Problemas en Portobelo

There are always those times when you may just surprise yourself. For me, yesterday afternoon was one of those instances. I met up with a group to go to visit the fortress and town of Portobelo. Winding roads brought us to this quaint town, but I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect; but I would describe it as a modest, run-down town that recently experienced some natural disaster. There was mudslide that took out a few homes and the fortress had seriously eroded since its glory days. Erosion was very obvious in this town that hugged the Panamanian (Atlantic) coastline. The history is, however, the greatest contributor to this area’s charm. A charming museum and church added to the town’s prestige and acted as highlights to the area that we explored. The tour felt a bit rushed, which I’ll explain that in a moment how I came to surprise myself.

So we were offered a taxi ride to Portobelo that would cost $15 per person round trip. (It’s very important to negotiate a price before you get in the taxi.) We were brought through the car by a bunch of middlemen when we were introduced to a female, Spanish-speaking taxi driver. We go into her mini-van when we were also introduced to her brother. Everything was good and dandy. Her brother, Eddie, started to go through the history with us. Understanding pieces of the Spanish conversation between the two, I knew he was translating what the driver was saying into English. In between he was very personable, asking us questions and telling us about his family, but mostly he boasted about his extraordinary talents as a tour guide. After a while in the van, we arrived at Portobelo. Eddie kept close tabs on us, while the driver remained at the car. In retrospect, I noticed some peculiarities about his behavior when another tour group (full of SAS students and faculty) arrived. He started to get antsy and was nagging us to go move on to the next part of the tour. This happened at the first fortress. We drove directly to the second one. Eddie brought us into a museum ignoring the person at the front desk (admission was $3). He told us to look around, but before we left, he told us we had to pay a dollar to get into the museum. He then brought us to another part of the museum where we watched a movie. Eddie tried to let the question slide when I asked if we were going to have to pay for the movie, telling me “not to worry.“ For anyone who doesn’t know me well enough, telling me to relax will typically only agitate me.

After the museum, we saw the second fortress, which was in much better condition than the first (because it had been directly under the mercy of the mudslide). We took a few pictures, but I felt like we had no more than five minutes, where I would have liked to maybe walk around the entire thing. We concluded the tour at a church. Eddie continually made incoherent comments such as “I’m not supposed to be bringing you guys here,“ or “that’s usually a part of another tour, but I’ll show you guys anyway.“ We got into the mini-van after a few minutes at this church, which possessed a very extravagant robe involving a story about a black Jesus from the 1600s. Sorry, but details of the story are a bit vague to me now. Eddie asked if we wanted any water or soda, but never encouraged us to look at the unique shops and stands that were sprinkled around the main street (which we, by the way, never walked down.)
We got back into the car and headed back to Colón. Eddie mentioned to us on the way back, that he usually charges $100 for tours like the ones he gave us, but he liked us, so it would only be $60. Our group looked perplexed and we understood it as a joke, especially since he wasn’t a great tour guide; he failed to (directly) answer some of our questions or just translated the answer from the driver. Eddie offered to take us somewhere else, so we opted to visit the Duty-Free Zone, which is a gated shopping center that sells products at wholesale rates. This area was the only place deemed to be safe in Colón, and we were encouraged to stay on the ship, but only to venture to the duty-free zone (which is why many people spent the night in Panama City.)

Our group decided that we would each pay $20 for the tour, which totalled in a $25 tip to go towards the driver and Eddie. When we arrived at the free zone (and had to tell them to let us out immediately because we said we just wanted to explore), two girls decided they wanted to be brought to the ship, and the two others and myself paid them then. Eddie took our money and glanced at the rest of the money remaining in the two girls’ hands. He, then, got out of the car, demanding that we pay the $75 for his sister. Well, I wasn’t having any of it. Refusing to be a push-over, I said “no,“ which sent him in to a tailspin. Eddie turned into this monster-like entity that started causing a big scene in the Free Zone. The driver had the van stopped and was yelling and blocking traffic. The argument attracted many people on the street, including a police officer, and of course the horns from the cars that were stuck behind the van added the drama. I refused to give him any additional money, so he was quite livid with me for not sufficiently paying for his services. I did my best to stick to the original agreement.

