"Staters."

The journey from West Lafayette, IN to Panama City, Panama was exhausting not because of its challenge but its length.  Starting at 6:00 AM I left for Purdue's Airport and I caught a shuttle to Chicago O'Hare and then a flight to Atlanta where I met up with Kelly, a great friend from undergrad.  We hopped on a four hour plane ride (complete with screaming babies and all three children standing 4'3" in front of me reclining their seats all the way) to Panama City.  By the time we made it through customs, haggled over our Taxi ride to the hostel, insisted that our hostel was not full/closed/under water/in a part of town surrounded by Colombian drug lords and would do just fine (compared to the 'best hotel in all of panama' our driver wanted to take us to), it was nearly 11:30pm.  Needless to say, we crashed.  I slept great, even in the non air-conditioned dormroom we were staying in.

This morning we made our way to the Miraflores Locks along the Panama Canal to watch a few tankers and some sailboats come through.  I think I can now say with some authority that once you've seen one lock, you've seen them all...but it was still pretty fantastic given the grandeur of it all.

Tonight we are taking a night bus to Boquette (via David) before continuing on to Bocas del Toro and Costa Rica.