good work 😀 It was a big blessing for us, to already know the staff from last time, because everything went way quicker and without any problems. Before we left we took some Christmas pictures with them 😀
Copa Airline Team 🙂 Merry Christmas 😀
After security check and arriving in the airplane we could still not believe that we were actually able to leave the country. Just before I continue, the reason we wanted to go to San Andres Island was because a friend of Bonny invited her, because Bonny’s father used to live on the Island. This lady’s name is Laudin.
After a short flight of one hour we arrived in Panama City, where Laudins family was supposed to pick us up, so they would bring us to a hostel where we could stay over night. But when we arrived at the airport, they told us that they cant pick us up till the evening – worst of all, at the airport we only had internet for half an hour – so after the half an hour we couldn’t communicate with them anymore – we only knew the name of the hostel.
We decided that Bonny would go and see how we could get there and I would stay with our luggage. After approximately 15 minutes she came back and told me: “Lets go quickly, there is a guy and he will take us.” Very suspicious towards this I followed her. On the way she told me that she met this man while looking for help, he was a worker at the airport and he supposedly lived quite close 😀
I followed Bonny just to see how the guy looks like – hoping that he would look trustworthy. We walked almost to the furthest end of the airport, when we saw the guy standing talking to another lady. I first didn’t think or actually hope that it was that guy, but there was no other guy 😀 and as you can see on the picture below, you would probably also wish that the person would look different 😀 straight when we arrived he showed us his airport ID, so we would know that he is trustworthy; still very suspicious we followed him outside of the airport – I was thinking that he would take us with his car, which made me feel very uncomfortable; till we arrived at a taxi stop, where we figured that he would take us with a taxi! In the taxi he told us: “If you take a taxi from the airport to the hotel it will cost you up to 30$, but outside the airport you can get it for 5$.” Therefore he took us to that place, so we would get cheaper to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel he carried both of our suitcases upstairs and explained the area to us and where the different shops are!
Thank you!!
This situation really taught me not to judge people by the way they look – I don’t tell you, that you should just go with strangers, and I wouldn’t do that again – but I realized that often we judge people by how they look. If I wouldn’t have needed the help of this man, I would have probably not even looked at him. And I praise God that Bonny just met exactly that man, living exactly at the place where we were staying, to teach me this important lesson.
Hostel room in Panama
After arriving in this hostel, which didn’t even have Wi-Fi, we went to buy a chip for the phone and food for supper and breakfast. Being pretty scared of all the people around me – being the only white person – we had finally bought everything and came back to our room, where we spent Christmas Eve with talking, calling our friends, eating and finally sleeping, to be able to get up early again in the next morning.
Sadly the night wasn’t as good of a rest, because of some temperature difficulties we had. There was an air–conditioner in the room, which we could only turn off by calling to the registration. Usually you would probably not want to turn off, because it is so hot anyways, but the air-conditioner made it to be so cold, that we had to turn it off. Terribly after half an hour it was super hot in the room, so we had to call again to turn it on. You can guess how it continued 😀 we spent almost the whole night waking up either because it was too hot or too cold! We know hydrotherapy is healthy, but this type – I am not sure 😀
Anyways after this “terrible” night our adventure continued. The taxi driver of the day before picked us up again and brought us to the airport. After eating breakfast we checked our luggage in again and went through security. Approximately 40 minutes before our flight was leaving, they were selling the Tourist Visas, which you need to enter the island. When I asked if I could pay with card, they told me that only cash was possible. Since we didn’t have any cash and the flight was leaving already in 20 minutes I had to run through almost the whole airport, to the place where there were three ATMs! I got more and more nervous when two of them didn’t work. Praying that the last one would work, it finally spitted out the money we needed.
Out of breath I arrived back at the gate, when they told me: “We only have one Tourist–Visa left.” After all the difficulties we already had, I could only laugh about this situation. Almost in San Andres, but not able to leave Panama 😀 At least I knew it wasn’t our fault that we would miss the flight. Since it wasn’t our fault they tried to somehow figure out how to get another Tourist Visa. The one guy ran down the way to the airplane, to tell them to wait; and now the other guy started running through the whole airport to try to get another Tourist Visa. After waiting for another 10 minutes finally the man came running back with another Tourist Visa. Not even checking our boarding card or passport, they let us enter the airplane. Two minutes after we sat down, the airplane started rolling.
Still not able to believe that we actually made it, we were very happy to have finally reached the last part of our journey.
All I can say is: Trust in God, he knows best!
Yours Hanna
PS: Next time I will try not too write as much, but show you a bit more of this beautiful island.