I managed to survive 3 weeks in North Carolina (details next posting) and am now (Thurs.) enjoying a 24-hour layover in San Jose, Costa Rica in the Hotel Martino resort. After a 45-minute flight tomorrow, I should be back in David by 1PM. Whew!
The view from my Hotel Martino room balcony.
Four Hours In A Shopping Mall??
I had told you part of my 'adventure' a few weeks ago trying to return to David from Panama City on my 'passport replacement' trip. The immigration people took about 30 minutes to complete there collective head scratching over my new passport (i.e., no immigration stamps, just blank pages). They got it all sorted out about 10 minutes after the 10:30AM flight to David took off. Next flight? - 4:20PM! Argh!!!!
The only thing of interest in that part of the city is the Albrook Mall, which is adjacent to the airport grounds. Let me make it clear, that a trip to a shopping mall is what I consider to be a sentence. "Your honor, couldn't I just do some kind of community service instead?" However, four hours in a small airport terminal (one coffe shop, one snack bar) is even worse. So...
The Albrook Mall is clean, modern and humongous. According to mall advertising, it is the largest shopping mall in Central America. I wandered around for two hours and saw just about every store you would expect to see in a U.S. mall - lots of familiar names and looks - plus a ton of local stores. I thought I had pretty much covered it all when I stopped to look at a directory. Gulp, I had covered one of the five sections (wings) of the mall.
Some items of interest (And, pardon me if I am just out of touch)
- The escalators in the mall have a sensor on them. When no one is on them they slow to a crawl, and only speed up to normal speed when someone steps onto them.
- The Panamanians obviously have a thing for ice cream. The directory listed 43 ice cream shops, all designated as 'gourmet ice cream' stores.
- The mall security guards are all outfitted in cowboy suits (hats, boots and fancy brocaded shirts). ???
- The Panama Hat Store is listed as an import store. Why? The origin of what we all know as the Panama hat is Equador, and the 'authentic' ones still come from there. I decided it would be neat to have the real thing, so I went off and found the store. However, I quickly decided that I did not need one bad enough to cough up $237 for a straw hat. I can live with the 'knock-offs' for sale in David for $15-20.
- There appears to be a stenciling and monogram kiosk every 30 feet throughout the mall (hats, T-shirts, scarfs, banners, etc.). Saw lots of clever ballcaps. My two favorites: FBI in big letters, the small letters explain 'Female Body Inspector', and CIA explained as 'Cannabis Inhalers Association'.
The other thing that is really striking in the mall is the food courts. In addition to the food carts, ice cream stores, candy shops and coffee bars strung throughout the mall, there are three huge food courts in each wing of the mall. If there is any U.S. fast-food franchise that is not represented I could not figure out who it was. One oddity is that the Subway shops do not offer my favorite - tuna sald - even though tuna salad is commonly available in Panama. Go figure?
Of course, the food courts also feature many outlets that you have not heard of - El Chichemito, El Asador, La Yucca and Felicidate Express to name just a few. Oddly enough, there was only one outlet with a noticeable line. The KFC/Pizza Hut place had a long line the entire hour that I sat there.
Recent Comments