I’ve live around David (DahVEED) Panama for nearly six years and I’m STILL trying to figure my way around here. Not having a car I naturally depend on the buses (very good) and the taxis (ubiquitous) to get around. When someone else is always doing the driving, and you’re always going on the same route you don’t pay much attention to where you are.
Yesterday I wanted to go check out a Home Depot-type place in David called Cochez which was advertising some styrofoam-type 2’X4’X5/8″ drop ceiling tiles at a cheap price that might be used as flotation for the shanty boat barge I’d like to build, and then do some shopping at the Romero market in San Mateo. The yellow stick pin (left center) marks the beginning of red line in the pic where the bus turns off the Inter American Hwy. to go into town and shows where I go shopping at Romero. It also shows the Cochez store (upper center). I had to take a taxi from the stand at Las Brisa to Cochez ($1.25).
The guy at Cochez said they were practically out of the tiles and he didn’t know if they were planning to get more in, and if they DID, they certainly wouldn’t be that cheap the next time. He told me that THEY actually ordered the tiles from a place called PREMIUM CENTER, and that I should try there.
So I went out into the heat of the day and flagged down a taxi to take me to Premium Center.
It couldn’t have been very far away because it was also just a buck and a quarter fare. I saw the stuff they had and found out that the amount that I’d need to float a good-sized pontoon boat would cost me less than $400.
At this point, though, I’m thoroughly lost. I don’t have a clue where I am, but my hips are aching like crazy so I decide to postpone shopping until today (Friday) and I flag down another cab to take me to the local KFC (sometimes, when you’re living in foreign country you get these strange gustatory cravings that can’t be explained or ignored). Besides, it was near an area I knew and could reorient myself geographically.
While the sheets that Premium Center had in stock could be adapted to what I want to do there are naturally a lot of questions that you remember to ask when you’re sitting on the bus on the way back home. So I decided to go back to Premium Center and ask more questions. But before I went I looked on line to see where they were located in relation to Romero so I could do my shopping before the weekend. Guess what???
They’re a lousy FIVE AND A HALF BLOCKS APART!!!
Live and learn.
One More Good Adventure 
Reminds me of the time I spent the entire night going around the Beltway in Maryland. I saw the same bridge over the Chesapeake Bay at least 5 times before it dawned on me that something was definitely wrong. A whole tank of gas could have been saved if I had a map.