Let's get the hell out of Dodge

By Administrator, on Saturday, 11 August 2007

We were sat out front of Casa de Fernando, supping a few beers and feeling kinda bored. The traffic was making its usual horrendous noise, it was chucking it down with rain so hardly any eye candy on the street and John was muttering about getting away to somewhere sunny. He only been back from Peru a few weeks, but already got itchy feet. Anyways, South is heading into winter, North is too damn expensive, and I got too much work on my plate atm to take much time off. We both needed a change of scene tho, even just a quick one. Time for a road trip :)

So the quick 'n easy solution............. get the hell out of the city, and head into the interior. It's usually a bit drier in the central provinces of Cocle, Veraguas and Herrera this time of year, John wanted to visit these areas, and I'd not been out there for a couple of months apart from my routine trips to visit family in Penonome.

Monday, bright 'n sunny morning, picked John up about 10 so we could head out while the traffic was reasonable, between the morning and lunchtime chaos. Nice easy cruising once over the Bridge of the Americas with a quick stop at Queso Chella for a snack. Decided to grab lunch in Penonome as the little panaderia there, just off the highway at the Esso, does a great big hamburger for a buck a piece.

Less than a mile from Penonome, rain started spitting, and then the heavens opened to welcome us. Managed to grab a parking space in front of the panaderia, but the road was already doing a great impersonation of the missisipi, and flooding onto the sidewalks about 6 inches deep. No worries, these 2 crazy gringos just splash on thru, to the entertainment of the locals who have already got under any available shelter. Guess those hamburgers are just too good to pass up coz of a bit of rain.

One thing that always confuses me here. These freshly made burgers are really good, the bread is baked on site, the meat is locally produced and the salad is fresh, plus they are nearly 6 inches in diameter and only a buck. Yet the locals go next door to a roadside wagon that sells a scrappy little 4 inch burger with a preprocessed slice of plasticky meat and salad thats been sitting in a wrapper for too long.......... and pay 1.75 for it. Just coz its got a Yankee name on the truck dont mean it's better, but for some reason unknown to me they think if it's from the states it's quality. Que sera sera.......... less of a queue for us :)

Anyway............ back on the road. We headed onward after about an hour, the rain having eased to a level where it was possible to see safely with the wipers on full speed. Passed thru Nata and Aguadulce without seeing much apart from water. And welcomed the end of the shower as we approached Divisa where the road for Chitre and the Azuero splits off to the south. This section has been greatly improved, with a flyover taking the traffic over the road, a decent surface and an end to the roadworks that plagued us in the past. The whole of the road from Panama city to Santiago is now a full 4 lane highway and easy driving.

Santiago was to be our base for the 1st couple of days. I've never spent much time there, it's just a place I've passed thru on my way to David or Bocas and a convenient half way stop for fuel or food, so I was looking forward to seeing a bit more of it and exploring the side roads in the area.

Continued as Two days in Santiago