Last Day in Boquete, and musings on driving the main highway

We spent our last morning in Boquete walking around the park near the center of the city -- a truly beautiful spot.  Then we did the 7+ hour drive back to Panama City.  I have pictures of the park, but not the drive, so the pictures and words in this post won't match at all.

The Caldera River

There's one main road between Panama City and David: it's Route 1 (appropriately enough), the Highway of the Americas.  It's two lanes in each direction for most of its length; the speed limits keep varying from 60 to 80 to 100 and back down -- but those are km/hr, not miles per hour.  That's like the speeds on a main highway varying from 35 to 50 to 60 mph.  So it's a slow drive.

On the way down, we actually got pulled over for speeding: many people have since told us there is lots and lots of radar gun use. We're fortunate to have been let go with a warning, and my husband fastidiously obeyed the speed limits going forward.  (Another ex-pat told us that when he was pulled over for speeding, he just handed the cop a $20 bill.  Yeesh!  No idea whether that's common).  

A side stream of the caldera,
with a picturesque bridge and waterfall.

On the way from Panama City to David, Google Maps had warned us that Route 1 was completely closed for construction, so we took a roundabout trip along a smaller, windier, and more animal-filled Route 5.  That route was beautiful but also added about 2 hours to the trip.  While we were in David and Bouquete, Google Maps kept saying Route 1 was still blocked for construction.  But fortunately, our friends there assured us that -- although the construction was real -- there road was open.  Sure enough, on the way back we traveled Route 1 with no problem.  At one or two points, the westbound lanes were all closed, and so the cars heading west used one of the two eastbound lanes.  And vice versa. 

Fortunately, there was almost no traffic on the roads, so we got to zoom along at 35 mph or 50 mph (sometimes, even 60!), as the speed limits dictated.  And I said "fortunately", but traveling mid-week was part of the plan for traffic-jam avoidance; the weekends tend to be the really busy times on the road from Panama City into the interior because that's when everyone heads out for vacation spots.  So I guess it's better to say "fortunately, the traffic-jam avoidance plan actually worked".

The wind blowing through what's left of our hair
makes us happy.

Also fortunately, the same people who told us that Route 1 wasn't blocked warned us that it actually WOULD be blocked on Tuesday Wednesday by some protest groups.  Wednesday was the day we'd originally planned to drive home (er, back to our Panama City home base).  So we decided to leave Boquete much earlier than originally planned. I don't know if the road blockages actually happened after we passed through.

All along the way, I read to my husband to keep us both amused.  We made it through about 1/3 of John Grisham's "The Firm", a book that came out when I was getting my first job and that I devoured while I was bopping between airports.  It's fun to share something I've enjoyed.

A tree with an interesting hollow up high
also contains a "take a book; leave a book" box.
This park was constructed by the local library.

We've been in Panama almost 6 months now, and this is the first time we drove a car. My husband was amazed at the low rental car prices (only about $75 for almost two weeks)!  I mentioned this to an ex-pat friend here, who warned us that indeed, these prices are too good to be true: it's mandatory to add on Panama insurance fees and a few extra charges.  Sure enough, the total rental car price was almost of $400.  At that price, it would have been almost cheaper for both of us two fly to David and take the local bus between David and Boquete.  But I'm glad we got to have our first (maybe only?) car adventure here in Panama, because it gave us chances to see lots of parts of Boquete that we wouldn't have been able to get to see otherwise, including our delightful last day wandering through a riverside park.