Travel Day to San Pablo Viejo

We didn’t have to be out of our AirBnB until 11:00, so I slept in until 8:00ish. I probably should have got up and went for a morning walk to get some steps in since I knew most of the day would be in the car, but alas this morning I was feeling lazy and chose sleep. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast and packed my things.

We got out the door by 10:45. Driving on pothole hell took only 13 minutes before we were back on a major road. The winding road of Route 5 was very scenic, although we didn’t stop or pull over to get any pictures. We did stop at a very small local convenience store so that Laurie could get a soda and for Linda to use the bathroom. Linda was pleasantly surprised the rustic bathroom had toilet paper. It was a small win!

Soon we were back on Route 1 (the major highway) where the road is pretty straight and the speeds pick-up, unless you are going through a town. I don’t know if I have mentioned it in previous blog posts, but there are police everywhere all over Panama. Most times they seem to be just standing around looking at their cell phones. Every now again they want you to stop and they look in the vehicle and then let you pass. I’m not entirely sure what they are looking for. Today we went through one inspection area where the police checked my ID and looked in the back seat and let us through. I was following Laurie the entire trip and remaining a few car lengths behind her. We were coming up on what looked to be another police check area (the police officer was standing in the middle of the road), but this time he motioned for Laurie to pull over so I pulled over just ahead of her just to make sure everything was ok. I watched in my side and rearview mirror as I saw him show her his radar gun and then pass his phone for what I can only assume was the use of Google translate. After a little bit I then saw the police move off to the side and make a phone call. While he was doing this Laurie texted me and said “$100 fine per car. 90 in a 60”. Keep in mind that is Kilometers Per Hour and not Miles Per Hour, but speeding none-the-less. The last speed limit sign I saw was 100 KPH. Soon she pulled away and I was once again following her. We got to the town where we’re staying a short time later and I followed Laurie to the grocery store. As soon as we parked we talked about the speeding incident.

So apparently there was a school and the speed limit had dropped to 60 KPH. I never saw the sign, but Laurie said she did and was just starting to slow down but she thinks he got her as she was coming over a small hill. The police had asked her if she knew the people in the car behind her (that pulled over) and she was honest and said yes. The police had asked her if they wanted to pay on the spot or in Panama City, and Pete chose to pay the $200 on the spot instead of dealing with it when we got back to the city. Maybe we both would not have been fined if I had not pulled over to wait for her and kept going, but honestly I was speeding too since I was following her. Plus Laurie thinks he was motioning for me to pull over too anyway. We discussed what the possibility was that the fine was legit or if the police was pocketing it. We suppose it’s possible, but at the end of the day we were speeding and we got caught. I think this ticket was cheaper than if we would have gotten one in Wisconsin for going over 18 MPH over (which is the equivalent of what we were doing). I gave Pete $100 for my share of the fine and we continued about our day. I can’t believe I didn’t think about taking a picture of the cop talking to Laurie. That would have been a great shot using my side view or rear view mirror.

We picked up some groceries and drove the 5 minutes to our AirBnB. According to AirBnB the entry to the condo was by the host greeting us. Laurie had message him earlier in the morning asked for a specific address but he never replied. When we got to the condo she messaged him and tried calling him, but there was no response. We sat in our cars (with the AC running) for 30 minutes before Laurie suggested we go to the TGI Fridays we saw to grab something to eat and to take our groceries somewhere with proper A/C. We pulled out of the neighborhood but they turned around very soon after we had exited and went back to the neighborhood. Linda and I had hoped this was a good sign that the host had contacted Laurie. We pulled back to where we were, but found that they had come back because they had seem some cars come and park outside the condo thinking it was the host. Unfortunately I think it was a realtor and a perspective buyer looking at a home that was for sale next door. Laurie did talk to them and one of them spoke English. He did say he knew the host and his number should be on the fence (but we already had his phone number). So we pulled around the block again, but didn’t make it out of the neighborhood because Laurie pulled back to the house. Again we hoped this was a good sign, but soon we were driving away again but all we did was drive around the block before we ended up back in front of the house. Linda and I were laughing because we were just following Pete and Laurie and we weren’t sure what kind of communication she may be receiving. Finally she said she heard from the host and he said he would be here in 10 minutes, so we said we were staying put. Ten minutes turned into almost 20 before the neighbor lady came walking over with a key and let us in. I don’t know where the breakdown in communication was, but we were just happy to finally get in the house.

This property is a nice little condo with three bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, and 1 half bath. It has a shared pool area with just a couple of other homes, but I don’t think anybody is currently in them. We made ground beef and chicken tacos for dinner. It was a really tasty meal. Pete, Laurie, and Linda did laundry and I started looking at all the things there were to do this area as we will be here for 6 full days.

Other than our speeding ticket experience it was a pretty uneventful day.

Stats of the Day:

Steps: 3,415
Speeding Tickets: 2 (1 for Laurie and 1 for Me – No actual paper citation was given.)
Minutes Waiting for Host to Show Up: 55