2-18-09 Back from Panama City

We took our 8 month old Acer laptop into Panama City to the authorized service center for warranty repair (Tecnotek 507-279-8400). It appears to be an electrical problem as the computer won't turn on, but as you can imagine, we're not impressed with Acer right now. We were picked up and driven around town by Jose, a taxi driver recommended to us by some cruising friends. (Jose: 6690-4170; Spanish only). He's a really nice guy, and took us all over the city to a variety of stops. We had scheduled Michael for some routine medical tests to be done at Punta Pacifica Hospital. It's in a very modern section of Panama (City), and it's services are first rate. The physician Michael saw was US trained, bilingual, and has already e-mailed his complete report to us! Medical tourism is a growing industry in Panama. Otherwise, since Tecnotek won't ship the computer back to us upon completion (their policy is pick-up only), we're going to have to make another day trip back to Panama to pick it up. It's Carnival time in Panama, so we're expecting a delay in service. After that, we'll figure out our zarpe and try to get out of the marina! Not that we don't like it here, but....