We finally have some news from Debora and Patrick.
Nowadays crossing borders has become a common activity, therefore we will skip it and go straight to David, the city where they rested their first night in Panama.
As they got to David they searched for a place to stay. Amongst hotels, motels, hostels, streets and parking lots, they decided to stay in a covered and free parking lot at a plaza located by the main highway that crosses the city. They parked, fixed the bed in the back of the car and went to watch "Dinner with Idiots" in the movie theater, which included popcorn and all.
The following day they got up early and went to a romantic small town in the mountains called Boquete. Nearby there were hot springs that cost US$ 2.00 per person. The owner is a very kind man that raises animals, including dancing horses that he trains to entertain visitors willing to pay a little extra. Pat was fortunate to see the famous crazy monkey that lives there.
After the hot springs they went to Almirante from where water taxis (US$ 4.00) leave to Bocas de Toro and neighboring islands. They arrived to Almirante at dusk and decided to stay at a hotel since the town didn't seem very friendly for car sleeping. Early they left to Bocas del Toro where they walked around and paid US$ 20.00 to take a tour with local guides. It included snorkeling, dolphin sightseeing and a visit to Bastimentos island. The next morning they left the hotel and reached the city of Santiago to stay the night.
According to Pat, the geographic point that comes closest to being the mid point between the beginning and end of the trip, thus, the mid point between San Diego USA and Sao Paulo Brazil is Pedasi. For that reason they paid the area a visit. The beaches weren't looking so good, but the rainy weather that had persisted through the previous days must be taken into consideration. The best beach in their opinion was Distiladeros because it was sandy and had big waves for surfing.
Next rest stop was La Chorrera. Because it was a big city it took them a while to find a nice place to sleep in the car. They managed to find a good looking residencial area and stayed there.
From La Chorrera it was a short ride to Panama city where they arrived at 8 a.m.. The plan was to have all day to search prices for car shipment from Colon to Cartagena, Colombia, which was vigorously accomplished. They chose ROZO & CO to ship the car because they were the cheapest and had departures that same week. Sharing a container with another car would reduce about US$ 400.00 of the costs, so they got organized to be able to make the procedures with another couple (Lacey and Luiz) that was doing a similar trip.
Colon (the port town from which the cars would be transported to Colombia) was flooded due to that crazy rainy week. It caused traffic, and worst of all the failure of the customs computer system. It started working around 3 p.m.. From there they would have to go to the port where more customs procedures and loading of the car would be done. They arrived there by 3:25 p.m. where the travelers waited for the Mario Patinho Corretaje de Aduana representative they had hired to do his job. When he came back with the paperwork ready, they left to the vehicle inspection department. After the inspection with dogs, photos, etc, the only thing to do was to load the cars into the container. However, the Mario Patino Corretaje de Aduana representative had forgotten to require passes in order for Pat and Luiz to drive their cars inside the shipping and loading section and personally load the cars into the container.
The office that delivered the passes had already been closed for at least 30 minutes which almost cause general panic. After Debora and Luiz's reluctancy to give up, an employee called the pass office to verify if there was any possibility that the drivers could still get passes. Everything was solved thanks to the generosity of the port employees who were very understanding and worked almost 2 extra hours to help the travelers.
Cars loaded and locked in the container, all that was left was to go back to Panama City to fly to Cartagena.
The holidays result in raising price for everything so they had to pay more than twice as much for an air ticket compared to other times of the year.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
P.S.1: for more entertaining details on our Panama/Colombia car shipping experience check out Lacey and Luiz's webpage http://lostworldexpedition.com/Updates/
P.S.2: the editor was somewhat drunk so this posting may not be so good
TRICKS
- Don't start writing a blog, pictures are enough.
- Avoid transactions like shipping cars or flying near holidays because everything closes, gets crowded and/or more expensive.
TROUBLES
- Floods
- Flight tickets over twice as expensive as foreseen.
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