Bocas del Tora to Dallas in 48 hours

Bocas to Dallas

Synopsis

I have a huge amount of luggage, many transfer points a small amount of cash, no credit cards or debit cards. This is a really bad trip.

12/21	17:15	Leaveapartment
12/21	18:00	Leave BMT water taxi
12/21	19:00	Leave Almirante
12/22	05:00	Arrive Panama
12/22	06:00	Arrive at Airport
12/22	14:30	Leave for Miami
12/22	17:30	Arrive Miami
12/22	18:20	Finished Getting Sodomized by Custom
12/22	19:30	Get a rescheduled flight
12/22	20:40	Miss Rescheduled Flight
12/22	22:30	New Reschedule
12/23	09:30	Shuttle to airport
12/23	12:20	Depart for Dallas
12/23	14:40	Arrive in Dallas
12/23	15:45	Search for Son and Bags End
12/23	16:30	Arrive at Christies

12/21

17:00

My landlord called a taxi for me and I two duffle bags and two suitcases and put them in the bed of the truck. I dont know why these guys drive 22 MPG trucks, cruise all day and take fares. We hadn't gone 30 feet when he stopped to pick a nady and here teenage daughter.

I asked her if she was coming to Dallas with me and she just gave me a big grin and said “Yeah”. The driver asked if this was a Christmas treat for my son. Hell no, he get plenty by himself.

I showed up at BMT, the water taxi company and the bags were placed on a little boat, that was full. The luggage jammed against legs and he took off like a bat out hell. The pounding my back was getting was only marginally offset by the effects it had on young mother sitting next to me. She had a cushion, I was sitting on a hard wood seat. She kept stealing glance after a particularly bad bounce. I was stealing glances when they were less painful. After half an hour of this. We got to the docks and I hoisted out four 60 pound plus bags. I know this but we'll get to that later. This kid was around 17 and couldn't have weighed more than 140 pound. He picked two bags, another guys threw on a third and the kid took running laughing upp a flight of stairs. I took my back and the remaining rolling suitcase and strolled up the ramp.

17:00

The taxi ride to the bus stop was about 5 minutes. Then I transferred them all to a spot on the sidewalk. The guy loading them on the bus grunted with each bag and handed me four checks. Checkin was a hand printed list of names for whom tickets were sold I pointed to mine, she checked off when I showed her my ticket.

Now for the posturing, I grabbed the second seat scooted over a little toward the aisle, swung my fanny toward the aisle, put my back in front of the aisle seat put back my head and closed my eyes. If the bus wasn't sold out I should be ok. After the bus took I looked around and there were 2 empty seats. There were several really hot woman that it would have been nice to share a seat with.

This whole boarding process could not have taken more than 10 minutes.

Some inscrutable about some guy who turns himself into a robot and flies around played. All spanish dialog with Spanish subtitle. The Panamanian in front was wearing a knit cap and a jacket. I had my air on full.

We stopped around 8 for food every body ran out. I just had an apple and a bottle of water. Then we droned on, mile and mile. Its about 250 miles and its a 10 hour trip. The just jammed into the small of my back. And we droned and people snored. About midnight we stopped at a gas station and the driver performed some mysterious operation to the engine with dishwashing soap. Maybe was checking for leaks. No food or water to be seen. I was beginning to regret not having bought more water. And the bus droned inexorably east.

About 1 in the morning we stopped another chinese cafeteria that caters to buses and stocked.

I read half the jungle to a flashlight I carry in my back. Most everybody was sleeping.

05:00

About 5 in the morning we got to the bus station in Panama City. Within a minute a guy was asking me if I wanted a taxi to the airport. Sure lets go. I was just going take two bags and backpack and let him carry the other two. He insisted we needed a cart. Well it was a long treck. One in the trunk three in the back seat. My backpack on my lap and off we go. Now I'm seeing the landscape from last half hour played backwards. Half the people on the bus were going to the airport. Couldn't they have made a stop on the way in?

Then there was some weirdness, I gave the driver the nominal $20 he said it was $30 and took $10 from the baggage guy. Then he wallked maybe 3O feet and put the bags down my the ticket counter. I gave $3, he said it is a dollar a bag and had 5 bags, then told me I owed him the 10 bucks he loaned me.

There were 30 people in line ahead of me and the ticket clerks weren't there yet. Finally they showed and the line started to move really slow. There is a $50 overweight for bags that weight over fifty pounds. They put the bag on the scale, be informed of this and then start rearranging their luggage.