Last Day in Panama

I was super lazy this morning. I woke up early, before 6:00am, but then laid there and eventually feel sleep again and woke up after 9. It felt nice to sleep in like that.

I went Super Gourmet for breakfast (the breakfast place of choice every morning), then my day consisted of not very much. Among just plain wandering around, I did walk to the fish market, which was cool. It's the place to buy fresh fish and other seafood, straight off the boats.

Did a small amount of shopping, withdrew more money to make sure I had enough for the taxi ride to the airport tomorrow morning and generally didn't do to much else.

Late in the afternoon I talked to the front desk and asked how I could get to the Ancon theater. She wrote the Spanish name out on a piece of paper and said I should be able to take a taxi there. The staff at this hostel are wonderful for helping out!

I went out for supper. Around 7 I flagged down a taxi and handed him the piece of paper. He started talking in Spanish to me, but I kept hearing him day Ancon, so I just agreed with everything he said, and he seemed to know how to get pretty close.

He drove me through the seediest part of town (El Chorrillo), then a more swanky part of town (Ancon) before arriving at the theater. He didn't know specifically where it was, but he was driving slow along the street and we found it.

The theater is quite old, an older wooden building with a small veranda and bar outside. The theater guild building had a date of 1950 above one of the doors. Another older lady who came down with her son and his wife/girlfriend started taking to me, she said this is the only English theater in Panama and they've been operating for quite a long time.

They opened the doors after a while, there was quite a throng of people there, I'd say 50-60 people. The inside of the theater was darkly lit with a stage and older, but comfortable seating.

The show was called The Woman in Black. It takes place in England maybe 100 years ago. A woman who owned at large house on a remote spit of land has died. A lawyer is sent from London to collect all of the documents left in her large house. There was a movie a couple of years ago, starring the actor who played Harry Potter.

The theater group did a great job of making the audience scream. At one point, the lights turned off in the theater, and an ear screeching scream played through the sound system and a black dress was dragged over the audience, touching people as it went. People (mainly women) were screaming. The woman in black would appear at various locations in the theater, with just a hint of light on her, it was very creepy. When they turned the theater lights off, the theater was super dark, which just added to the scariness of it.

The show lasted about 2 hours, afterwards I walked to the main road, flagged down a taxi and made my way back to the hostel. Saturday night, all of the outside bars were packed with people and it made me sad that I had to leave early the next morning.

At the hostel, I asked the front desk to arrange a taxi for me to the airport for 4:30 and went to bed.

The end.