Fun Cab Trips
Saturday, January 20th, 2007Cab Ride Numero Uno:
Our adventures in Panama City started with a little help from an eager Peace Corps volunteer. Apparently, the Peace Corps can place you in a Caribbean archipelago to work on sustainable agriculture even if you have a degree in English! Sign me up. True to form, this peace corps volunteer was helpful and enthusiastic — she offered to help us get into the city, waited for us to get through loooong customs lines, and secured us a cab (which Sarah then bargained down). On the way, we picked up a Pennsylvanian who had recently re-located to Panama to work in real estate who informed us of several things: 1) “people prefer to work with American-trained salesmen…” 2) “I wish they would get a Wal-Mart down here!” and 3) “I go to TGI Fridays every week.” It was a little tense, what with the Peace Corps volunteer in the front seat.
After we dropped off the Pennsylvanian at his swanky apartment, things got complicated. Our peace corps volunteer, still trying to help, informed our cab driver that we were going to the bus terminal with her. Unfortunately, we weren’t. We tried to explain that we wanted to be dropped off in a different neighborhood, which was on the way, but this was too much for the cabbie. They got into a little spat, and the peace corps volunteer told us we should probably just get out and find another cab. In the end, thanks to the peace corps volunteer (who really was very nice), we ended up on the side of an unknown road, at night, with all our gear, in the middle of Panama City, paying for two cabs instead of one. This seems to be an apt metaphor for certain aspects of the peace corps — nice, eager to please volunteers who don’t know that much more than you do, just trying to help, eventually leave you stranded. (Don’t get me wrong, she really was very nice.)
Cab Ride Numero Dos
In between cab rides, we shopped in fancy stores, cheap stores, and lots of air conditioned malls. We also saw the “8th modern marvel of the world” (the Panama Canal), complete with huge boats, smarmy museum exhibits, and a poorly done PR video. We also saw Children of Men. Which (sorry Aja) we found utterly forgettable. But you can’t beat a modern metropolis for air conditioning, movies, and consumerism! Also, it doesn’t suck to end each night sipping $.75 beers in an outdoor cafe watching world class soccer projected onto a giant wall.
Our side trip out of the modern metropolis and into Panama Viejo (the ruins of Old Panama) brings us to our next cab ride. Hungry, exhausted, and too weary to find the bus back into town, we hailed a fancy-looking Ford taxi. This cab ride was much less eventful than the first, but we had to include it because our cab driver moonlighted as a Secret Service Officer for the President. How cool is that? He even showed us his badge.
Cab Ride Numero Tres
Our third and final cab ride in Panama City took us to the Panama City airport. Though this cab ride was in no way interesting, we found it necessary to detail the ways in which the Panama City Airport sucks. Oh, how it sucks. First of all, there is only one, horrendously overpriced restaurant. We’re talking $12 breakfasts. Second of all, out of the HUNDREDS “Duty Free Stores” with designer perfume, liquor, and handbags, there was not a SINGLE book, newspaper, or magazine to be found. What!? My only joy in airports is reading fashion magazines without buying them, while drinking scalding coffee and eating a yeasty bagel. How dare they deny me what is rightfully mine! It was a long, long morning, most of it spent grumbling and trying to think of who we could complain about the airport to. We decided we’d complain to you. Letter-writing campaign, anyone?
Cab Ride Numero Cuatro
This ride took us from the Quito airport to our hotel. And here we are. The best thing about Quito so far? Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse, Spaten Oktoberfest, and Sarmat Porter, found in a random corner store. I’ll give you my tasting notes tomorrow.
-Megan (with help from Sarah)
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