The Last Miles in Central America

Timon van den Berg
Mar 2, 2019
12 min read

The countries are definitely more western since we left Nica. Costa Rica was a nature treat, well set-up for western tourist. We both really enjoyed it. Now it was time for Panama, where we would spend a great amount of time on getting our car shipped from Colon to Colombia, celebrate new year, our 4 year marriage anniversary and of course Christmas. But first, as always, we had to cross the border. The Costa Rica side was smooth, they are used to larger amount of tourists, and also often deal with rental cars. So, the process was quite easy. You would expect the same thing on the Panamanian side, but unfortunately we faced an additional obligatory challenge, called car insurance. The first office we went to had software issues and was unable to service us. The second office we visited was operational, or at least as operational as it could be. The women who was helping us, was enjoying here first day in the office and she was left alone with completely zero knowledge of the processes. All the communication with her superior was done via WhatsApp, since he or she was located somewhere else. After waiting in the office for hours, Hester decided to take over the computer and to print out the insurance documents ourselves. The lady was ok with it, as long as we would explain her how it worked. I guess this is the world upside down, but ok we don’t have much else to do. Four hours after arriving at the border we left with all the papers in order. Luckily we paid a helper to cycle down the street and pay for our road tax, since that office was closed during the afternoon and that would have meant waiting another hour and a half.

Our end goal for that day was Bocas del Torres. From where we would take a ferry to an island called Bastimento. Our hostel was located there, in the middle of the jungle, close to the popular Red Frog Beach. The beach is named after, as you can imagine, the red frog :-) that lives on the island. From the border to the harbor was a smooth ride, it’s the road most tourists drive, who combine a visit to both Costa Rica and Panama. We were actually happy we figured out the paperwork for the insurance, because on this short drive all our documents where checked twice at local police stops. When we arrived at the harbor, we noticed that we could actually bring the car if we wanted, but we decided to leave our car in the parking lot for the next three days, and enjoy the small island by foot and ferry. The first boat brought us to Bocas and from there we took another small boat to Red Frog. From the docks at Red Frog it was a small hike through the jungle to reach our hostel. The location was perfect with a pool, restaurant and billiard and only 5 minutes from the beach. Unfortunately the room we got wasn’t that nice, it was full of moist. It's the first time in my live I complained about the quality of a hotel room and luckily they agreed and switched us to another room. I understand it’s wet in the jungle, and moist is an issue, but a completely black sealing is a little too much.

Our first day on the island was a relaxing day. We enjoyed some time at the tropical beach until the rain started falling. The evening we arrived, we started our own billiard competition and Hester was leading. :-( But since it was our wedding anniversary, I decided I was ok with it. Instead of eating at the hostel, we decided to go to the Beach Club on the island. Slightly more upscale, we enjoyed a nice steak to celebrate. Despite the fact that the waiter gave our food to the wrong table, we had an amazing dinner at the infinity pool of the Beach Club. After dinner, we decided to go on a small jungle night safari set-up by ourselves. We didn't see much, but the experience of only having our phone flashlights and the jungle sounds was nice.

The next morning I received a message from our container buddies with who we intent to share the sea container to ship our cars from Colon to Cartagena. They damaged their car beyond repair, and were going to leave it behind in Costa Rica. Very unfortunate for them of course, but also for us. It meant that we had to find new buddies. It’s doable by yourself, but you can save up to 600 - 700 usd if you share a container. So this meant for us that we had to go back on the forums to find ourselves a new shipping buddy.

The second day in Bocas, we scheduled some dives. Our initial intention was to do this on our anniversary, but unfortunately they didn’t have anymore availability that day. Around Christmas it’s pretty busy in this region, and especially Bocas is full with tourists. Around noon we arrived at the dive center. First we had to familiarize ourselves again with what we just had learned a couple months ago in Playa del Carmen. Luckily for us, the diving world is a very friendly world, and the guides were very helpful in getting us back up to speed. The thing I learned here was that not everyone has the exact same technique to prepare the gear. But anyway, we managed. In the afternoon we did two dives of +/- 45 minutes. For us everything is still pretty new. Where others are able to enjoy it for the full 100%, we are still figuring out how to keep our buoyancy. Since our skill level is limited, we currently still use more air then the more professional divers. So after 45 min we had to go up, because I reached my minimum air level, and Hester was also getting close. Another diver, for whom it was his 256th dive, still had half of his air left. During the dive we swum next to a sunken yacht and saw a couple of nicely colored fish. During the second dive Hester and I both improved our air consumption, and we stayed down for about 55 minutes. In terms of scenery, the second dive was also way better, we saw a lot of coral and colorful fish, most special was an enormous crab, really cool. It surprises me how tired you get from diving. It looks so calm and easy, but it's pretty tiring.

