Operation Madre is a 3-step process: 1. Drive to the city. 2. Get mom from the airport and 3. Drive back to Pedasi. This would normally be a simple process but with the Summit going on, it’s anyone guess if it’ll go as planned.
You’ll be happy to know that step 1 has been completed! I drove into the city today (well, technically my friend Ted drove but I paid close attention so that counts, right?). We got to the hotel and all was well until they handed me a piece of paper that was nicely translated into English, saying that due to the Summit “no hotel, guest, worker, no one can enter or leave of this area where the hotel is located from 5 p.m to 12:00a.m.”
WHAT?????? This is a bit of a problem with my mom’s flight arriving smack in the middle of those hours (and not to mention the fact that I have plans of going to the mall and I most certainly will not be back by 5:00!). I had fleeting thoughts of finding another hotel, or my mom waiting 4 hours after landing until she could get to the hotel. NO ES BUENO, people!
But upon further questioning it appears that the area to one side of the hotel will be closed but if you approach the hotel from the other side (the airport side) it will be fine.
OOOOOO K! Now we all know this is Panama and we all know that things don’t all go as planned. So we will wait to see if Mom can actually arrive and get here. Thankfully my time in the car is done until tomorrow. Luis the Taxi Driver of All Expats is picking up mom and bringing her to me.
Stay tuned for further updates!
