You know, most people would see this as a stressful situation. Don’t get me wrong, I used to and I did groan pretty badly when I realized there was no turning back after I got on that ramp. What should’ve taken 10 or 15 minutes took almost two hours. I hit it on one of those days where things just didn’t go as planned. However, I found it somewhat entertaining. Now in Panama, it would have been more stressful and I rarely drove there. People make the shoulder into a lane, motorcycles drive in between cars and people cut you off blatantly for no apparent reason. No blinkers, no wave of ‘Thanks’ or ‘May I?’. Horns are liberally used and it’s every man for himself. It is quite stressful to be a part of it all.
So in light of that, I thought it was funny to see this guy blocking someone who wanted to get on the shoulder to make their own lane. He rode it out for as long as he could, too. I get it…people here are actually pretty courteous when it comes to traffic. They let you in when you need to merge, they really don’t honk much and they actually wave when you let them in (most of the time). I can imagine that the blood pressure of the black truck guy, the guy behind him and probably everyone around them was fairly high. I luckily sat a few cars ahead and made the best of it. Kinda cool when a trailer of Maserati’s pull up beside you. 
Before I got into town, I was in the mountains for a while and the trees were just starting to pop, so I went to some orchards to check them out. Camille came into town from N.C. which was great because we hadn’t seen each other in years. We walked around the lake and I showed her the cute salamanders in the pond. Some little girls had some in buckets so we checked them out.
A bird hit the window so I of course had to go pick it up. It recovered after about 15 chilling minutes. I was partially frozen by the time I went in. Of course the bird was fine…cupped in my hands and keeping warm.
So the adventure continues back in the States…more to come soon!
Jeez!!! I thought you were already in Phoenix when I saw all that traffic.
What a lovely week we had together! And please thank your Mom and Ed for their extreme hospitality. I felt like a queen in their beautiful home.
This is the good kind of culture shock – when you realize these first world problems are a piece of cake compared to the discomfort and chaos of the ‘developing’ or better, the ‘unraveling’ world.
It’s great that sitting in traffic didn’t bother you like it might have in the past. Patience and perspective are two side effects from living lower on the ‘hierarchy of needs’ ladder.
Ahhh so true, my friend. You DO learn patience when you go to other countries. What’s the old saying? If you had patience before you left, you’ll lose it…if you didn’t have patience you’ll gain it.