Eddie and the driver moved the van, and by this time the two girls, who planned on going to the ship, got out in fear for their safety. Eddie came back and continued to demand an additional $20 from me (the other two had already given him an additional $20 each). I said I could give him $15, but he said that someone else would need to cover the extra five dollars, which we weren’t willing to do. I pulled out my wallet and gave him $10, which I even regret. Another bystander intervened saying that we did not owe him anymore money. Our group went in one direction, while him and the driver went in the other.
We went into a few shops, but everyone just wanted to return to the ship after that incident. We were also quite worried if Eddie was going to confront us on the way back to the ship, and God would only know what he would bring as “back-up.“ We got to the port safely and spoke with the boss, who originally offered us the taxi. We explained to him what happened that Eddie had tried to scam us. He mentioned we should have only paid the total of $75 and it should have ended then and there. But he called Eddie and I have never seen someone catch some many people’s attention so quickly. This took place just before the walkway to get back onto the ship, so many SAS members witnessed the scene in passing. We were then asked left and right by people that worked at the port and other tour guides. A mixture of Spanish and English was bombarding us. With the strongest Spanish, I received the brunt of the questions. They tried to get Eddie to come back and give us the money, but he was too chicken. The driver returned and explained her side. She is a church sister, who had hired Eddie as an interpreter, and she had paid him $15 as well. The only money we did get back was $10 from the driver, who ended up being scammed by this ath-hole too. Turns out that the driver and Eddie were not siblings. The driver did not understand the argument that went on in the Duty-Free Zone.

The incident intensified as the Port Police, as well as the Panamanian police were called. I was being questioned about the incident in both Spanish and English and ended up printing out a picture of the con-artist. The police wanted us to go to the station and file a police report. Since time was not abundant, we could not go, although the questioning and discussion, which had gotten the Dean involved at this time, lasted over 2 hours. Although charges won’t be brought against this man, virtually every person in the port will hear what he did...and we can only hope for social justice. Although my heart goes out to such a desperate person. We ended up losing a total of $40, where ten of it was from me. The evening ended up being so stressful, (where I did fear for my life at times, not knowing if Eddie would come back (potentially with a weapon) that I sought some counseling to get over the initial shock of the situation.
Despite the lazy tour guide, the broken-down taxi, and con-artist, I feel like I can take something away from my experiences in Panamá. Although I didn’t expect something like this to happen, it’s very important to keep everything in perspective, and I was not afraid to defend myself when someone wanted me to do something that I didn’t agree to. Many people apologized on behalf of the Panamanian people because they don’t want a bad reputation. I heard of some other great experiences in Panama, and many people were also very kind and helpful to me. I’m doing my best to not allow Eddie to shadow over the other good people in Panama. They take great pride in their country, which is growing quite rapidly. But I know these experiences happened for a reason, and I learned something about myself. I can trust my gut and confrontation doesn’t deter me from doing what I feel is right. I also try to put a positive spin on things.

Today is a day at sea, where I plan on relaxing and I have already caught up on some lost sleep. Costa Rica is tomorrow, and I’ve heard some great things about it already! (knock on wood).

¡Hasta luego!
Matt

P.S.
1. I meant ’wiggle room’ instead of “wiggle-round“ in the previous blog entry.
2. When I was told about a new 4-lane Trans-Panamanian highway, I thought it meant four lanes in each direction. Turns out it was only 2 lanes in each direction. I also found it funny that the highway help number is 800-AYUDA (which is 800-HELP if it were in English).
3. In Panama, they use the Balboa, which is constantly at the same exchange rate as the US Dollar, so I only had to use US Dollars in Panamá.