Last bus

28th February 2016

I left the fantastic Panamanian hill region of Boquete by taxi, after spending the last hour prior to his arrival marvelling at the number of bird species visible from my window.  Hummingbirds, tanagers and others entertained me from a few metres beneath my bedroom window.  But more about that soon.  My laptops hasn't been working properly and has prevented me updating the blog over the last week or so.

The taxi took me to the chicken bus stop in the centre of Boquete town.  When I climbed the stairs and looked up into the interior, I was greeted by a full compliment of unsmiling native people.  I took the only remaining seat right up the front by the door.

But a chicken bus is never full and people continued to pile on until there were three people per seat and the gangway full with standing passengers.  The bus barrelled away down the road towards the town of David, happily picking up more and more people.  When you think they can't possibly let anyone else on board, they'll stop for another family of four.

Soon, in order to let one solitary passenger off, everyone in the gangway has to disembark, wait for the one guy to get off, before piling back on.  Finally, they stopped picking up new passengers.  The only good thing about a properly full chicken bus, is that they no longer stop every few yards for new passengers.  For the rest of the journey, we sailed past the countless people waiting by the side of the road.  A blessed relief for a western traveller.  They really will stop every ten metres if there's somewhere to cram the passenger in.  The constant stopping becomes funnier as the trip progresses, as sheer frustration transposes into comedy.

Just fifty minutes after boarding we arrived in the busy David bus terminal.  I rushed to find the ticket office to buy my last bus ticket in Central America.  It cost $15.25 for the eight hour trip to Panama City.  This bus was a modern air conditioned double decker.  I was ending the bus journeys in relative style.  These journeys are incredibly dull, and writing about them is even duller.  Reading about them enough to send you off.

Sleep well, 😀