MUNGO EATS Latin America

Well, never a dull moment!!  First of all, you will all be happy to know  that we did not have to sleep on the street last night.  After 5 or 6, “sorry, no dogs”, one hotel manager FINALLY let us in, but with the condition that Mungo stay in his cage all the time. Yeah, like that is going to happen.  But we said he would , and whenever he is left on his own and some maid may stumble in on him, he IS in his cage.  We think that is close enough. 

This morning we thought we should start on the paperwork to ship the van.  We needed to visit the police station first and get an inspection done of the van.  This basically allows the police to make sure that you are indeed shipping YOUR vehicle.  We had a map showing us where the police station was, but knowing where it is is only half the battle.  We have found Panama City to be a pretty tough city to get around in.  It could be that we have terrible maps, don’t know, but we seem to have  to turn around a lot.  In any case, this morning we were doing our usual, “I think it is this way” routine.  We were flagged down by a policeman, wearing a bulletproof vest, and he asked if we were lost.  “Yes, yes we are, we need to get a police inspection of the vehicle.” ” Not here you don’t.”  Then he started making all sorts of hand signals that lead us to believe we were not in a good place, gesturing gun and dead, you know, those kind of BAD HAND signals.  He pointed us in the right direction and off we went.  We were pretty close to the right building, when we got flagged over again, by a taxi driver this time.  He saw us hesitating and thinking about where to go next and he told us that we really should not be stopping around here.  “This is a red area”, he said, “you can’t just stop around here, someone will shoot you.”  Pretty clear!!  He showed us where to park so we could visit the police station and told us to LOCK the DOORS of the van.  It turns out the inspection can only be done Monday to Friday, so we will go back to this scary place on Monday and try again.  We will make sure to leave the kids behind, and then Sean won’t have to guard the van with his machete!  

Even though we found a place that allows us to have Mungo, we decided to look for another place.  We were  hoping to find a place that was a little less expensive and that let us feel a little more welcome.  Even though the doorman was in love with Mungo, we got the sneaking suspicion that not all the staff was equally enamoured with the hound.  This evening, we found out this was more than just a suspicion.  When we  walked Mungo in from his evening walk, the doorman (not the one that loves him), asked us to please wait at the reception desk, while he went to fetch someone.  The restaurant and hotel supervisor was brought to us and he proceeded to tell us, in the middle of the lobby, in front of several other guests, that dogs are not allowed in the rooms.  We explained that we knew this but that we had been given permission to bring him in with conditions.  He wanted to know who gave us this permission.  I don’t know…short guy, dark hair, dark eyes, looked latino…some jefe (boss)!!  He continued to say, OVER and OVER, that under no condition, were dogs permitted in the rooms.  Too bad, Mr. Fatty Gut, we were told he could stay, we paid for 2 nights, we will be staying for 2 nights.  He proceeded to call the other “jefe” and it was confirmed that we were given permission.  He let it go at that…for now. 

Half an hour later, he found us in the restaurant, and spent the whole time that we were eating dinner glaring at us.  Finally, as we were finishing dinner, he came over to tell us YET AGAIN, that he had spoken to some other person and discovered that “no pets allowed”.  This time I insisted that we at least speak in private, instead of in the middle of the restaurant.  He told us that the hotel could be fined if it was discovered that a dog was in the hotel.  Hmmm, I doubt that!!  He suggested that we put Mungo in the vehicle for the night.  Yeah, I doubt it.  First of all, our vehicle is not in the garage, it is in a parking lot a block away, because it is too high to fit into the parkade.  Second of all, NO!!!  We were told he could stay, we paid, so…NO!!  It is not our problem if someone employed by this hotel made a mistake, that could cost the hotel…NO!!!!!  You know, it’s REALLY hard to argue in  Spanish, English and Italian keeps slipping out.  We ended up telling him that we would be glad to leave his hotel, if he could find us another hotel, and pay for it, otherwise WE WOULD BE STAYING AND THE DOG WOULD BE STAYING WITH US!!!

So tomorrow, we will be leaving this joint, checking into a backpacking hostel, leaving this two bit hotel!!  Man, oh man, what we go through for that cute little houndy.  Tomorrow we try to buy a plane ticket for him.  Yippee!!