After a week in Quito I am still struggling with the altitude, it’s hard to breathe, and it’s rainy and cold, and my place is unheated… and doesn’t have hot water. Still, I like the city quite a bit but am tired of feeling half dead so I checked for cheap flights out of Quito this weekend.
Three choices for cheap flights out of Quito: The Galapagos Islands, Mexico City or Panama City.
The Galapagos Islands might be a bit too much nature for me, I’ve already been to Mexico City this trip… so looks like Panama City is up!
(and they have a subway! the only one in Central America!)
My favourite transit related websites assure me that the Panama City Subway’s new extension to the airport is running, despite construction not being quite done and the airport not having any mention of the subway yet.
I landed in Panama City airport’s Terminal 1 around 4:30pm and followed the directions I found online for reaching the train. There is ZERO signage in the airport referencing the subway AT ALL yet. So I was instructed to follow the signs directing towards Terminal 2 until I hit the end of the airport, find some way downstairs, walk through a construction site, find a long and winding concrete sidewalk and eventually in between the terminals I would find the construction area of the subway station. I walked and walked and walked, eventually I asked a worker at the airport about the train, she insisted the new train isn’t in operation yet, hmmmm.
I kept walking until I was outdoors, and was hit with the hottest heat I have ever felt in my life, it was just 35c but with the 100% humidity it was like standing in front of a hair dryer on high, never felt anything like it anywhere in the world.
I kept walking, at one point I turned around and assumed I was lost, two guys working in the construction area saw me and pointed that I should keep going. Ok, I will.
Eventually I found a brand new, and completely empty train station.
I walked into a totally dark and empty train station, bought a ticket from the machine and saw a sign telling me the next train would arrive in 9 minutes. Uh, ok sign, if you say so.
I waited, in the wildest heat I have ever felt, for 9 minutes on the empty platform until an equally empty train crawled into the station. The train…is…. air conditioned!!!
After three trains and a long walk I found my place and basically collapsed from the heat, I’m here but it’s gonna take some thinking about how to deal with the weather.
A Bit Gone 