Our Journey 3

---

February 16th Tuesday

(BARB) Alrighty then...always a surprise in store when you travel. This morning after a nice leisurely breakfast we went to check out and were very pleasantly surprised to find our bill substantially lower than we expected. Since we arrived at 3 am and stayed the rest of that nite and again last nite we figured they would charge us for 2 nites...they only charged us for one nite and gave us a significant discount on our dinner last nite. Very cool!

When we arrived back at the airport to pick up our car, another surprise awaited us. Apparently, altho we have insurance coverage thru Skip's AMEX card, we were not aware that Panama charges a standard fee for 3rd party insurance which amounted to $13 a day...Panamanian law. So we added approximately $260 to the great deal I THOUGHT we had for our car...LMAO..Sucks to be us...but then to top it off, and this gets crazy, we had reserved and paid for a GPS...no GPS in the car AND no gas in the car...I mean it was sucking wind!!! Skip was negotiating with the agent about this while the guy took our stuff out to the car so I followed him. Skip came out to do a visual with the guy while I took pictures of the car before we left...then Skip says he refuses to sign til we get the GPS straightened out and in he goes. Meanwhile the guy had locked the keys in the car!!! He was talking in Spanish but I'm pretty sure I know what kind of words he was using as he headed back into the airport. I stayed outside and went to the hatchback and opened it right away, calling to the guy..but he was gone...then I tried to reach the locks from the back but I was just too short to reach. I was stuck out there cuz I didn't want to leave our suitcases in an unlocked hatchback. It was very hot and it wasn't long before I grabbed both backpacks and carried them back inside with me. By this time Skip had them putting gas in the car, getting a GPS from their downtown location and driving us to the bridge out of the city! So off we went. As the guy was driving on these errands Skip notices that the clutch seems to be slipping. When we got to the bridge we pulled over and the driver was waiting for his ride back. His boss came to pick him up and Skip talked to him about the brakes and he said...”Oh just stop at a garage and put some brake fluid in”....he did give us his personal cell phone if we have a problem tho.

Then we were on our own....headed out toward Penonome!
The roads are often rough..or maybe it's just that the shocks are gone in this car!! Lots of road construction outside Panama. I don't think I've ever seen so many billboards. Looks like most of them are advertising homes...places kinda like in Florida...little communities that are packed closely together..lots and lots of them you can see them built all over and being built all over.

(SKIP)

Visually so many things are taking place it difficult to remember, except within conversation and flashback. One thing that comes to mind are the number of different colored buses used for transportation and how packed they appear. I believe blue buses were used in Panama City. As we traveled on the Pan-American highway we noticed many, many buses traveling the highway, not like greyhound, but large buses, without lettering, but filled with people and luggage on top of the bus. I am guessing this is a main mode of transportation between larger cities.

Let's talk about gas, you know, what you use in your auto. Premium Diesel is the least expensive with 91 octane next and last I believe is 95 octane. The lowest priced regular gas is about $3.40 per GALLON. Not per liter but per gallon. All gas is filled by attendants. While we're on the subject of gasoline, our little car appears to use little gas, especially less than my truck back in Florida.

Last night we stayed in a three story hotel in the town of Penonome just off the Pan-American highway. Access to the town center is made by finding the correct unmarked road leading into the shopping center. Once we were able to find the correct street our next operation was deciphering what the various shops were selling. Lots and lots of traffic with narrow streets and parallel parking. We were able to
find some of our disposable items, such as beach towels, tooth paste, water, my disposable shaver and of course snacks.

As we were traveling from Panama City we encountered rain showers; however when we reach penonome the rain clouds just stayed. Consequently we decided to eat in our hotel and guess what this restaurant served , yup you guessed it, Chinese! However, prior to dinning we decided to drink a couple of la cerveza's (beer). Some of my friends will be proud to hear that Bud was twice the cost of a premium Panamanian beer. The local beer (Bolba) was $.75 and the Bud $1.50. The Bolba beer is similar to a Pale ale closer to mico US beer.

Without knowing any better we both ordered order from the menu rather than sharing 1 order. Servings were huge and were priced in the $5 - $6 range. My dish contained what appeared to be strips of prepared meat similar to bologna. Everything tasted just fine. Wednesday we will be traveling to the town of Chitre, which is located about 5km from the Gulf of Panama (Pacific Ocean).
Now we're off to see what we can find for a breakfast.

---

Comments

[Tom]

I'll try again
Don't know if you got my first post so I thought I would try again. Can't even begin to tell you how much I am enjoying your post. Stay safe... Tom