Choosing the next destination...

It is hard to believe we are already home from our second trip since it has only been a week and a half since I finished blogging about Prague/Germany.  

We ended up throwing this trip together in just a few days. Since we started talking about doing this travel year, we've really wanted to go to Merida, Mexico. We knew this particular trip would be a short one with the holidays coming up. Merida is not only a short flight, but it's also a really interesting, beautiful city so it seemed like the perfect place. I have a friend who just traveled there in September, so we even had a first hand account that Merida is more than worth visiting. The flight there never looked wide open, but we planned to just book the hotel and figure out the flights by using other airlines or a bus from Cancun. In the end, though, none of those options worked. Very few airlines fly into the Merida airport, so our back up plans fell apart. Luckily we never booked a room, and we were free to change our destination.

We had 6 days allotted, 2 travel days and 4 days for the trip. We spent a few hours searching flights looking for a good option. Panama City and Belize were the finalists. If we'd gone to Belize, we would have gone to Caye Caulker and stayed on that island. It seems like a very picturesque, relaxing place that we will visit one day, but we decided we would rather explore Panama City and see the canal. It was a great choice! 

A picture preview: A view of the Panama City skyline from the Panama Canal tour boat.