While it sounds expensive, I am surprised it did not cost more. Here is the accounting, in fine print of course!
President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry both spent two days in April at the Summit of the Americas in Panama, but hotels and transportation for the entire delegation for the conference topped $1.4 million. An estimated total of 3,889 room nights were split between two hotels: the Intercontinental Playa Bonita and the Westin Playa Bonita.
Panama is not a large country (a little smaller than South Carolina in square miles), but still the cost of vehicles for local transportation for the delegation came to an estimated $550,309.
These vans, buses, trucks, sedans and SUVs are in addition to vehicles flown in by the Secret Service for President Obama who uses only the presidential armored vehicles wherever he travels.