Panamanian Mariano Rivera at the height of his career with the New York Yankees.

In this funny article by Eric Boland who covered the Yankees – Marlins games here in Panama, he has a great comparison for traffic in Panama.   “Envision the Cross Bronx Expressway with a lane closed due to an accident. At rush hour. During heavy snow.”  That said, he had nothing but great things to say about the rest of the scene here.

PANAMA CITY — The people here are terrific, as are the sights, scenery and seafood. The Panama Canal is worth the visit alone, as is a trip to old Panama City.

Yankees team president Randy Levine captured it as well as anyone.

“I have to tell you, I’ve never been here and I am completely blown away how magnificent this city is and this country and how wonderful the people are,” Levine said Saturday. “This is really a very, very special place.”

All true.

Just stay off the roads.

The traffic?

Envision the Cross Bronx Expressway with a lane closed due to an accident. At rush hour. During heavy snow.

Rod Carew Stadium is about 5.6 miles from the hotel most media members are staying in. A trip via taxi Friday afternoon from there to the stadium took 40 minutes. The return trip took an hour-twenty.

There were no accidents and certainly no snow.

For tonight’s game, a Saturday, the estimated time for those leaving after 3 p.m. was 60-90 minutes.

The taxi drivers themselves are cautiously aggressive, mostly the latter, which you learn is a necessity in the constant road clog. Passivity doesn’t pay as stop signs are optional as, it seems, are many traffic lights. The rare moment a half-car-length gap opens, if your car doesn’t go for it, one or two others will.

This is for certain: I won’t be complaining about New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Houston traffic ever again.

Or, at least in the near future.