Day 45 Panama City Mercado and the Fiesta Bus

Jan. 31 Fruit market & party bus
We wanted to get more provisions for the next couple legs and had heard the local farmers market was the place for fresh fruit and veg. we flagged down a taxi and it was our lucky day; Roosevelt, the driver spoke perfect English having served in the US army, and agreed to drive us around for $10 an hour. The first stop was the market where trucks and tables were loaded with everything imaginable; it was all well organized too with different items all in their own sections. You could smell the pineapples just walking buy and Dan bought a 30 pound bag of oranges for just $5. Roosevelt hauled our bags back to the taxi as we made our selections and being the prices were ridiculously cheap we bought a lot of stuff.

A wide variety of locally grown veg was available, most for $1 or so a pound


Bins of fresh sweet corn

They needed a special transformer for the boat, to go from 110 v to 220 v; our man knew just the place to find one, a small shop in a rundown building I a dodgy part of town. We made a quick stop at the grocery store and soon the trunk of the compact cab was filled to the brim. It took multiple dingy trips to deliver everything to Skyelark and again it was all squirreled away in the few spaces left.
The world cruising club organized a party bus for the evening; it was a converted “Red Devil” bus with seats along the outer walls, a bar and sound system and a dance floor complete with a stripper pole. I had strained my back earlier in the day and was almost going to pass on the excursion but decided to give it a go. Good thing I did, because it was a blast and between the rum and the dancing my back loosened up a little.

The Fiesta Bus

That party bus was probably the worst night of my life. It was so loud, my ears were still ringing 3 days later. I seriously thought my hearing had been permanently damaged.

When we saw the size of the speakers we sat in the middle of the bus, but loved it, I rated it 11 on a scale of 1 to 10