On October 23, 2023, we packed our 4 huge duffels, 2 small carry-ons and our individual back packs into my son’s car and headed to the airport to start the journey to our new country. This was the culmination of almost 1.5 years of discussions, research and planning. We already had our temporary visas for Panama as well as an apartment to move into. Excited? You bet! Nervous? Of course! We’d traveled and vacationed in the country twice prior to our move. It still felt unreal.
Our journey took us from Nashville, TN to Miami, Florida on Southwest Airlines. I was still enjoying a year of having a companion pass, where Pete basically flew for free. We took advantage of this to get to an airport where we could pick up Copa Airlines. From Miami, we flew on Copa Airlines into Panama City, Panama, arriving after 8PM. By the time we had passed through immigration (which btw, was the easiest ever, as we were able to use our Panamanian Visa), picked up our luggage and called for Uber, it was well past 9PM.
We were seeing reports throughout our day of travel about protests starting in Panama over a mining contract the President had signed on the previous Friday (October 20th). The protests were causing streets to be blocked in areas all over the country. Although we already had a hotel booked in downtown Panama City, we had actually discussed whether or not it would be better to just stay by the airport, as we weren’t sure if we’d have difficulty getting into the city. Ultimately, we decided we’d keep to the original plan unless we were forced to make a change.
Our Uber driver had no problems getting to our hotel. Thankfully, we saw no protests and arrived tired, after a very long day of 12+ hours of travel. And while Panama City wasn’t our final destination, we planned to spend a few days in the city, start the process to get our driver’s license with the US Embassy, visit immigration to pick up our 2-year temporary visa and do a bit of sight-seeing. Little did we know how much the protests would impact all of our plans.