Trip to Panama

Tocumen airport, Panama City is not where you want to be at 4pm on a busy Friday afternoon - take it from me.

Due to aeroplane problems we were 3 hours late as we struggled down to the Thrifty car rental desk, only to be told they had cancelled our car rental booking as we were more than an hour late. After much debate, we were offered a car which was an extra $100 per week. Was this an indication of Panamanian ethics, to rip off the tourist at every opportunity, I wondered? Then came the car insurance. The Panama insurance we had paid for on the Internet was deemed unsuitable, and we had to buy full insurance (again) from Thrifty. Not a good start to our 3 week holiday in Panama.

As we headed into the melee of traffic which was Panama City, I began to understand why there were so many bumps and dents in our hire car. I thought someone had rolled it down a hillside, but now I could see it matched all the other cars on the road, so it must be OK. Looking around it seemed that Kia is a high-end vehicle here! The driving was fast and furious and we were carried along in the bumper to bumper traffic. It was typically third world, with drivers hanging out of their windows to keep cool, and horns blaring on all sides - mostly at us, it seemed for some apparently unforgiveable transgressions.

As we went along with the stream of traffic, it became apparent that directional signs and road names were non-existent. We were on a four lane highway, but six lanes of traffic were crowded onto it, all moving together. It was a nerve-wracking experience. There were very few traffic lights, so intersections were a free for all, where "Might is right". Given a choice of three roads we decided we would take the route that all the buses were taking - it had to be the main route. Wrong! We disappeared into a warren of narrow, winding one-way streets in a backwater area reminiscent of downtown Penang. After several miles in the maelstrom of crazy, slow-moving traffic we finally emerged to see a sign for the Bridge of the Americas. Hallelujah! However, by the next intersection, the sign had vanished again and we repeated the above exercise again and again. At last, by accident we found ourselves crossing the Panama Canal on the massive yet elusive bridge.

The PanAmerican Highway continued West with misleading signs, and we found that not speaking the language yet was a big disadvantage.

Coronado Golf and Beach Resort, our timeshare home for the next three weeks, was equally sporadically signed, but we eventually drove in through the (unsignposted) gates at 7.30pm instead of the anticipated 4pm.

We were shown to an OK suite, which was not worth the advertised $180 per night by any stretch of the imagination. It was spacious and had all we needed but everything appeared to be very old and poor quality. Fell asleep somewhat stressed and disappointed at the let-down to our hopes and plans.