Sometimes one needs an escape from the harsh heat and humidity in Panama. This is especially true in Panama City where the urban heat island effect raises the temp a good few degrees higher than that of the surrounding rural areas. This led my fellow comrades and I to decide to take a trip to the movies. What better way to spend a lazy day than in an air conditioned theater with surround sound and awesome action scenes? What seemed like an easy task turned out to be a lot more difficult than we thought.
Attempt 1: Nobody goes to the movies on Tuesday nights in the US. This time should be spent with families watching sitcoms or board games. Not yet the middle of the week, Tuesdays are the most mundane of days. Mondays stink, Wednesdays are in the middle, Thursdays one can taste the weekend, and Fridays rock. Apparently nobody shared this with the people of Panama. Arriving 30 minutes before the new Star Trek: Into Darkness, we quickly abandoned the thought after observing the football field length line. Later we learned that this was also pay day for Panamanians, go figure.
Attempt 2: Unfazed by our defeat the previous night we attempted the next night. This time we put a little more forethought into it and arrived an hour early. The line this time was just as long if not longer. Befuddled we turned around and ahead to the cheesecake kiosk and drowned our sorrows in milk and strawberry cheesecake.
Attempt 3: After giving the movies a week to cool off we decided to attempt a third time the next Wednesday. We arrived a good hour and a half early and were unfazed by the moderate line length. The problem was our group of 12 or so decided that they didn’t want to have to be sprawled out in individual seats throughout the theater. Also a factor was that nobody had eaten so it didn’t to much for the smell of the food court to disband the group.
Attempt 4: Success. After hearing of how exquisite the VIP movie theater seats are in Panama, I can attest to their comfort and greatness. If you want to go to the movies in Panama then Saturday afternoons are the time to go. Seeing the new Superman movie, Man of Steel was too easy. After only being out for one day there were still open seats in the theater. Popcorn was ridiculously affordable with the largest size under three dollars. The only complaint I have is that the seats were too comfortable if that is even possible. Luckily the movie was action packed and captivated my attention throughout.
Though it took awhile, we finally got a chance to go to the movies here in the city. And after sitting in the VIP theater I don’t know if I can lower my standards to the regular theaters. A word of advice to any potential moviegoers which we found out after the fact-you can go online and buy tickets to save yourself the trouble.