Sex in the City

Hi friends and family.

Well I have reached country number eight in Central America....yea....
As you can see from the blogs... it has been an interesting and challenging journey.. but yet rewarding....
On my way to Panama City there I was standing at a bus stop when I met 2 girls.
Little did I know what the conservation would bring us all.

Meg and Erin were 2 sisters from Seattle. They were in shorts, flip flops with matching backpacks (could I have found a set of long lost flashpacking sisters?). They looked like they had just come out of the jungle. I knew when I met them that we were alike and we were going to have great fun... There they were ....Crumpled clothes, hairy legs and granny pants. They had just tracked through Central America for 2 months and I for four months. So what does a girl with hairy legs do in her first metrapolitan city (with skyscrapers) in four months.....take the team and turn us back into girls again.

Our first stop was a huge two story shopping mall... (just like a westfield). Off goes the granny panties into some beautiful lace ..... underwear, off goes the shorts into some sexy playful dresses, the flip flops are replaced with some stunning heals (only one pair each girls). Our afternoon of pedicures, waxing and a perfect evening finished with a $3 Sex in the City Movie night.... in airconditioning...... The girls were not short of a date nor plenty of whistles....
my work is done......

Panama city is a interesting city with skyscrapers on one side and slums on the other...
We have been staying in Casco Viejo which is not unlike Havana in Cuba... I thought it was pretty and was saying to a local friend how beautiful it was.... his reply was..."dont be fooled... you are still living in the slums... 6 months ago they were slitting each others throats in the back alley way"....mmmm comforting...

Panama city lends itself to a 77 km shopping (ooops shipping) canal. It joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The canal has approx 16,000 ships passing through it each year... It was built in 1914 and was only recently handed over to Panama by the USA in 1999. It has 3 locks and the picture is of Miraflores Lock where we spent a morning. The most expensive price that has been paid has been $400,000 and the smallest is by Richard Halliburton in 1928 when he swam through and paid 36 cents. All boats book their spot two months in advance and every day the authority auctions off the last vacant spot to the highest bidder.

I have just secured a 9 week placement back in the USA doing volunteer work for the Option Institute which is a place that works with families with Austistic Kids.
I am the new assistant marketing person (which I know nothing about... but will find a way). So at last I will stand still for a while....Fancy sleeping in the same bed for 9 weeks... luxury......

Anyway I decided to take an interview with the USA embasy to extend my USA visa from 3 months to 6 months..... they loved me so much they granted me a 10 year non resident visa................. go figure.......
Now to answer all those questions that you have been emailing me....no I am not staying in the USA for 10 years.... and yes I will come home.... one day....

take care all

Kat