Driving to Chiriquí

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The last time I came to Chiriquí, I flew.  This time, my husband and I came together. He pointed out that the buses cost only $20, although they take seven hours rather than the one-hour flight. I was surprised he suggested this, because he hates buses (hates, hates, hates).

My surprise disappeared when we took that rather uncomfortable minivan trip to Coiba, and my husband immediately backpedaled on the bus-to-Chiriquí idea. Instead, he decided to rent a car, and pointed out that renting a car for two weeks in Panama costs only $57.

A friend of mine who lives here, when I mentioned this to her, scoffed ... "but wait until the add-ons".  Sure enough, rental insurance is mandatory in Panama, and that brought the cost to more like $400, which landed us back in the cost-of-flying realm, but has the advantage of letting my husband bring his bike with him.

Cows ahead.


The drive was supposed to take about six hours, and we were very lucky not to have any significant traffic. However, the one main road between Panama City and David was completely closed at one point. We went a little bit further than we should have before we realizing that we were going to need to do a detour. The detour itself was incredibly beautiful, but also very much on small and windy roads. There were many chickens in the road.

Also---to my incredible delight---at one point we passed a bunch of cows galloping down the road.

Getting closer.

To my even incredible-er delight, we even got to drive alongside them for a very short while as they were galloping.

Cows!!

The drive ended up taking more like nine hours.  Panama, what can I say?!   But we're here, and getting to see a whole new set of sights. Hello, Chiriquí!




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