Flying down to Panama City

Today was the first full day of the trip.  We left Washington DC, taking a bus to Dulles Airport at about 7:30 AM.  But instead of going to the regular terminal, we drove off to the side to what looked like a simple office building.  From there we went to a small hanger with a Lear Jet in it.  In addition there was a metal scanner and a table and some TSA agents, who checked us out and we walked back out and onto the bus again, who drove us over to our plane.


There are those who have asked for the “tail number” since you can apparently track a plane by its tail number.  The tail of the plane looks like


So, I guess our tail number is TF-LLL.

We took off about 9:30.  The plane was fairly full, but not completely.  There were comments that some people dropped out after the switch from Peru to Panama.  Icelandic Air actually flys the plane, and there was a full contingent of crew — from 10 to 12 people, at least.


We were seated in an exit row, so there was lots of leg room for us.

The flight time was 5 hours, and we had an appetizer of caviar followed by a “lunch” meal of either Lobster (Linda got the lobster) or Veal Scallopini (I got the veal).  There was supposed to be a lecture on the importance of Panama and the canal thru history, but they could not get the equipment to work, so we read, or napped. 

When we landed in Panama, there was a small bus to take us to a small building for customs and then onto another bus to take us to our hotel.  They are using two hotels, and so two different busses and we found out what hotel by what bus they put us on.  A fairly long drive from the airport to the hotel, but we had a guide who told us lots of stuff about Panama as we went.

After we got to the Central Hotel, we then walked to the other hotel (American Trade Hotel) to catch the lecture that we would have heard on the plane, and then up to the roof for another cocktail party and dinner.


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