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Student Trip Blog

Day 2: From Panama City to Las Tablas

Hello families, friends, and our Global Glimpse community!

It’s late, and we have an early morning tomorrow and a full day to look forward to, but we didn’t want to leave you without updates on our first full day in Panama!

After flying into Panama City last night, we woke up this morning and ate breakfast at our hotel in Panama City before packing our bags and heading over to the Panama Canal. While there, we got to watch an IMAX 3D movie on the history of the Panama Canal, along with its impressive engineering and its impact on global trade and the country of Panama today. Our Glimpsers were even able to watch as a huge boat passed through the canal!

We got on the road after our morning at the Panama Canal on our way to Las Tablas. The bus ride is a longer one, clocking in at about 5 hours, so Glimpsers got a chance to sleep, take in the beautiful scenery as it passed by, and play a few rounds of Mafia, led by Ms. Madison, my fellow Global Glimpse Leader.

Once we checked in to our accommodation in Las Tablas (our home base for the remainder of our trip), students participated in an orientation seminar and a seminar on how to be the LDD (the Lider Del Dia, or Leader of the Day), a role each student will step into for a day during our time in Las Tablas. We also played a few games to get our blood flowing after our long bus ride and to give students the opportunity to get to know each other better. Here, they’re trying to line up from oldest to youngest without talking. 🙂

Abby and Tiffany volunteered to be our first LDDs for tomorrow, and they did a great job leading our first full nightly meeting after Heyling (one of our program coordinators, or PCs) officially passed off the Leader of the Day duties to them.

Students recorded important details for tomorrow in their travel journals before playing a few games and heading to bed. You can look forward to reading the next blog post because it will be written by Abby and Tiffany, our LDDs for Day 3.

Thanks for reading! In the comments, please leave an encouraging message for the group, and let us know the longest amount of time you’ve been on a bus, train, or plane.

Big Love,

Chloe, Global Glimpse Leader

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Comments (5)

Ken Keene

on July 10, 2025 at 10:42 am

I hope that you have another excellent day today and have a rich experience Panama !

My longest plane ride was LaGuardia in NY to Tel Aviv. About 11.5 hours…whew!

Bobby Vujic

on July 10, 2025 at 1:01 pm

What a great outline by the LDDs for Day 3! Enjoy all the learning opportunities while helping the community. We are proud of all of you!
Having family in Australia, we have done around 20 hours total flight time a few times (it’s about 16 hours nonstop from California to Australia over the Pacific Ocean). Luka also took a bus from Chicago to Washington DC for his 8th grade DC trip, so 5 hours should be a piece of cake 😁

Evelin

on July 10, 2025 at 1:20 pm

Woooo!! Can’t wait to hear from you Avee and how the trip is going :)!!

Michael Conforti

on July 10, 2025 at 3:02 pm

Seems like a great trip with some great people! Hope you all are getting good sleep and I can’t wait to hear about Las Tablas and the work you all will be doing. So proud of all of you!

Ebony Nelson

on July 10, 2025 at 7:01 pm

Sounds like you all will have a busy day 3! Love you Sacario and we are proud of you!!

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