Flight to Panama City on Copa, Toscana Inn Hotel, Dinner at El Trapiche

We arrived at LAX to the usual chaos that greets any international departure and debated what to do. I said to David, “the website said we could go to the gate.” But, given the issues above, we were uncertain if that was the right thing to do. Plus, we couldn’t find the gate listed anywhere, nor any roaming Copa agents to ask. Finally, there was a gap at the web check-in counter and there, we discovered that contrary to the web site’s instructions, we did need to check in with them even if we had no luggage to check.  This makes sense of course, because they have to see our passports, but what would have happened if we had not?

One of the good things about Copa was that I was able to select our seats in advance and choose row 14, the exit row. Many airlines will not let you choose exit row seats in advance. This afforded us much more breathing room, about an extra 6″ of leg room. The flight was late departing, mostly because they had to bus every passenger out to the plane, one busload at a time, to a remote part of the airport I’ve never even seen. It’s as if they could not afford to have docking rights at the terminals.

Arriving into a new city at night is always strange. It just feels different than it does in daylight. Somehow not as safe, there’s always a touch of the unknown, a little menace. I always look forward to the next morning when things are clearer, cleaner.

We checked out the room which turned out to be a decent size with a comfortable king sized bed, flat screen TV with many channels (most in Spanish of course, but a few in English-I love CNN international, it equals travel to me), big windows overlooking the street, and a desk and sitting area. The bathroom is quite small with a walk-in shower. Bring your own toiletries/amenities. Wifi is free with a code given by the front desk.

We looked at a map and set out to find a grocery store near by to pick up some water, snacks, and a comb for me which I’d forgotten. On nearby Calle Espana we found a 24 hour giant El Rey supermarket which was shockingly similar to markets here at home down to the imported US products and prices. 

We opted to eat inside because of the AC (it was still very humid and warm out). I ordered the Corvina al Ajillo which would become my favorite go-to dish of the trip and David got the house specialty smoked pork chops. Everything was simply prepared but satisfying; I loved my fish, the rice was perfectly cooked and the little piece of fried plantain tasted of cinnamon. We tried two of the local beers, Atlas and Balboa (both good!) and dinner came to $25 for the food and 3 beers. (Via Argentina #10 at Avinida 2a B Norte, Tel: 269-4353). We finished our evening with ice cream from an Italian style gelateria called Antica on the corner of Via Espana and Avinida 2A Norte.