Panama City - 4 year or 7 year?

It’s Tuesday March 6, and we’re in the offices of Barwil Agencies, ready to pay them and get the final paperwork for shipping the car. At Barwil we have run into Doris and Harry, the Germans who traveled from Nova Scotia to Alaska, then south to Guatemala (we met them camped by the side of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala and see them every other week it seems). They unfortunately have to ship their car home, because it has too many broken springs to continue their holiday in South America. Yes, the roads are THAT bad here! We all spent the morning going from police office to Secretary General and back and then to the customs office, and now we have all the paperwork that we need. It wasn’t so terrible, less than three hours and I even got to sign for Harry and Dorris’ car as there was some mistake and they had already moved on to the next step. Never mind that my signature doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with them leaving the country, there were LOTS of stamps to make it all OK. We are getting used to navigating Panama City (rather, Douglas is getting used to it – I seem to have a strange unconscious fascination with crossing La Puente de las Americas, the bridge across the canal, even when it’s not really on our way…), and have found two good places to sleep. Finding spots to sleep in the city can be really tricky. Not all the hotels have parking spaces, hotels being our standby up north, and even when they do, they’re inevitably tiny and we are cramped. We spent the first night at the National Park 20 km north of the city, right next to the ranger station, very tranquil, thank you Lucas. We even saw a HUGE toucan in the morning. When I asked the ranger what they eat he said, rice, bread, vegetables, whatever they had left over, not the answer I was expecting. Last night we slept at the Balboa Yacht Club, out on the prosperous western edge of the city, also very tranquil with a great view of the Canal. Kim wondered where all the fancy yachts were, and on my daily bike ride, I found them. Out beyond the Smithsonian Tropical Studies buildings and dock there were many, very bling boats. The ride was great, the wind coming off the Pacific was pushing me at mach speed on the way out and gave me a great workout on the wonderful boardwalk on the way back.

Panama City is a great city, completely out of place down here. The buildings are (mostly) all new and incredibly tall. And everyone is super friendly. Driving here is sorta like pushing your way into a concert, except in cars. Everyone jostles along and it all works out, and of course there's a cacophony of horns.

You are no doubt wondering about the title. At the grocery store tonight, we were wondering down an isle and lo and behold, they're sampling the yummy Nicaraguan Rum, Flor de Cana! I was asked whether I wanted the 4 year or the 7 year, of course I had to try both. Yum:)

Well, we have to stuff the car early tomorrow on the other side of the continent. Wow, what a great sentence. Yes, it does seem like the official term for putting your car into a container is stuffing, and I hope it’s not that tight of a fit! And yes we’re going to drive across the continent for a 9 am meeting! I was planning on riding my bike to the port, a 70km jaunt, but the timing is not going to allow it . But how cool would that be, riding your bike from the Pacific to the Atlantic, all before lunch!

We are going to ‘stuff’ the car, and if we’re lucky, catch a flight to San Jose, see the dentist, and then continue on to Quito, Ecuador. So, in all likelihood, the next post will be from a different continent, YEAH!!! (I wish I could make that blink in neon like the good ol day’s of the web (not as much a technical issue as sympathy for you, my reader:)).