Traveling by Bus in Panama
Nov 13th, 2005 by Don Ray
One of my guests, Friday night, left for Panama City on the Midnight bus. I have never taken one of the long haul buses in Panama. These are huge buses, similar to Greyhound in the US. I have taken the Yellow school bus from Boquete to David many times and have always said one day I would go to Panama City by bus.
Well, I may have changed my mind. I learned about 8:00 Saturday morning that the bus had had an accident on the trip. It had come upon a car without lights and had swerved to miss the car. If you ever see one of these buses on the highway, they are cruising!
Trying to avoid the car without lights (not all that uncommon also in Panama) caused the bus driver to lose control and the bus rolled. Today my friend is sore all over and probably lucky to be alive.
I have had a migraine headache since Saturday and it must be the stress of worrying about my friend. I know why so many people ride the buses. It is because they are so cheap. It costs around $12 to go to Panama City from David. With today’s prices of gasoline, you can’t travel cheaper. However, I now question the economics, as I understand that is the second major accident in the last three months on that route.
I think I will stick to the airplane.
I am originally from Panama, and although many years living in USA, I travel very often to Panama. I personally enjoy traveling by bus from Panama city to Chiriqui and vice versa.I am going to write this in Spanish, hopping that this will reach the right persons. Yo soy panameña, viviendo en USA por muchos años, pero viajo muy a menudo a Panamá. Viajo por bus de Panamá a Chiriquí y viceversa. Felicito al personal del srevicio de buses por su amabilidad y buena disposición de servirle a los pasajeros muy profesionalmente. Sin embargo, siempre que he viajado lo hago con mucha incomodidad por lo siguiente:
1. Los buses tienen mal olor
2. Aparecen muchas cucarachas alrededor de uno mientras viaja (esto es muy desagradable)
3. Las películas que exhiben durante el viaje están fuera de lugar, pues allí viajan familias con niños, y hay mucho sexo y crimen en esas películas. Opino que sería conveniente escoger las películas tomando en cuenta los valores familiares y el respeto hacia las muchas personas decorosas que a diario viajan en esos buses.
4. La comida que se ofrece en los restaurantes donde para el bus durante el viaje, no es saludable; a veces el arroz está medio crudo, y la comida es muy grasosa, y se sirve comida añeja. Las personas que sirven la comida no son muy amables, y esto especialmente le resta mucho a la calidad de servicio que Panamá espera brindarle al turismo.