Surviving our first few hours in Panama

We arrived with empty stomachs at Panama’s Tocumen International Airport around 2 p.m. on a Saturday and decided to grab a bite to eat before heading out into the unknown.
Things you should know about Tocumen:

• Very nice, bright, and modern facility
• Tons of places to duty-free shop for jewelry, liquor, cosmetics, even candy at the M&M store
• Few choices for food: a hot dog cart and a sit-down place aptly named Cafeteria

We chose to sit down.
While not huge, the menu was varied, and we each ordered a pizza. The prices were moderate at $7 a pizza, but we were in the airport so we knew we wouldn’t be getting any deals. Overall, the pizzas were large, very cheesy, and very tasty, and our service was fast, making the Cafeteria a good stop.
We then headed downstairs to Immigration, where Wes bought our tourist cards for $5 a piece while I waited to get a stamp on our passports. Then it was off to Budget to retrieve our car. The car rental companies all conveniently have desks within the airport.
The attendant was not fast by any means but he was courteous and we were soon sitting in our four-door, automatic Mitsubishi Lancer, which my six-foot, five-inch husband crammed himself into.
We were required by law to purchase two forms of insurance, plus we purchased the additional tire and windshield insurance bringing our total cost for the week to $294.
As we started to pull away, we were approached by an officer inquiring who we rented the car from and how long we were renting it for, which he noted on his clipboard and then sent us on our way.
Our navigation system found our hotel in Panama City and we were off following the signs to Panama Centro.
Some things to be aware of on the roads:

• Lots of people running across the highways. These people were literally running across two lanes of traffic, climbing over the cement divider, and continuing on to the other side. It was crazy!
• Tolls along the way with hardly any signage alerting you. Two tolls going into the city cost us $1.40 and $1.50. No big deal, they just came upon us without any warning.
  The skyline of the city as we came in across the water was breathtaking, but then again I think any city skyline is impressive from afar. It’s when you get into the city that the view turns sour.

Driving along the city streets we only hit two snags:

• A build-up of traffic in front of the Hard Rock Café, which was scary because buses and taxis were dropping off and picking up, and traffic, including us, was trying to squeeze by in the remaining lanes. Needless to say, there was a lot of honking going on and no blinkers being used.
• Turning the wrong way on a one-way street. Thankfully there were only two cars coming at us and my husband expertly stayed off to the far side before turning onto a side street.

Happy to see our hotel, we parked, checked in, and flopped down on the beds for a breather.