Change Of Plans

You have to be flexible if you are an overland traveler, and more so if you have a dog. It’s not Rusty's fault exactly but it kind of is as Panama has strict entry requirements for pets and so…

We had read in iOverlander about Dr Castro who has a reputation for making paperwork easy. He struck me as a James Herriot figure, the literary English vet, with a farm practice as well as dealing with “mascotas” (pets). One reason we arrived at “oh dawn thirty” was to catch him before he starts on his daily farm rounds. His son speaks English, and is his office manager which may be helpful to travelers. 

His office is located in the tiny mountain town of San Vito where we slept the night before under blankets at 3500 feet. He is personable and very easy to work with and he took all the stress out of getting Rusty ready to enter the most complex, pet unfriendly country in Central America. We stressed too much thinking about dealing with officials in Nicaragua and they were nothing but nice when we met them, so we hope for the same entering Panama. 

Dr Castro is a brilliant vet but best of all he knows the Costa Rican government officials. A process that can take up to ten days to be approved was ready in thirty minutes. He told us the papers are good for five days but we have to go by the Pacific Coast crossing as they won’t cause problems. If we go by our preferred route on the Caribbean we may not get through as they may not recognize these papers. Not having any reason to doubt him and not having any way of knowing better I wrote this as we set off from his office to the border 30 miles away. 

The road from San Vito to Paso Canoas is nothing short of spectacular with steep descents and winding curves that flow and dip as though molten.

Costa Rican road builders take their cue from the Romans and roads here aren’t designed the gently fold around obstacles. There’s a mountain? Go up it.

There’s a plunging canyon? Go straight down it. We spend our time in manual first gear reflexively leaning back as our Promaster takes on the aspect of a ship sinking into the abyss bow first.

Photos don’t show the grades but when it was 20% I had both hands on the wheel…











Entry on iOverlander:

Coming down the mountain the brakes were warming  up and because we had been at the vet’s door promptly at 7:30 for Rusty and his papers, I was hungry and ready for breakfast.  Layne found us a lovely spot and I walked up to see if they served breakfast to non residents. They did and they also have an electric car charging station. The guest chalets have astonishing views so bring your Bolt to Casa Linda Vista next time you’re passing…

I was going to go for a Tico breakfast of rice and beans and so forth but Layne started making noises about the American breakfast and yes, it was delicious. We gave the brakes time to cool off as we sipped coffee and enjoyed the view. 

And I cobbled together this post. Onwards to Paso Canoas and let’s see what difficulties Panamanian customs give us.