Immigration, Customs, and Car Rental

Panama Travelog #4
Cd. Panama, Panama - Sun, 22 Dec 2024. 4pm.

After arriving at the airport (PTY) in Panama City, Panama we had to clear immigration and customs, then pick up a rental car. Guess which of these took way longer than it should have.

Immigration had a huge long line when we arrived. An orange-jacketed employee spotted Hawk on her cane, though, and pointed us toward the diplomatic line, which was also marked for handicapped people. There was just one party ahead of us in that line. It's interesting that most foreign countries we visit have handicap lines at immigration and customs, while the US does not.

Though the line was short the process was slow. The immigration officer didn't really do anything other than iterate a standard process: Check that are passports are valid, ask where we're staying and what our employment is, collect our fingerprints on a digital scanner, and stamp our passports. This still took at least 10 minutes.

Our checked bag was waiting for us in baggage claim by the time we arrived. Not only had it arrived on the belt, it had apparently made so many trips around the belt that employees had pulled it off and lined it up on the floor.

Next was customs inspection. Again, we were motioned to a diplomatic queue, doubling for handicap people. The inspector was surprised to see us, so Hawk waved her cane at her. Again the inspector didn't actually do anything other than follow a rote process, but at least this stage of the gantlet was fast. It was odd, though, that we didn't have to answer any questions about what was in our bags— no questions about weapons, drugs, food, etc., which are common in other countries and are warned about in near-breathless terms on Panama's official visitor immigration pages.

So then it was time to get our rental car. I'd carefully rented from one of the several agencies that's "located in-terminal, walk to car". Well, it was located in the other terminal. A shuttle bus took us there.

At the car rental agency there was just one customer ahead of us. Unfortunately it was a customer who apparently had never rented a car before... or apparently had never rented a car in a foreign country before. She was arguing with the lone employee at the desk about something, likely about whether she needed to pay for insurance (mandatory) or something.

Finally we got our turn in line. Things went smoothly until the agent kept saying, "One moment, please".... I could tell he was having trouble finding keys. Other reservations had paperwork and keys already sorted behind the desk. Ours did not. "They lost our reservation," was my first thought. But then, realizing they did have paperwork, "They don't have our car," was my second thought.

Bingo! They were out of cars in the category I'd reserved. "I can give you a smaller one," the agent offered. "Is it also cheaper?" I asked. It was, so I took it.



The new car wasn't a mystery when I accepted it. It's a Hyundai Venue. It's smaller than the Hyundai Tucson I reserved but seemed like it would be big enough. That said, it is compact. We put down the rear seats just to accommodate our three suitcases (and two shoulder bags) in the cargo area. And the front seats don't recline very far. This vehicle is not designed for drivers over 5'11" (180cm) tall.



Speaking of design, the vehicle's interior looks like a design from 20 years ago... with a digital display carefully pasted onto it. Aside from it supporting Apple CarPlay— which is a massive help for driving in a country where the road signs really suck— we're dealing with features that would have done a model year 2005 Toyota Corolla proud.

Well, now we're en route to our destination for the evening, the Gamboa Reserve. I'll have more to share when we arrive.

$55 for 2 sandwich combos? No.

For lunch Saturday Hawk and I tried visiting a new-ish restaurant chain nearby, Sourdough & Co. I've eaten there once before and was disappointed with the high price for a modestly sized sandwich but thought I'd give it another try. In hindsight I should have known there'd be trouble when the restaurant didn't have its basic sandwich prices listed anywhere— not on the lighted menu board behind the counter, not in the paper menus in a rack by the register. The total for our order, two sandwiches with side-and-drink combos, came to $55 and change.

"$55, that's a lot for two people," I told the cashier. "I'd like to review the bill to see the individual prices."

"Well, that's what it costs," the cashier said, unhelpfully, as if I'd criticized him personally. "You got two sandwiches with sides." Notably he did not show me price breakdown, as I'd specifically requested.

Before I could ask him more pointedly to show me the itemized bill, Hawk jumped in to the conversation and announced, "No. I'm not okay with paying that much?"

"What do you want to do?" I asked. "Leave?"

"Yeah."

So we left and walked across the square to Five Guys. Five Guys, which I'd just read in a news article this morning is rated the second most overpriced fast-food chain. The bill for our two meals there came to $36 and change. And for that money we both ate our fill. And, importantly for Hawk, they had a better drink selection, including drinks she actually enjoys.

An Evening in Gamboa

Panama Travelog #5
Gamboa Reserve, Panama - Sun, 22 Dec 2024. 7:30pm.

This afternoon after landing in Panamá City (the one in Panamá, not Florida, US) and renting a car we drove around Panamá City and then north into the mountains along the spine of the country to the Gamboa Reserve. It was a drive of 45km that took about an hour due to some traffic getting around the edge of Panama City. At numerous points on the drive— basically every time I had to turn left or right— I was glad for Apple CarPlay in our otherwise bare-bones car as road signs in Panama vary between small and positioned almost too late, to nonexistent. But we got to Gamboa Resort, our place to stay for the night, adequately well before sunset, which was my goal. I don't want to drive unfamiliar roads, in a foreign country, with piss-poor signage, after dark.

We checked in to the hotel and went to our room. Here's a walkthrough video:

Watch on YouTube

It's a nice, modestly-sized room with a balcony and hammock overlooking the Chagres River. (In the video I may mistakenly refer to it as Gamboa Lake. That's because there is a marina nearby. The Chagres River feeds Lake Gatun a bit further down.)

It could have been a nice evening overall but a stain was put on it by what happened next. As we went out to bring in another bag, we found our room keys didn't work anymore. Both had worked 10 minutes prior, when we arrived. Now neither worked. So we trekked to the front desk, waited in line to get new keys, and trekked back. The new keys also didn't work. So Hawk trekked back to the front desk (I stayed put with the suitcase) to get a third set. These also didn't work.

Fortunately at this point the hotel already figured out that they should sent a maintenance technician. I mean, when a guest needs to replace keys three times in 10 minutes because none of them are working, that tells you the problem isn't merely a bad key (or six) but a bad lock. The technician pried the plastic cover off the door's electronic lock, exposing a data jack underneath, and connected his laptop via what looked like a proprietary cable. In a few minutes he had the door rebooted or something, because our keys worked.


We had been thinking about using the resort's pool but felt too much time was burned up by fighting with the busted lock. Instead we decided to get dinner as it was after 6:30pm already and we hadn't had a proper meal in almost 24 hours.

"Maybe after dinner," we agreed about using the pool— but by then it was full dark and the pools seemed to have closed.

Maybe tomorrow morning.