Travel Tips
Driving in modern day Panama is little more stressful than a drive in
most US states, Panama City rush hour excepted. We have a few four lane
highways in fairly good condition, restaurants and gas stations are
rarely more than an hour away, and there is almost always enough
traffic that a breakdown is usually nothing more than an annoyance. The
cell phone network is pretty good, though you will find dead areas.
Nevertheless, it is prudent to carry an emergency kit, especially if
you have a 4X4 and like to explore. Nora and I recommend the following
items.
1. Water - We buy 12 oz. bottles of purified water by the case and never travel without plenty of water.
2. First Aid Kit - Include the basics and if you're going into the jungle, a snake bite kit.
3. Snacks - We take fresh fruit, granola bars, and on long trips, sandwiches.
4. Toilet paper and paper towels
5. Small air pump - Pump up that low tire and drive to a service station rather than try to change it on a busy highway.
6. Small DC-AC
Inverter - The one we have plugs into the cigar lighter and provides
enough household current to power a small TV set. We use it to keep
camera batteries charged.
7. A large umbrella
The water and snacks can be stored in a cooler, which will also come in
handy if you find some delicacy you want to bring back. This list is
not all-inclusive, and if any of you want to recommend something I've
overlooked, please email me.
Website Hype
Just read another website claiming to be expert about Panama and
spouting some of the usual nonsense about a 'tropical paradise'. One
claim we've seen before is that Panama has no hurricanes,
earthquakes, or active volcanos. To be sure, hurricanes are not likely
to be a threat anywhere in Panama, but earthquakes are quite common, if
rarely destructive. The question of active volcanos is open to debate.
IDAAN and the Water Bill
For whatever reason, IDAAN (the folks who deliver water and scatter
your garbage all over the street) has stopped delivering bills to
our house, and we haven't received one in months. Today I finally
discovered that you can check your account on line. Go to
http://www.idaan.gob.pa/ and click on "Servicio al Cliente ->
Consulta de Saldo". You will need your client number, which is located
on your bill. Of course, if they were sending out bills it wouldn't be
necessary to consult your account on line, but we had an old one, so
the number wasn't hard to find.
Electricity bills are also available at
http://www.elektra.com.pa/registro.asp for Elektra Noreste users, but
require you to sign up with your account number and a lot of other
information which they already have if you have an account.
Bureaucracy, sigh.
Good Deal on Cell Phones.
This won't help you a lot unless you live in Panama, but Movistar has
some good deals right now. You can get a prepaid Motorola C222 phone
for $14.95 with the purchase of a $5.00 card. If you already had a
non-locked GSM phone, you can convert it to Movistar for $3.95 and get
coupons which can be redeemed monthly for $5.00 in talk time and $5.00
in text messaging time. If you use a phone like I do, this is a great
deal, and you won't have to buy time for a year. The catch is that
$5.00 cards are only good for 10 days, but you can still receive calls
and you can use the text messaging during the time you are waiting for
the next free $5.00 card. Or more likely, you can buy a $10.00 card
every month and use the phone all the time.