Bussing it across Panama

Our deluxe ride was pretty nice and took plenty long enough, especially for being the express trip! When the bus arrived to the station, we put our luggage underneath and got tags to present to retrieve it later. We had assigned seats and probably watched about 4 movies dubbed into Spanish. One of the only strange things about the experience was our lunch stop at a roadside plaza. It was basically a rest stop for buses, but the food was cafeteria style. It was our first encounter with horchata - a drink made out of milk, rice powder, cinnamon and vanilla. We were stopped by immigration officials and had to present our passports, but overall the trip was pretty uneventful. Especially as we got closer to the city, it was really interesting to see how ... American things became.