Panama in Late 2023: You Can Fly Into the Capital, But THEN WHAT?

One visitor's experience.

I was on the last day of my three--week viisit

to Panama City on October 23 (2023) as I

flagged down a taxi four hours (!) before

my flight back to my principal city of residence --

Quito, Ecuador.

Getting an available taxi in El Dorado sector

was a snap .. and I was blissfully unaware

that my trip to the PTY airport was about to

be jeopardized by a national protest of which

I had heard nothing.

I made it to the airport in time for two reasons...

(1) I took a taxi so early .. and (2) my bilingual

driver knew the secondary and tertiary roads

and pulled a  brilliant maneuver mid-trip that

saved the day.

The 'vuelta' airport trip took two hours in  all,

four times as long as the pre-protest 'ida'

ride with another veteran 'taxista',

At one point on the 23rd, we sat in traffic

in one spot for a full hour, moving a mere

half a kilometer duirng that hour.

That's when the taxista figuratively

pulled a rabbit out of his hat --

diverting off the main drag, wending

his way through a large and busy shopping

center .. and connecting to a road on the

opposite side of the 'centro' .

From there it was smooth sailing to

the PTY airport.

This was my second such experience since

last year.  Flying from Quito to Mexico City

in 2022 during an anti-government protest,

an experienced Quito driver maneuvered

around secondary and tertiary roads to

evade roadblocks and get me to the

airport in suburban Tababela with time to

spare.

cccmedia in Quito

How long will the roadblock protests last?

The host of the YouTube discussion referenced

in this thread's original post optimistically

opined that the protests would be over within

two weeks.

IMO that was just a guess.

She also stated that the presidente wanted to

hold a nationwide 'consulta' of the people on

December 17th in an effort to reverse the

mining contract and relieve the nationwide tension.

However, such a move could trigger litigation that

might further complicate the situation.

cccmedia

*** There will not be a "consulta of the people" on December 17. That was decided early last week. It's in the Supreme Court's hands.

IMO the Panama Relocation video was a bit rosy. Yes we are fine at home with necessities on hand. But, our neighbors and people who have to work, not so much. We're in David and there is no gas, diesel, or propane anywhere in Chiriqui. There are shortages of some food items and prices are up. The water company just announced outages because they can't get chlorine and chemicals to disinfect the water. Panama City has gas, but the price of what little produce they have is crazy high. Business owners are suffering and none of our musician friends are working. The attitude seems to be the suffering is worth it for the greater goals, but there is definitely suffering.

Most widespread protests in 40 years.

Panama's presidente Laurentino Cortizo is

not backing down from his position that the

controversial mining contract is needed for

the nation's economic good .. following tourism's

weak return post-covid and droughts that have

damaged the financial viabiility of the Panama Canal.

This past week, the protests sparked violence on

the Panamericana highway south of

Panama City.  An evidently frustrated motorist

shot and killed two protesters when they would

not take down a roadblock.  Police say the shooter

has been arrested.

The protests are the most intense and widespread

in Panama since the Noriega Era of the 1980's.

Much of Panamanian commerce has come

to a halt.  The nation's agony is about to enter

its fourth week.

Source.... CNN, as reprinted at

www.cuencahighlife.com

Wow... This post had almost all stages of the protests.  Now that the protests are over, *** we are just a few months away from elections, there will be some campaigns to promote tourism, fix roads, ***

Well... about tourism, There's a much needed campaign done by everyone involved in tourism to visit towns and fairs.  I'd suggest you to fly instead of drive.  There are plenty options there but I've been putting my eye on a company I've traveled with 5 times now and they fly charter flights on regular basis and you can fly to Santiago Veraguas faster and without depending on the schedules by Air Panama.

In January, the Fair of the Flowers and Coffee of Boquete and people will be visiting just like pandemics where people behave so much differently when the lockdowns suspended.

So far, the only region restricting the roads blockades is Tierras Altas but it doesn't mean that some people might wake up fancying some chaos.