En La Panamericana, Panamá, 2004-05-18

What I thought would be my last day of hiking turned out just to be a morning of hiking. That was fine with me, I was quite ready to relax a little, especially after crossing that damned river 28 times.

Today I`m on my way to Panama City. I`ve been to a damn lot of border crossings lately, and this one today was the worst. I must have gone across the border back and forth 4 times. First the bus actually dropped me off on the Panamá side, and after some trouble figuring that out I had to walk back to get my exit stamp. After I headed back to Panamá, on the way changing my last 4,000 Colones into $8.00. A mediocre rate, but I didn`t care. Then I had to walk in a few circles to find the Panamanian immigration office conviniently located down a dirt sidestreet. I waited in line, got up, gave my passport, and was asked to present my onward or return ticket. Well, I didn`t happen to have one, so I had to go all the way back to Costa Rica and buy one. Ten minutes of waiting – the one employee at the bus company shuffled boxes that obviously were more time sensitive than a gringo – and he didn`t have change for a 20. That was a problem. The ticket was 3,750 Colones, or $US9.00. I had the aformentioned US$8.00 and a twenty. He wouldn`t take $8.00 and the 400 Colones a lady with pity offered me. If I pay in dollars, I have to pay it all in dollars. “Because I`m an asshole and I hate you” was his explanation. So, back to the money changer. Back to Bus company. Back to little dirt sidestreet. “Ahorita tiene que ir comprar tu tarjeta de turista…” in the building a few blocks away. Because it just does make sense to sell the turist cards in the building for searching cargo trucks and not at the immigration office. Finally back to immigration, and another charge for some paper stamp that didn`t even go in my passport and just disappeared and… whew… can I go now?

At least I got to sit shotty on the next busride.

Leave a Reply


Warning: Undefined variable $user_ID in /usr/share/nginx/vhosts/skory.us/html/skorea/wp-content/themes/newspaper-10/comments.php on line 68

You must be logged in to post a comment.