Without the rooftop air conditioner our Promaster van will fit in a high cube 40 foot container. The “high cube” has a slightly taller door opening than a regular container. So we took the air conditioner off.
The electro- mechanical genius known to us as Sergio did that Thursday morning and then covered the hole in the roof of the van with a sheet of acrylic seen above.
It didn’t take long to unclip the electrical cables and unbolt the unit from inside. He thought it was all great fun but I have butterflies in my stomach.
The only way around the Darien Gap where the PanAmerican Highway stops in Panana is to ship your vehicle to Colombia to resume the journey. If your vehicle is small enough like a sedan or a motorcycle the shippers can send it by plane in one day. We have to prepare to be without our home for two weeks.
For people used to traveling to the tune of their own whims, shipping a campervan is a pain, a stress, an all-consuming worry. At least our Promaster is now in good working order and once we get to drive away from Cartagena towards the Andes we will know the Promaster is in the best shape it can be.
Sergio will clean the a/c unit, put new bearings in the fan and deliver it to us in Panama City on Tuesday so we can put it inside the van before we go to our air BnB for the night. The loading process starts before dawn on Wednesday.
The Overland Embassy, our shipping agents try to make it as easy as possible but there are so many details to wrap up in the end if you are like me you can get overwhelmed.
We are putting the finishing touches to GANNET2 with new rear tires, and a thorough underbody cleaning.
After we get clearance from the police to export the van we will need to go to a vet to get clearance for Rusty to leave the country. Then we will need to finish cleaning the vehicle so it arrives in South America not carrying agricultural contaminants from the north.
Then we will empty the fridge turn off the electrical breakers and remove our water filters from our Berkey. We have new filters to install in Colombia.
Sunday night at nine we fly Copa Airlines for one hour and fifteen minutes to Cartagena. We have bought a third seat so Rusty will fly in the cabin with us and that fact relieved at least one stress. He has never flown so I am hoping this flight will feel like nothing more than a ride in a car.
We tried to get his papers in David but the vet was out of town and tried to do a conference call because no one else in the office spoke English. In vain we pointed out we spoke Spanish and they kept ignoring us in the office.
“I speak Spanish” I said, in Spanish! No one introduced themselves or addressed us. They took another customer who just showed up and kept ignoring us. It was like they were sending a message. It took a while but we got the message and left after asking rather loudly and angrily why they wouldn’t serve us. “We don’t speak English,” the clerk said in Spanish, and I said so what? in Spanish. Then another customer got in my face and she told us to fuck off this is their country. She said that in Spanish. I said what’s that got to do with it. In Spanish and she looked down and waved me away. Then the man child who finally identified himself as a vet told us told us to leave, in Spanish, as this was private property. This as we stood waiting for them to unlock the door which they keep locked all the time (the neighborhood didn’t look that scary). It was just another weird interaction in Panama.
I cannot wait to escape this lunatic asylum.
