Panamanians wait their turn.

Our week at Carnival ended by standing in the boiling morning sun with 200 hungover Panamanians, waiting for the bus from Chitre to Panama City. Despite the fact that we stood for an hour without moving and I had already eaten part of the provisions Cailey’s mom packed for us for the ride back, the Panamanian people, the other waiters, didn’t really seem to mind. I remember taking the bus back to Maine from Boston in college, and the line was twenty people so irritated they started shoving and cutting. Besides one lady with about 30 bags mumbling to herself, the Panamanians waited in restful peace. Perhaps because they had a satisfying long break from work, or maybe they were sad to be returning (the girl in front cried the entire time we waited, but I have a feeling her boyfriend was breaking up with her…if only my Spanish was better eavesdropping would be more fun).

When the bus finally rolled into town I was pleasantly surprised (maybe because I was slightly terrified that a Diablo Rojo would barrel around the corner) but this bus was cushy and big and perfectly air conditioned. The windows had hilarious purple photo-booth curtains that mostly everyone kept pulled, maybe because of their raging hangovers, or maybe because the bus was going at an alarming speed and ignorance is always bliss. The bus driver had some helpers, probably his wife and his girlfriend, one whose job it was to change the radio station blasting upbeat Latin beats when it got a little fuzzy. This got a little jarring when I wanted to listen to my ipod, but I’m always worrying that the bus driver is bored and maybe he will drive off the road a little or pass cars for fun, or fall asleep on the steering wheel, causing the bus to fly into a ravine,  plunging us to our immediate deaths. So, because I knew he was happily chair dancing I could ride in peace. There was even a rest stop where we stocked up on provisions again. Next year get to the bus at 8 am! There might not be a line. I am American after all.

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Filed under: Culture on February 7th, 2008