Since our residency has been held up
for 19 months now, we still need to leave the country every 90 days
to keep our driver's licenses and car insurance valid. According to
immigration we have been excepted into their system but the arm of
the government that controls motor vehicles sees things different
than immigration. Panama is only a 3 hour drive south of where we
live in the Southern Zone of Costa Rica so naturally we choose Panama
for border runs. The northern border is Nicaragua and many people
visit that country but for us that would be too many hours away.
Similar to Costa Rica, Panama has something blooming all the time.
Bougainvillea are incredibly common.
During our other Panama border runs we walked over
the border, just stayed for a few hours and then came back. But we
wanted to see some of Panama and do some duty free shopping in the
city of David. Great shopping and lower prices than here; we can
each bring back $500.00 of goods duty free. Panama uses US dollars
as currency and it was funny when we got back my mind thought
something so very odd, “Oh, we can stop using those dollars now and
go back to common currency.” How very strange for me to briefly
think that. Obviously I have become comfortable with colones, Costa
Rica's currency.
In order to take a car out of Costa Rica you must apply for permission beforehand so the week before we stand in a long line to get this special paper, Check. Then at the border we check out and then go to another building to check our car out, Check. Now off to Panama. Check into Panama, hand the guy all the car paperwork along with our passports and immigration papers, Check. We get all our paperwork handed back to us and the agent says we are good to go.
After finally getting across the border we had a long drive through mountains without much in directions and no GPS or Waze on a phone. We don't have phone service to use Waze because we can't find the right SIM card in the little mountain towns. So we guess our way through the mountains to the Calderas with a paper map, matching up what we see with the squiggles on the map and no road signs. Getting lost isn't hard, Panama has very little in road signs; seems to be a common theme in Central America. After getting detained by the military for a traffic stop for about 20 minutes and then getting lost a bit we finally arrive at the B&B after dark but just in time for dinner put on by our hosts. Nice!
We stayed at a B&B in the Caldera mountains; lovely views with mountains a bit lower than those in Costa Rica and where we live. We had a great stay with an older couple and their visiting adult daughters. Their daughters are 30 & 26, both are US citizens, but they have chosen to live in the tropics on a 65 foot sailboat, chartering vacationers around the warm waters of Central America. It was all very interesting. Glad we got to hear every one's stories and see a beautiful area of Panama.
Cows and Horses were the welcoming committee at the B&B we stayed at in the Calderas.
Sunset mountain view at the B&B
Views from B&B veranda
Our first full day at the B&B we went sight seeing in
Boquete. Boquete is a town set in a mountain valley; made popular by
International Living and AARP naming it as a top Expat retirement
city. It reminded me of a tourist area in the US; very cute, lots of
boutiques, restaurants and other tourist type businesses. As we sat
at a restaurant, I could see Gringo after Gringo drive by, very
obvious to spot Gringos.
Bouqete...a lovely mountain town in Panama, very popular with Expats.
Sights driving through the mountains of Bouqete.
House is abandon but still has beauty that just beckons for a picture.
Strange rock formation, popular with the locals for a family outing to climb the rock wall.
Farming on a mountain side, very typical in Panama and Costa Rica.
They do an amazing job carving out areas to farm.
Amaryllis are common, growing in borders all over the place, in many colors and sizes.
Our third day was set aside for
shopping. Pretty cool shopping in Panama's city of David, especially
after living in CR for 1 ½ years. One 'Do-It' Hardware was so huge and
extensive it was like a major department store! Nothing like that
around here in the Southern Zone of CR, even in the bigger city of San Isidro. One must go up
north to Central Valley in Costa Rica to see those types of stores.
Now for our trip back across the border
to get back home. We get up early on our 4th day and get a great start. After driving for almost 2 hours, we get
stopped by the first check point as we approach the border. Oh Boy!
We are missing a paper, it was supposed to be issued by the Panama
immigration agent when we first crossed the border into Panama. After waiting 2 hours on the side of the road, we
are introduced to a police officer who was sent to pick us up and
drive us all the way back to David and impound our car with an
appointment for the next morning to review our case. This is not
looking good at all. We have heard crossing the border without the
proper paperwork can be very costly in not only money but can take
weeks to get your car back. One case we heard of the guy had to hire
an attorney and didn't get his car for almost a month.
So our car goes through the gate, the
police officer allows us to take out our suitcases when I say,
“Ropa?” and pull on my clothes, and shows us to the gate.
What?!?! John and I don't know where we are, we don't even know how
to flag down a taxi (well, I have seen it done in movies, we truly
are country people who always drive their own car.) If we were to stop a
taxi not only can we not speak Spanish very well but we don't even know where
to tell the driver to take us! But we have a very nice
policeman who takes pity on us. I point to him and make a motion
of him driving our car (pretend stirring wheel pantomime), he smiles
and says, “Si”. He drives our car and takes us to a decent hotel
and even goes to the front desk for us. Then he tells us he will come
back for us at 8am in the morning. Whew! This is good because we
have no idea where we are supposed to be for this morning
appointment.
Our car in Jail.
The impound lot in Panama.
The policemen arrives at the hotel at
7:40am, we get a call from the front desk that the police are there for
us (that is a very strange statement to us “never been arrested in
my whole life” people) and when I see the officer at the front desk
I give him a hug. I can't tell you how relived we are to see him
because we couldn't get a single piece of paper as proof that they
impounded our car and all its contents from our shopping spree in David. Surprisingly we did sleep that night but it still was a
relief to see that guy!
BUT...it took almost 8 hours to process
our paperwork! I think that long wait is part of our punishment,
along with having to sit in a 62 degree over air-conditioned room as torture. Finally as their
workday comes to a close they have our little bit of paperwork
completed and we get to pay a $250.00 fine and other legal costs. We politely argue this
isn't fair, their agent said we were good to go and sent us on our
way, we clearly don't know all the paperwork we should have received,
blah blah blah, and finally just pay it so we can go home! We now know what paperwork we were missing and it won't happen again. And if any you out there need help so this doesn't happen to you, just drop me a line.
micasamontana@gmail.com
After waiting another half hour to get
our car key we are sprung! Yahoo!
And when we finally get across the
Costa Rica border, a triple Yahoo! We are home baby! Well, we still
have 3 hours of driving ahead of us but we are HOME!! Oh what a
relief it is!
BTW...as we are driving and I am
feeling 'Gee, I want to be home so bad I don't think I even want to
go to the farmers market this week', John informs me we will be going
back in 6 months...he really liked the shopping! Who are you and where did you put my husband?!
