Day 1 : The Adventures Begin

ES HOYYYY!!!

The day had finally arrived! The journey and adventures of Panama 🇵🇦. I was excited but was not looking forward to the long travel ahead. Little did I know, this day would unravel into a day full chaos......

It all started smoothly enough, boarding our flight to Seattle, Washington… The first twist struck, just as we were settling in to enjoy our layover ping a sharp notification 🔔 lit up our phones “flight change” our group was split, scattered across different connecting flights to Panama.

My group was rerouted to Tampa, Florida. Others to North Carolina and Cleveland, Ohio. When we arrived to Tampa we missed our connecting flight to Miami, leaving us stranded in Tampa’s airport with no flight to Miami, no flight to Panama!! We anxiously went to a support services agent to try and get us onto the next flight to Miami.

Finally, we had seats to Miami! But the chaos wasn’t done with us. With only 40 minutes to catch our next flight, we rushed through the terminal hoping to make it to our Miami > Panama flight. We cut it closed but made it, last to board but on board. A sigh of relief… too soon “Ladies and gentlemen, due to mechanical issues, we need to deplane.”

Again, we sprinted across the terminal to another gate, another aircraft. Exhausted but determined we boarded, the plane in hope of reaching Panama.

Then, just as we thought we were on our way to Panama we heard over the intercom “ This is your flight attendant speaking the captain has informed us we cannot land in Panama City. The airport is closed. We’re running low on fuel so we will be landing in Costa Rica.”

Costa Rica?! We waited for about two hours, we remained trapped inside the aircraft, unable to refuel due to a lightning storm.

After 24 hours of travel, missed connections, landed in costa Rica. We landed down in Panama 🇵🇦. Against all odds, we made it to Panama 🇵🇦 !!!!!