note: location is panama city
taxi’s in panama are cheap (imagine taking a cab from one side of san francisco to the other for only $6). however, relative to driving the sentra, it’s quite expensive. today i took four cab rides, totaling $16.50…and driving the sentra around i would have spent less than $3 (including getting lost, parking, etc.). The cab rides were from Clayton (Ciudad del Saber) to the modern art museum ($5, 10min); art museum to casco viejo (canal museum & nice place to walk around/lunch) ($1.50, 5min); casco viejo to shipping agency ($4, 10min); and shipping agency back to Clayton ($6, 20min).
one nice thing about taking the cab is that you don’t have to care about driving (…maybe just your safety). for instance, today, a large truck blocked a major road (with 2-lanes of traffic). cars were not moving….well, that’s not quite true. many cars were trying to back up (while other cars stupidly moved forward). others — from buses to beamers — jumped the curb. here’s one van that got stuck hopping over.
on another note, here’s my take on panamanian’s from my limited experience here (…however, i’ve only had quick experiences in countries thus far….so this excerpt can be taken as being more or less accurate relative to the other countries in central america). panamanian’s seem to come in one of three flavors: rude, apathetic or very friendly. there also seems to be more or less equal numbers of each personality (it reminds me of the farside cartoon). there is also a very clear distinction between pacific/atlantic panama……with the atlantic side being much more caribbean (garifuna?) than the pacfic.

lastly, here’s the canal schedule for the cap melville tomorrow (july 3):
arrive at gatun locks: 0850 (east lane)
depart gatun locks: 1030
arrive at pedro miguel locks: 1540 (west lane)
depart pedro miguel locks: 1625
arrive at miraflores locks: 1655 (east lane)
depart miraflores locks: 1815