The long trip home
My first flight of today was scheduled to depart at 8 a.m. Not knowing how frequently the bus to Logan Square station would pass so early in the morning, I preferred to have a cab take me there. Out of bed at 4:00, check-out from the hotel at 4:45, taxi very much on time 5 minutes later, on the platform at 5:16. Although I had read somewhere that the Blue Line to the airport runs 24 hours a day at 7 minute intervals, the next train would only leave in 17 minutes. Not too much of a problem.
All in all, it took me 1 hour to get from the hotel to the airport. Trekking from the CTA station to Terminal 5 via long corridors, escalators up, overpasses, escalators down, underground passages, etc., took a while as well, but fortunately check-in went pretty swiftly. The (more senior) agent asked me if I intended to stay in Panama, which I negated and explained that I was just connecting in PTY.
Chicago ORD – Panama City PTY
Copa Airlines CM 236
STD / ATD: 07:56 / 07:56
STA / ATA: 13:24 / 13:42
B738 HP-1840CMP
Seat: 2F
Once I was seated the cabin crew pointed out that no carry-on baggage should be stowed on the floor, not even small backpacks like mine, so up in the overhead bin it went.
The pre-departure beverages on offer were water and orange juice.
Suddenly the more junior of the two agents working the counter where I checked in approached me and asked for proof of onward travel out of Panama. Fortunately, I had checked in online the evening before and was able to show him the boarding pass for my flight from PTY to BOG that same day. He then asked for my passport, and after flipping through the booklet returned it without any comment. All very strange. In any case, my U.S, visa is good for entry into Panama and I had been there both at the beginning of this trip and in February on my trip to St. Maarten. Were they really afraid that I would stay?
After another lengthy taxi through that immense construction site that ORD is at the moment, we took off from runway 10L 15 minutes after leaving the gate (sorry for the blur).
Breakfast choices were French toast or omelet, of which I opted for the latter. It came with a croissant and a fruit salad.
Skirting Florida’s west coast, we passed Tampa, Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda, Fort Myers/Cabo Coral, Naples, Marco Island, the Florida Keys, and Varadero in Cuba in relatively short succession.
Who would have thought that these places would all be battered by Hurricane Milton only a few days later?
To pass the time I watched a couple of movies from the IFE and soon we were on approach to PTY, with the southern access to the Panama Canal clearly visible.
After a first landing attempt which was aborted due to wind shear or tailwind (the explanations were different in English and in Spanish) we landed without any hiccups 15 minutes later and had an extremely long taxi (for PTY standards anyway) of 21 minutes to the gate. Instead of the usual recording on the IFE screen, the purser came personally to each seat to thank the passengers for choosing CM.