After three nights it was already time to go. We left Red Frog with the first boat around 7am in the morning. The trip to Panama was 450km and we wanted to get close, since our car was scheduled for service at the VW dealer on Monday. When we arrived at the parking, we found our car completely blocked by other cars, but the owner of the lot didn’t look concerned. What I didn’t know was that he kept all the keys of the cars that blocked us, so it only took us a little more time, but he was able to get us out. The first 150km of the route was through the mountains, a really nice route, but also very tricky due to the unexpected potholes and fog. About 100 km in, a police officer pulls us over claiming we drove 50 km to fast. I must have for sure missed the sign with the speed limit, and I guess I might have driven a little faster then allowed, but 50 km to fast is a lot. After sharing a couple words with the officer, he decided to let us go. I guess the fact that we were coming from the Netherlands was to complicated for him, and behind me was another driver who drove with the same speed as I did. Continuing our route and being really focused on the signs, we are pulled over again. The officer was right, I did drive too fast. But, who builds a 350 km long highway, with two lanes, and with a maximum speed of 80km? When we rolled our window down the game started. He took my driving license, and spend a decent amount of time checking it out. After a couple minutes he came back and tells me in broken English whether I don’t want a ticket? Uh, well if it’s possible not to get a ticket, then yes please. And there is where it went wrong, the officer decides to ask us for 150USD. In a couple seconds, Hester and I decide not to take the bribe and try our luck paying this ticket in the city. The officer was slightly pissed that we didn’t take his bribe, and he send us away with a ticket. In the next 200 km I guess we pass roughly 40 officers equipped with a laser gun. We decided to spend the night in a town called playa blanca. Nothing special here, mainly large all inclusive hotels where people from Europe and the more wealthy local panamanians spent their vacation. That night we decided to go for a quick bite on the beach. Since the beach was mainly occupied by large hotels, it was actually complicated to find a restaurant. At some point we found a place that would allow us to have dinner. Most of the hotel restaurants where fully booked, since it was in a weekend during the beginning of the christmas vacation. The meal we had was great, but then when we wanted to pay we asked for the bill and the lady asked us “are you not staying in the hotel?” Uh, no we aren’t staying in the hotel. Oh, well this is an all inclusive hotel restaurant only for people staying in the hotel. So, how and where do we pay? Looking at her boss, who was also not to sure what to do now, they decided to thank us for coming and just quietly leave without actually paying. Well, if you say so ;-)!

The next day we had a short drive to Panama City. I have to say it was pretty impressive. We crossed the bridge over the Panama Canal, which gave us a great view on the Mirador Locks. But an even greater view at the Panama Skyline. After 4 months in Central America and seeing our last serious buildings in Mexico City, it was good to know there is more than just 2 level buildings.

The whole time during our stay in Panama City, it was very hot during the day. So we mainly went out in the early morning and in the late evening. Our first order of business was bringing the car to the dealer. This process was really smooth, since we had been in contact with him during our trip, so he was expecting the car. We also found new container buddies, so we could actually save ourselves some money on the crossing. The first couple days in Panama we spend relaxing and mainly watching Netflix in the AC. We did some minor trips to the mall, but nothing special. After two days our car was again good to go and we decided to visit the Panama Canal at the Mirador Locks and Museum. Just a brief tip, don’t go in the early afternoon since then there are basically no boats going through the channel. When we visited the canal there were quite a couple boats going through both the old and the new locks. Really special to see, and also impressive to know that one boat will pay at least 300k USD to cross the canal, so it's pretty expensive. But as we learned in the museum, it's well worth the money, since sailing around South America would cost way more money.

Panama is a city with two faces, you have the high buildings in the new downtown, although I would not really call it downtown since it's pretty quiet there. But, on the other side you have the historic city, with some older buildings and nice restaurants. To get to the old town you do need to cross through a real creepy part of town, which didn't feel really safe, but during the day it was ok. If we’re really being honest, there’s even a third side of Panama City, the messy outskirts of the city. We saw a few glimpses of these parts from outside of our car. It’s old, messy and unsafe, and we didn’t visit these parts of the city.

