Panama Border Crossing Adventure (Congratulations Costa Rica!!)

Congratulations to Costa Rica and their soccer team for their win today in the World Cup soccer games.  Few thought it was possible for them to win over the teams they have beat.  History has been made, never before has Costa Rica moved so far into the World Cup.  Ticos are jubilant beyond measure, it is wonderful to see their joy and you can just feel their pride bursting forth.  Even up on this mountain we can hear horns blasting in joyous thunder.  Bravo Costa Rica!!!

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!

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.

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!