You know the feeling where you book a trip and aim to do everything and then as the weeks and days inch closer, you’re hounded with the thought of, “Oh shit, are we attempting to do too much?”

That happened to me, just this month, on a trek to Panama. The plan was to overnight in Miami for 4 days, jet to Panama City, spend the afternoon touring the sights before hopping on the fabled 11-hour bus ride through the countryside to beautiful, tropical, mystical Bocas Del Toro, on Panama’s Caribbean coast. Two nights in Bocas, we decided, and then back to Panama City to round out the trip before heading back to Boston and its harrowing cold.

Sounds good? Kind of.

Our flight from Miami was delayed due to fog, then delayed again, and twice more, so we decided heading straight to the bus station in Panama City was at the top of the docket when–and if–we ever left Miami.

We did. With our late arrival to Panama City, we immediately hopped into a taxi ($35) and headed to another airport–Albrook–the city’s secondary airport, bus terminal, and shopping mall. It is, in a word, HELL.