We had to go down the mountain on Monday and pay our respects to the Customs office in the city of Davíd. Panana inexplicably gives visiting people 90 days to enjoy the country but visiting vehicles get only 30 days which is absurd. Fortunately you can get two thirty extensions to prevent your vehicle being shifted before you have to leave. However you are required to dress up to get your vehicle permit extension, long pants and long sleeves are mandatory I was told. My wooden bow tie purchased in Czechia years ago I added to give the proceedings a touch of the absurd they so richly deserved. Panana loves its bureaucracy and I don’t.
I had to go through a ridiculous rigmarole to pay 25 cents to a cashier because they needed to keep a photocopy of my vehicle insurance but the process cost months money and took an otherwise painless 15 minutes. Then we went to Copa Airlines at the airport nearby to cancel Fridays reservation but airline employees at the airport are not allowed to do that. So we drive to the Copa office in town where the security guard told us to come back after lunch even as he allowed some other supplicants, Panamanians into the office. Layne about lost her shit but I steered her away so she could fulminate in private.
Lunch was horrible, testing a Chinese place where it turned out the food tasted like defrosted cardboard heated up in rancid oil in a burnt wok. I have never previously seen ketchup on a table in a Chinese restaurant and hope never to again. Our first hint of trouble was that there were no Chinese diners and then I saw the ketchup. We should have left but it was air conditioned while outside it was 102 degrees. Rusty was sleeping in the air conditioned van, lucky dog.
The clerk at Copa airlines was very helpful but she was alone and the line was enormous. Knowing there was no parking we left Rusty in charge of GANNET2 in a public parking lot with the rooftop air conditioning to keep him cool and we took a three dollar cab to the airline office. Our tickets are on hold and now we wait for our last replacement part to arrive from Florida.
The final two boxes of parts available in Panama City arrived by delivery service Monday at a charge of $13, very reasonable. By Wednesday evening I hope all wheel bearings brake rotors and pads will be new, GANNET2 will have front wheels aligned with new bushings ahd tie rods and all we will have to do is wait for the anti lock braking box to arrive from Tampa.
On our way home we stopped at a supermarket where Layne went shopping for some stuff and I walked Rusty in the 90 degree air as we were half way up the mountain road to Boquete.
An employee came out and advised me the manager had sent him because she didn’t want dog walking in the parking lot. “We are t in the parking lot!” I protested because indeed we were in the grass by the sidewalk next to the highway, well outside the parking lot fence. She doesn’t want dog waste on the property he said so I showed him my plastic bag attached to my leash. I laughed and walked back to the van. Never been told not to walk a dog in a parking lot I thought to myself. Nice store but never again.
Front wheel brake rotors and rear wheel hubs and bearings arrived by Ferguson delivery and cost me $13 which was surprisingly inexpensive considering they were so heavy I could barely walk them across the street. That thirteen bucks saved me a trip to Panama City so that was an excellent outcome. The parts store shipped them Saturday morning so it was fast service too.
We are both falling for Boquete, the little alpine town with the perfect climate, interesting restaurants and very little stress for us. We are camped for $12 a day with a pool, hot shower, electricity to charge our van batteries and quiet nights cool enough to require a blanket.
It’s a little weird I grant you speaking English everywhere we go but when Panamanians reply in English to my Spanish I don’t fight it anymore. I guess it’s just force of habit for them: foreigners don’t speak Spanish and that’s an end to it.
However the prospect of one hundred degree days at sea level is a bit daunting not least because we can’t leave Panama until our anti lock brake module arrives so the feeling right now in camp GANNET2 is why leave such a comfortable berth? We can do some exploring later before we ship to Colombia but for now we are comfortable. I need to make myself another cup of tea, the sun’s going down and the cool night air is wafting in.
