A street in Panamá
Anyways, one day we arranged ourselves into groups to prepare for a scavenger hunt of sorts into the city. The purpose of the assignment was to familiarize ourselves with the public transportation system and to get to know the city generally, but more specifically, visit important landmarks; such as the clinics Peace Corps medical may send us to, a hostel that offers volunteers a discount, an artesania market where you can find polleras, and so on.
Our first course of action was to interrogate our host families on how to get from the training community to the city, as we had previously only left on private transportation. We then planned our departure and regrouped the following morning to find any bus/busito/van/chiva heading to the interamericana (Pan-American Highway). We eventually found a van with available seating to take us there where we then waited for an infamous diablo rojo.
The diablo rojos are public buses that drive routes throughout the provinces of Panamá and Panamá Oeste, though they once drove routes throughout the entire country. They are converted school buses that are easily identifiable by their graffiti'd exteriors. The buses are renowned for having conductors that drive maniacally, and previously were known to blast reggae music before a law passed prohibiting such excessive noise. Due to the increasing cost of maintaining the buses however, the diablo rojos are being phased out in favor of busitos. If you find yourself in Panamá soon, you may as well take a ride in one before they're gone.
Unlike other modes of transportation in Panamá, the diablo rojos are not air conditioned, but they are also cheaper compared to, say, a busito ($0.90 as opposed to $1.50). If all the windows are pulled down, the forced ventilation is sufficient to keep the temperature at reasonable levels. Future Me would find himself in a diablo rojo with all the windows up as people seem to find the heat more tolerable than being splashed by rain. Regardless, we arrived to the Albrook bus terminal over an hour later.
The next step was to acquire metro cards (if not acquired the last time we were here) so that we could travel around the city. For those interested, metro cards can be purchased for 3 dollars at the various machines around the Albrook terminal mall area and must be loaded with dollars. The metro bus fare is $0.25 and the subway fare is $0.35. We started with the bus to visit the clinic and took note of the sign color, black and green. Each location we were to visit had a question or two we would need to answer as a form of verification when our tour was complete.
We later found our way to a certain hostel where we toured the area and learned about the discount offered to Peace Corps volunteers (verified by presenting our Peace Corps IDs). We ran into Shellee, a third-year volunteer going for a second third-year (fourth year), who we assumed was spying for the staff. She claimed she wasn't, but I've yet to find any proof confirming or denying my suspicions.
Our group's tour came to an end at a mini-supermarket which sold ice-cream cones at what I believe was $2.00. We decided to find some place to lunch before finding our way back. We settled on a Mexican restaurant that happened to be nearby, which turned out to be the best course of action. It is at this location that I actually encountered something spicy. See, here in Panamá, spice isn't on the menu. In fact, the "picante" salsa they have here is really just 99.97% vinegar. So, reuniting with my good friend Green Salsa was a real treat. I even took some to go.
Usually the phone eats first, but I couldn't
help eating at least one quesadilla.
On our way back, we decided we would try the metro train. There was supposed to be one fairly close to us, but we ended up lost along the way, and the directions we received sent us to a different station that was further away. Despite the inconvenience, it provided an opportunity to see more of the city and we did eventually make it to the metro. The metro train is fairly new, having been inaugurated in 2014, and was an efficient way to travel back to the Albrook terminal. We were still ahead of schedule, so we decided to check out some of the shops around the mall. I didn't buy anything, and I never did (aside from my host dad's shirt) for a couple of reasons. One, I'm living solely off the Peace Corps budget. Two, I'm really cheap.
Before departing to take public transportation back to our site, we met with the Safety & Security manager who verified our return and took a group photo with us. The way back involved an air conditioned ($1.50) bus that travelled relatively slow such that we almost arrived late to our communities. In fact, another group departed a half-hour after us and arrived ahead of us by five minutes. Regardless, our last step was to call the Safety manager to confirm our arrival back to site and to answer the scavenger hunt questions. Since about 8 other groups were trying to call at the same time however, we were put on hold for a good long while. So we all just hung out at the front yard of one of our group member's host family.
Eventually our turn came up, and the security manager called every group member up to answer a couple of the questions. She was particularly impressed that I referred to her in the "usted" form as volunteers and trainees tend to fall back on the more familiar "tu" form. Without any problems, we completed the interrogation and the group parted ways towards our respective host families. At this point, we were officially allowed to travel out of our communities as we pleased on any of our free days. So long as we respected the 9:00p curfew...
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