• Home
  • About Us
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • The Zoe Report
  • Haley’s Corner
facebook twitter instagram
Let's Just Travel
  • Home
  • About Us
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • The Zoe Report
  • Haley’s Corner
Home  >  Panama  >  Driving in Panama
Panama

Driving in Panama

Allison Sherman Posted onOctober 21, 2014December 19, 2016 Comments are off 1371 Views

We had a little break from the usual downpour in the late afternoon but today it’s back. We didn’t have any errands so we came right home from Spanish School, dried off and are holed up in our apartmentito with dinner cooking (all those veggies from yesterday’s drive!).

School today was bueno. Haley got moved to Daniel’s class and quickly rose to the top of the heap. She won most of the games, was told to hold back on some of the answering during the flash card quizzing (she knew them before everyone else did) and Zoe also reports having a fabulous time with her profesora who is now her private teacher. All is well. Dan still hates it but I think he tolerates it better with Haley there. And the fact that they had a sub today was good too. Dan is not fond of his usual profesora. She no speak-a da English.

Topic change: driving!

After the weekend of driving a rental car and as we begin the hunt for a car to buy, now is a good time to explain how the driving works here. It’s a bit of a paradox. You have to drive aggressively but defensively. You pretty much assume that everyone else is doing the same and it all works out (although there is a reason why new cars here are nicknamed “pre-dented”). You can’t be timid here, but at the same time you have to expect other people to do bold and crazy things too. And not just people in cars but people walking and DOGS. We had to slam on the brakes at least 3 times just yesterday to avoid taking out a stray dog. This is compounded by the fact that it gets DARK when the sun goes down. Streetlights are not as common in all places and the road striping may or may not be recently done.

On top of this, there are not too many street signs. We have a new app that we use a lot – Waze – that is our navigational app. I navigate and D drives. But instead of me telling him to turn at XX street, I just say “go go go go TURN NOW” and it works out pretty well. And you wonder why Zoe was carsick yesterday.

You have to be prepared for people to do stupid things. Stopping in the middle of the lane to let someone out, a pedestrian crossing the street in front of you completely randomly, someone driving in the oncoming lane to get around a bus, etc. You just are prepared for the unexpected and use the shoulder – and your horn – a lot.

We’ve only been driving a few days – and we are now on foot once again – but we didn’t see too many cops out. There didn’t seem to be the kind of speed traps we have in the USA. Although we hear they exist. There are random traffic checkpoints where they need to see every paper and every stamp you have – and they can pull you over and ask for it for no reason – but that seems to be more in the city (Panama City), where we do NOT intend to drive if we can help it. So we haven’t been a victim of this kind of overt abuse of power yet. (That last sentence was from Dan… if you couldn’t tell. Ha!)

Another reason why the driving is like this is that there are not many lawsuits. If you hit someone, you get out, check the damage, exchange some money or make some agreement and go on your way. No insurance papers, police reports or rubbing your neck just in case it starts to hurt later. You just go along because that’s just life. So the stakes are lower.

I have to admit it’s a bit freeing to be able to do a little more of what you want, like U turns in the middle of the road and stopping on the narrow shoulder to go to a store. If someone is irritated that you are blocking a little of their path, it’s just the way it goes. Kinda nice, as long as you don’t get run over. No es bueno, that running over thing.

All of this is summarized by saying that Dan will do 99% of the driving here and I will avoid it like the plague.

Previous Article Volcan and Cerro Punta
Next Article Bocas del Toro, Panama

Related Posts

  • Reporting From Home Base

    February 19, 2020
  • Worldschooling Happy and Crappy

    December 11, 2019
  • A Weekend At Coco’s

    December 3, 2019
  • Worldschooling Game Changers

    November 27, 2019
  • Halloween and Day of the Dead in Mexico

    November 10, 2019
  • Stories from PdC, Part 2

    October 13, 2019
  • Stories from PdC, Part 1

    September 29, 2019
  • Life in PdC

    August 25, 2019
  • Mexico 2.0

    August 7, 2019
  • Random Tours in Europe

    August 2, 2019

Social Media

Categories

  • Amsterdam4
  • Barcelona2
  • Belgium1
  • Bocas6
  • Boquete16
  • Cambodia3
  • Cape Town6
  • Cenote13
  • Chiang Mai12
  • Christmas7
  • Colombia42
  • Day Trips8
  • Dominican Republic10
  • Dubai3
  • Education70
  • FAQs13
  • Field Trips15
  • Florence1
  • Food5
  • France3
  • Germany2
  • Granada2
  • Guatemala4
  • Haley's Corner29
  • Health6
  • Iceland3
  • Italy6
  • Johannesburg8
  • Language8
  • London2
  • Malaysia5
  • Medellin41
  • Merida3
  • Mexico78
  • Mexico City3
  • Milan1
  • Money3
  • Naples3
  • Netherlands9
  • Packing5
  • Panama153
  • Panama City5
  • Pedasi98
  • Playa del Carmen6
  • Portugal5
  • Puebla3
  • Read First1
  • Recap3
  • Rome3
  • South Africa21
  • Spain19
  • Switzerland1
  • Thailand17
  • The Zoe Report10
  • USA2
  • Venice1
  • What's Next9
  • Zimbabwe2
facebook twitter

Categories

  • Amsterdam4
  • Barcelona2
  • Belgium1
  • Bocas6
  • Boquete16
  • Cambodia3
  • Cape Town6
  • Cenote13
  • Chiang Mai12
  • Christmas7
  • Colombia42
  • Day Trips8
  • Dominican Republic10
  • Dubai3
  • Education70
  • FAQs13
  • Field Trips15
  • Florence1
  • Food5
  • France3
  • Germany2
  • Granada2
  • Guatemala4
  • Haley's Corner29
  • Health6
  • Iceland3
  • Italy6
  • Johannesburg8
  • Language8
  • London2
  • Malaysia5
  • Medellin41
  • Merida3
  • Mexico78
  • Mexico City3
  • Milan1
  • Money3
  • Naples3
  • Netherlands9
  • Packing5
  • Panama153
  • Panama City5
  • Pedasi98
  • Playa del Carmen6
  • Portugal5
  • Puebla3
  • Read First1
  • Recap3
  • Rome3
  • South Africa21
  • Spain19
  • Switzerland1
  • Thailand17
  • The Zoe Report10
  • USA2
  • Venice1
  • What's Next9
  • Zimbabwe2

Archives

  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
Order Dept, LLC © Copyright 2015