Mining Protests - Part 2: getting caught up in the mess

The same Thursday that SUNTRACS issued the call for blocking the ports and airports, my beloved Prius arrived in the port of Colón. Due to the blockades, the car couldn’t get picked up from the port until 9 days later. which meant, i had to pay additional storage fees to the port, as the car was there longer than what is usual and included in the freight price.

Also, it meant, we had to drive to Panama City to pick it up from the public parking outside the customs broker’s office. It seemed too risky to just leave it sitting there without license plate until all this is over. So we decided to try to get there from Santa Catalina, Veraguas. We didn’t have to use the stretch of the interamerican highway from Chiriquí to Veraguas. And there seemed to be less going on from here to the city.

Well, that was a wrong assessment! 

First all went well. But after 200 of the 350 km to Panama City, we got stuck at a blockade 10 km before Penonome. Smarty pants that i think I am I check google maps about a side road that might get us around the blockade. And I found one! But it simply skipped the line of waiting cars and led directly to the blockage. So I turned around and tried another side road off the side road we were on. The gravel road quickly turned into a muddy path used usually only by agricultural equipment leading into the fields, further and further away from the interamerican highway!

parts mudslides, parts two tracks with ridge with vegetation between them and full of deep puddles

After about 10 km on such paths and one hour of driving, we finally reached a gravel road again, then an asphalted one, and found ourselves in Penonome! Yeay!

Funny side-story: a local guy had followed me all the way through the fields. He got stuck once in a deep puddle that he tried to tackle differently from me. He honked, and I waited for him. He turned on the 4-wheel drive of his pickup, and was able to get out of his difficult position. When i stopped to check the map again as we reached the asphalted road, he passed me and gave me a thumbs up…

Penonome is 150 km from Panama City. I thought we’re ok now. But, just 30 km later, the next blockade! This time no path around it to be found on google - not even one like before. However, I found a way to make it to El Valle de Anton, on a gravel road reaching one of those roads that lead off the interamerican into the mountains.

We stayed for the night at the Bodhi hostal - the same hostal that I stayed in in June 21, and where I was pointed to the Bodhi hostal in Santa Catalina, where I then met Iris. So, I was happy to show her part of our history that was just before we met…

We set our alarms to wake up at 2:00 am to try to make our way to Panama City during the night, hoping people will be at home sleeping, rather than on the roads waving flags and partying.

And so it was: we reach Panama City by 5:00 am, without hitting any more problems. 

That day, we bought all the items on our list, that are not available outside of the city, picked up the car, and had a wonderful indian dinner. 

The next morning, we’d leave early in the morning again, we decided…