Prior to shipping the car out, I wanted to be sure I paid my speeding ticket. We would spend quite some money on the whole shipping process, and it would be a shame if that would go wrong due to an outstanding speeding ticket. So one morning we took off to the office were we’ve been told you could pay your speeding ticket. After a serious walk we arrived at the office, where a lady told us that we wouldn't be allowed in. This office is a government building and you are only allowed to access it with long pants, but, since it was 35 degrees we both were not wearing long pants. Obviously frustrated, I kindly suggested to the lady that I had no intention of coming back to pay for the ticket. I read online that many people had received speeding tickets here, and nobody paid for them and they had no problems shipping out their cars. Anyway, we think you should adapt to the local standards of the country you’re visiting, so we decided to try and pay for the ticket. But, now with this additional hassle my intentions and willingness of actually getting it paid were decreasing by the second. I guess the lady at the door understood my point, and so asked me to wait a minute. After a brief discussion with a coworker she decided to let me in. Hester had to wait outside, in her mini shorts. For the lady behind the counter it was a challenge to find my ticket, since it was not registered in the system on the number she was expecting it would have been registered under, but in the end it worked out. I paid 50 USD. So not 150 USD, and received a nice confirmation of the payment being received.

Then the day came we had to prepare our car for the crossing. At 7 in the morning we had to arrive at a police office to get our car checked. Basically, what they wanted to know is whether it's really your car which you are exporting. When he did the check, he told us to come back in the afternoon to pick up the approvement documents to proceed with the export of our car to Colombia. At the parking lot, we also met our shipping buddies for the first time. Jen from Swiss and Morgan from Australia. Besides us, there were also 2 Chinese cars and another American car who were planning to start the process. Actually despite all the stories, the process was pretty smooth. The only downside is all the waiting you need to do to get the papers sorted out.

The next day we drove to Colon, from where we would actually ship the car. It's a short 1 hour drive (if you don't forget to switch your navigation from avoid toll roads to allow toll roads), but anyway we made it. Although there’s the Panama Canal, there isn't a lot of container activity. Most of the boats just sail through the canal, but they don't really stop at the port of either Panama City or Colon. They guy who helps us out with the process was named Boris, but his father was actually the one picking us up and helping us load the containers. By using a tow truck, our cars were lifted into the container. Which to me was a crazy process, since it was very complicated and took a lot of time. Around 11 AM the containers were loaded, and Boris his father took us to the customs office, where Boris took over from his dad. After signing a couple documents (no clue what they were for) and paying for the process we were good to go. Boris didn't want to bring us all the way to the bus station since he thought it was too criminal. So instead, we took a taxi for the last kilometer. To be honest, the bus station indeed wasn't really the place to be for tourists. Soon we found our bus and an hour later we were back in the City. It was a strange feeling not to have the car anymore. It had been our home for the past 6 months, and now we were traveling by bus and on foot.

The last days in Panama we relaxed quite a bit. We did a cycle tour around the old town and visited the place where the Spanish, when they arrived initially, build a town. The cycle tour was actually funny/dangerous, since Hester thought she had read somewhere that they would block the mainroad around the old town for cars on Sundays. So when we took off, we drove over the main road against traffic, but about 5 to 10 minutes in we realized that it wasn't actually closed off. So, cars were coming towards us, driving at least 80 km an hour ;-)! We’re still alive..

On New Years Eve we went to a large beach party, where we enjoyed some local beers and some local performances. The good thing was that the party had a free entrance. It was fun to experience a local event, with all sorts of people dancing the salsa. The fireworks were spectacular, but not as good as the one we had seen in Nashville earlier in the year.

We spend too much time in Panama City. There really isn't a lot to do, and despite the look from the city it's actually pretty boring. But due to the holidays, we were not able to get our car shipped sooner, so we had to spend like an additional week in Panama City. On the first of January we were slightly happy that we would travel to our next adventure. We took a plane from Panama City to Cartagena, to be reunited with our car which at that moment had already arrived in Colombia. Overall, Central America has been great, and we met many friendly people. It was also much safer then everyone would let you to believe, but my guess is that these people actually have never been here. I would therefore very much recommend people to visit countries like Belize, Guatemala or Nicaragua. Of Course Costa Rica is beautiful, but there are also too many tourists here, so you don't really feel like you are exploring something. Anyway, new continent, more to come!