Thickair Blog

I have yet to take the bus here in Panama and I recently got my chance. I went down the mountain to visit my friend at the beach and decided to stay over and come home the next day via the bus. I stayed nearly all day, and decided to leave around dusk. I got to the stop, crowded with school kids, I stood waiting amongst them. A somewhat drunk fellow asked me where I was going and I said ‘El Valle’. He laughed a sarcastic laugh and said something to the effect that there was only one or two buses. The normal buses are called ‘coasters’ and probably seat up to 50 people. There is a smaller bus that is more like a van. All of the other city destination buses pulled in and were the coaster size, gaining only two or three passengers each. When the ‘van-like’ El Valle bus appeared, the entire crowd of school kids ran, pushed and shoved their way into the bus. I just stood there watching the whole scene. They packed themselves in, one on top of the other to the point that the sliding door could barely shut. Me, with my backpack, and a lady with her bags full of crafts to sell at the market just stood there. At one point I asked one of the boys when another one would come, and he just shrugged and said ‘PANAMA!’ Like he and I both knew that it was entirely unpredictable. The bus took off and she and I just stood there watching it go, me thinking of how I might flag a gringo down to give me a ride. Just then they stopped and the money-taker guy jumped out and said are you going to El Valle? And we both looked at each other then at him and said ‘SI’. He said “We’ve got room!!” I helped her with her bags, and we walked toward it. They made the school girls that sat in front, sit on each others laps, straddling the gear shifter (so she had to lift herself up everytime he shifted) and sat the lady down first, while I sat between her legs. I tried to count how many people were in there, but it was hard to see, being dark and so totally packed. This was not safe. However, as we went up the mountain people slowly started to get out and gained a little reprieve where I was able to sit in the back. The interesting thing, is that there was another El Valle bus that had stopped to get a soda with no passengers. From the reaction of the students and response from the kid I spoke to, this must be a daily occurance. And no one seems to question the safety or recklessness of the event. ITS PANAMA! Oh well, it was a pretty harmless and funny adventure.

This entry was posted Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Panama. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.