Panama – Santiago

When I walked into Albrook it was jammed with people and the noise level was cacophonous. The ticket offices were off to the side and there were 2 going to Santiago and I had no idea which to take. I couldn’t hear the people who were yelling behind the glass but finally figured out they wanted $9 and was hustled out the door, my suitcase loaded, and a couple minutes after sitting down the bus pulled out of the station.

It was a 4 hour bus ride to get to Santiago with many stops at small towns along the way to pick people up and drop others off. The bus was fairly nice, but when I used the bathroom in the back they didn’t provide toilet paper. Note to self — don’t go anywhere without toilet paper…

I was surprised along that way that almost every little shack had a Claro satellite dish for television. They may not have much, but I gathered Panamanians liked their TV. I had also noticed that everyone had a cell phone and were constantly talking on them. It was hard to miss since most of their ring tones were loud Panamanian music.

I had barely been away from home 24 hours and I finished the one novel I had brought to read. That was going to prove to be a problem.

I arrived in Santiago in the ran and after dark. Since Panama is so close to the Equator it has 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark all the time.  A taxi driver helped me find a place to stay that was barato (cheap) and even waited with me until he was sure they had a room. While not a great motel, the Pirimidal at least had sheets I could sleep on so it was an improvement over the room in Panama City that had the roughest hottest sheets I’d ever attempted to sleep on.

I walked around a little in Santiago and went over to a small shopping center which had 2 cell phone stores, a cable television office, dentists, doctors, beauty salons, drug stores and a big hardware and general department store. Panamanians, like Americans, evidently like their shopping too — even in a small town.

I got in touch with Scot the next day (friend from working on Gulf Diving) and he got to Santiago around 2 in the afternoon. Dinner with Scot, his girlfriend Juli, Scot’s brother Greg and Greg’s girlfriend was at a restaurant that fried whole fish and served it with plantain slices. The most over-fried, dried out fish I had ever eaten but they all thought the food was some of the best Santiago had to offer. I didn’t much care — at least I wasn’t alone in a strange country even though the four of them spoke Spanish most of the time so I wasn’t included in the conversation.

Scot moved me to Hotel Grand David which was a much nicer room for $2 more. I ran into Scot the next morning and we talked for a couple hours until Juli and Scot’s son got up and then we started the hour and a half ride to Santa Catalina.