Day 8: El Dia Final --> Valentina Lozano

When we finally learned on our last day in Panama how to be ready on time in the morning, the bus didn't show up for like...an hour. Like always, we were late for the meeting with the people that did all the arrangements to make this trip possible for us. It was the office of USF Health located in Ciudad del Saber, very close to where we were staying at. It was a very comfortable feeling to see USF posters on the walls, it made me feel like home. There was one decoration that completely unified the USF with the panamanian culture. It was a mola made by a Kuna with a USF Health design. 

We had a very informative session about what Ciudad del Saber is nowadays and a little history of how it became to be literally a "city of knowledge" after the US military left the Clayton military base.

Our next stop was the US Embassy, which you can tell clearly that is the american embassy because it is always the biggest one in every single country. You can also tell because of their strict security laws. Pictures were prohibited even outside the building over the parking lot. It was so funny to see that within less than a minute that we got off the bus, every single person was holding a camera and taking pictures of the place and the security guard almost had a heart attack! We weren't allowed either to bring any electronic devices inside the embassy so we had to leave it in custody. We were taken in groups of four (other security law) to the place where we were going to meet the ambassador. It was 11 30 and we were supposed to meet her at 10 30, so she was waiting for us for a while. Ambassador Stevenson completely satisfied my expectations when I think about the skills that an ambassador should have. It was the only person on the entire day that I could pay 100% attention to what she was saying. She talked about the US involvement in Panama and how these years have been the most pacific ones between both countries. She explained how the US wants to have a partnership with Panama and not paternalism, which is really hard to explain it in spanish since partnership doesn't have a specific translation to the Panamanian language.

We had an amazing lunch at Pencas Restaurant, the same restaurant that we went last saturday. I am really going to miss the wonderful tres leches and flan de caramelo. I think it is time to start learning how to cook my favorite dishes!

Finally, we visited the Miraflores locks, one of the three locks of the Panama Canal. I was so lucky to be in there at that time since the big ship that was crossing was a chilean one! I learned that Chile is the third country that uses the Panama Canal the most, which really impressed me because Chile is a developing country with a 18 million population and I never thought that its trade was  so large. 

There were many plans for the night that mainly consisted in dancing salsa for the last time in Panama, but everyone was so tired to do anything else that we decided to pack our bags calmly, chill at the villa and prepare for a 7 am flight. 

If someone of the Panama class is reading this until here, I want to thank you for making this trip one of the most pleasant trips that I have ever had in my life. Our incredible relationship made us go way further than if we would have done this by ourselves. 

Adios. Tengan buen viaje.