Page 10 - Panama Review

¿HABLAS INGLÉS? (DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?
Going through the immigration checkpoint at the Tocumen International Airport was a
fairly seamless process and well organized, especially for 10:00 pm at night. However,
one of the first signs that indicated that this trip might be a bit more challenging then
we anticipated took place when it was our turn to go to the desk of immigration
checkpoint. This person spoke little to no English. I just chalked it up to the late shift.
The next step was to grab our rental car, which was onsite at the airport and take the
30-minute ride to our hotel, as it said on the hotel website. By this time it was close to
11:00 pm and we are barely holding on. So, we head down to the Avis counter to pick
up the car. My main concern was that the car is an automatic transmission and not a
manual transmission. I have not driven a stick in ages. We head to the desk where at
first there was no one there for about 15 minutes. At first I thought they were closed
and a bit of panic began to set in. My wife, by this point, needed a Snickers candy bar
because she’s not herself when she tired and hungry. Miraculously, the Avis
representative appeared. I politely said to him, “Hello, we’re here to pick up our
vehicle.” As he went to sit in his chair, he began punching numbers in his cell phone
while waving me the wait one-minute signal with his finger. I looked at my wife and
seemingly simultaneously we looked at each other as to say, “Oh no he didn’t! He
hung up the phone and in broken English asked for our last name. We gave it to him
and he went to search for the reservation. By this time, a young lady came through the
automatic airport doors over to the desk dressed in Avis apparel. She and the Avis
attendant began holding a conversation in Spanish. The exchange appeared to be a bit
heated and contentious. Then my wife and I realized that the gentlemen we
encountered first, did not speak English at all out side of a few words like, what is your
name? So, with my vast mastery of the Spanish language, I said to him with great
confidence, “Oh, you don't hablas Ingles, do you, huh? And his female counterpart
said no he doesn’t. We all had a good laugh and the gentleman left through the
automatic doors, presumably to get our vehicle.
Hopefully, what I am about to tell you is not typical of the car rental service at
Tocumen International Airport. Perhaps I can chalk it up to the arrogant Americans
who expects everyone to speak English, or a Panamanian shopkeeper trying to take
advantage of the unsuspecting, trusting, and presumably well-off Americans. The
young lady whom we thought spoke and understood English, really did not know that
much English either. She knew enough to explain the contract terms; however, she
could not explain to us why we had to leave a $10,000 deposit on our credit card to
secure this rental. Yes, $10,000! That woke us up at that point. Evidently, there is a
policy for many of the car rentals to secure a credit card to insure the vehicle against
damages up to $10,000. What this attendant tried to do was to secure the payment for
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