Our Second Panama Border Crossing
Until we get our cedulas (CR residency
cards) we must leave the country every 90 days to keep our driver's
license and car insurance valid. Immigration says we are good and
don't need to leave since they have approved our applications but
Dept of Motor Vehicles has their own rules. We are closest to Panama
so until we are done building and finances are in order so we can
travel (one of the big reasons we moved here) we go to Panama, it is
easier than anything else. Easier is a relative term, easier than
Nicaragua, easier than flying to Florida for a few days, easier than
a longer trip back to Michigan. But easy it is not.
Under recommendation of several expats
on a facebook group for Southern Zone Costa Rica, we got directions
to go to an quiet border town, Sereno, to cross. When we went to
Paso Canoas 90 days ago, the lines were extremely long, the noise and
diesel fuel overwhelming and it took 3 hours just to get across to
Panama.
Another person on facebook gave very
detailed directions to Sereno but some of her landmarks were no
longer easy to spot. Her café with several “statutes” was closed
and statues gone, the woodworking shop has shrubs all around it and
hard to see any wood furniture but the “big lawn” house was still
there. We did eventually find the road to turn unto for the last leg
of the 4 hour journey. Costa Rica does not have road signs;
addresses have descriptions such as 100 meters north of restaurant
Cusinga, west of the set of 3 palm trees, etc... Really, I am not
kidding.
When we got to Sereno that was the end
of the directions from our facebook pals. We are pretty new to
border crossings and when we went across before, everything was in
one place albeit a crowded one place. We had many stations, rooms
and windows to go to but all in one place. So we start looking for
something similar in Sereno. As we are driving around looking for an
official looking border crossing I spot what I think might be an
official building on another road. We are on a steep incline and
have to turn around. John pulls into a drive and while backing out
slices the side of our front tire on an iron grate. Spisssssss...
Now to find a place where he can change
the tire that is relatively flat. He finds a drive in front of a
business and backs up very carefully so as not to damage our wheel
rim. Two young Tico guys help and make some quick cash. Ticos are
very helpful and would have helped John without payment but we felt
they were deserving of something.
OK back on the road again looking for
the elusive border crossing. We turn down the road where I spotted
a blue building (they like using blue in CR for official buildings)
but it turns out to be a store. We keep slowly driving while I peer
into each building, but they are all stores. I look ahead for a
second, YIKS!! Two guys in military uniforms escorting children
across the street and directing traffic. “STOP JOHN, STOP!! Pull
over! We are in Panama! Oh no, we are in Panama! Oh no!!” It
never dawned on my very intelligent (he really is a near genius on
most things) that Costa Rica has no military so who are these guys in
fatigues?
Panama School Kids working in garden outback. Notice the machetes? EVERYONE has a machete in CR/Panama. They sell them in the grocery stores next to the peanut butter! It was so cute, the boys wanted their pictures taken so much that they kept coming up to us and posing for us. If they only knew they are now on the internet they would be thrilled!
We have been warned not to casually go
over the border without your passport stamped and paperwork filed.
Casually? How does one go over a border casually? I never thought
we could screw that up! Well, in Sereno there are no signs to tell
you where Costa Rica ends and Panama starts. No STOP HERE signs,
(Alto) and since we don't read Spanish well, we didn't know we had
passed the Costa Rica immigration office and Panama's office about a
½ block after that. A half block apart!! Who would have guessed
you walk to one immigration office and for a ½ block you are in
'no man's land' of who knows where to get to the other country's immigration office? Go figure!
'no man's land' of who knows where to get to the other country's immigration office? Go figure!
So John pulls over, gets his passport
and tries to talk to a Spanish speaking military guy. Luckily he was
a nice guy who didn't confiscate our car and send it to the large
city of David with us following on a bus and it costing us hundreds
or more to get it back, probably no sooner than the next day. This
was explained to me as a possible scenario where we had lunch, which
I THINK was on Costa Rican side; don’t really know for sure, no
signs to tell us where we are. Just military guys in uniform
escorting little children across a street and Panama license plates
on vehicles to give us warning we have done something terribly wrong. We didn't have permission to drive our car out of Costa
Rica, we would have needed official papers, inspections, insurance
for Panama and finally a fumigating spray on our car. Taking a car
from CR to Panama is a BIG deal.
We turn around and drive to where we
THINK we should go. Now before you say, “dummies” remember we
are all new to this and this border crossing is so different than
the other CR/Panama crossing that we are doing the best we can. We
end up in the Panamanian office with a guy who can't speak English
any better than we can speak Spanish. We finally figure out we need
to go back to the CR side, and end up at the police station. The
policeman directs us 2 more buildings further away from the Panama
office so off we go.
Panama Street Stores. You can't really see but there are some descent things inside these little stores. We purchased an electric tea kettle for 10 dollars!
Panama uses U.S. dollars as their currency.
Panama uses U.S. dollars as their currency.
We get our passports stamped and
proudly bring back to the Panama guy only to be told we need 2 copies
of each of our passports. Where do we get copies; all the while I
see stacks of copy paper and a printer within arms reach? (Copy
machines and paper in Central America are considered gold. It is
very strange how you can hire a professional to do a job only to have
them tell you where to go down the street to make copies of the work
you just hired them to perform; which has happened to us twice
before.) So off down the street we go to get our copies, maybe it is
his brother at the store that charges for copies! Back to Panama guy
who finally stamps our passports to officially give us permission to
enter Panama, just our bodies, not our car. Whew!
These ladies are dressed in traditional dresses. The lady in red found us while having lunch to ask if I would buy one of her dresses like the one she had on. Sorry, too MuuMuu-ish. Plus they look hot to me. I felt bad telling her no but did tell her that her dress was muy bonito, very pretty.
We do some shopping in the stores along
the road we were just at illegally. We look for a tire but can't
find one the right size, too bad, real cheap prices in Panama! Now
we are going to have to drive on a small spare tire back along a
seriously rocky road for a half hour. Then we have another 3.5 hours
of mountain driving on the spare; not something I look forward to.
Now it is time to leave Panama and
return to our home. After driving through a couple towns looking for
tires, we stop at a service station so John can check the lug nuts.
I go in looking for el bano (restroom) and am greeted by a big stack
of tires. “John!!! Come here, they have tires!!” Within 15
minutes we have the right size tire on our car and the little spare
back in the wheel well. History has been made!! 15 minutes to have
something major done in Costa Rica! “Major” meaning, I wasn't
buying a loaf of bread, we bought and had a tire installed in 15
minutes!! I could have hugged the tire guy!
During our full day of driving through
southern Costa Rica we saw amazing beauty. We drove through adorable
little towns, drove up a mountain where the scenery below showed
towns with the Pacific beyond. We took a different route back that was
along a mountain ridge with miles and miles valleys on each side.
It was a lovely and eventful day that we can look fondly back on.
And also give tips to newbies going across the Sereno border!
