FanStory.com - Take My Own Adviceby Ellen Frank Bayer

It started when I didn’t take my own advice. “Don’t ever hire a guy to drive you if he asks you to hire him. Go straight to the taxi line or call an Uber.” This is in New York.

I was in Panama. I just missed my connecting flight and found out I would have to wait twelve hours for the next flight out. I didn’t want to spend the day in the airport. I did that in Spain once and I couldn’t even go to the gift shops downstairs.

I dragged my suitcase through customs, filled out the right forms, got fingerprinted and had permission to leave the airport. I found a place to check my luggage.

I just finished checking the luggage. This man starts talking to me.

Where do you want to go? I will take you all over Panama for the same price as an Uber back and forth to the airport.

He says: do the math. It’s $40 one way and $40 back. I will charge you $80 for the whole day.

I said ok. He takes me to the parking lot and tells me to wait while he gets his car.

I start to have doubts but I go anyway. I ask him if he is a licensed tour guide. He shows me a badge and I get in the car. I was hot, I was carrying a heavy coat, don’t know why I didn’t check it.

We leave the airport. First stop, the gas station. He asks me for half the money up front. I am starting to realize I made a mistake. I say no, I’ll give you $20, that’s it. The rest you get at the end of the day. He agrees.

I think about calling an uber and leaving the gas station but I don’t even know where I am.

I tell him I want to go the the Museo Biodiversity. He tells me it’s closed.

I tell him it’s open, it says so on their website. He asks me why I don’t want to see the city center. I tell him I’ve already been there and it’s too hot.

He takes me to the museum. I tell him to wait.

I am thinking he will leave but he hangs around and waits.

I tell him I want to go to a kosher restaurant for lunch. He tells me he can’t find it. I tell him to look it up on his phone. The whole ride he is talking in Spanish on his phone but tells me he doesn’t have wifi.

I find it on my phone and give him directions. Along the way he stops at another restaurant. He tells me it’s a beautiful place. I tell him I don’t want to eat there. I want to go to Jeffrey’s Bakery.

He takes me there.

I order lunch for both of us. He spends his time chatting with the waitresses, in Spanish, of course. He takes half his lunch home.

Next stop, I tell him I want to go on a hike. I find a park in trip advisor and tell him to take me.

We go and he lets me go inside and pay for myself. He’ll wait outside. The people in the gift shop tell me I look tired. I shouldn’t go alone. They go outside and look for him. They tell him to walk with me. He listens and soon is taking pictures of me with my camera.

We get back in the car. I tell him I want to return to the airport.

He makes another stop outside a building. “I want to pick up my wife and go shopping. There is a mall near the airport.”

He returns with his wife and his three year old son. He lets his wife drive and sits in the front seat with his son.

I tell him he needs a car seat. He doesn’t think so. I tell him he has to sit in the back seat with his son. He listens to me.

I finally get to the airport. As soon as I get to the airport, he goes back in the front seat with his toddler on his lap.

I don’t look back.

Next time, I will take my own advice.