May 8, 2018 – May 20, 2018

Arriving back on the mainland from the islands of Bocas Del Toro, we were happy to see our truck exactly as we had left it.  We began the drive inland, and within minutes of leaving the small village of Almirante, a roadside police officer was signalling for us to pull over.  He approached the car, and informed us that we were speeding and this was an infraction. It looked like we had left the village several kilometres ago but apparently the speed limit here was still 40 kmh.  He asked for Derek’s driver’s license and passport.  He asked Derek to get out of the car to show him the reading on the radar gun which, was laying on the hood of the police car…70km/h!..funny, we hadn’t seen him anywhere near the cop car or the radar gun which was on the other side of the road, as we had approached.  Derek was pretty sure we hadn’t been going 70 kph anyway but didn’t say anything….it all seemed a bit fishy.

The officer kept indicating to Derek that this was an infraction, and that there would be a fine, that we would need to go to Boquete to pay it (which is where we were heading anyway).  But his ticket book remained in his pocket.   Derek explained, in Spanish, that we had driven here from Canada, that he was very careful to watch for and obey traffic signs, that he was working hard to try to learn Spanish, that Panama was such a beautiful country….was there a chance that he could make an exception this one time.  After a few minutes of Derek pouring on the charm, Derek’s documents were returned, we were told to drive carefully, and we were on the road again without a fine.  We are pretty sure he was hoping for a bribe but didn’t want to ask for one, and when it became apparent no cash was forthcoming, he couldn’t really be bothered with writing out an actual traffic ticket.  You know your Spanish is improving when you can sweet talk yourself out of a speeding ticket in Panama!

The  drive to Boquete was beautiful.  We were in the high country and bordering on Parque Nacional la Amistad.  We started to look for a place to stop for a bite.  We slowed at one roadside cafe, but the place looked dark and scary, so we continued on.  Just around the corner we spotted this beautiful little coffee cottage where we each had a savoury chicken empanada followed by a couple of little pastries…perfect!

Here’s some video of our drive through the hills of Panama.  I didn’t speed up the playback, but once you hit play, you can click on the little symbol that looks like a gear and speed it up yourself if you wish.

 

 

We arrived in Boquete, a small mountain town that, due to its elevation, is slightly cooler than the mainland…..we still wore shorts but we didn’t sweat nearly as much.

One evening in Boquete we decided to go for dinner and ended up at a pub.  It was clear that a band had been playing and was on break when we arrived, and soon after we placed our order, the trio came back on stage.  They started playing Bob Marley’s version of “I shot the Sheriff”, typical cover tune fare, and it was pretty good.  Then, the bass guitarist began a solo, and WOW!  We stopped eating, turned in our seats to watch as the man, a guy maybe in his 40’s, produced the most amazing sounds from his guitar.  Three or four more excellent covers all of which we recognized and all featuring creative bass solos were met with enthusiastic applause from the, unfortunately small, audience of 3 or 4 tables and a few people up at the bar.  Turns out he was a mentor of the band and as he finished he handed the guitar back to the owner, a much younger man, then sat down to watch them perform the rest of a great rock set featuring songs by J.J. Cale, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and a few others. Some real guitar talent there.

There were some accumulated chores like repairing the running board we scrubbed off in Costa Rica, making arrangements for complete fluids maintenance, on the truck when we got to Panama City because it was a place where we would more likely find the exact oils we wanted and a more professional shop and as always trying to maintain our digital presence. These things were accomplished so we wanted to do some hiking in the hills around Boquete. Our first choice we were shut out of because there are a lot of strict no dog rules in many parks. Another popular hike in the area is to climb Volcan Baru.  You start at around midnight or one a.m. to try to summit for sunrise at 5:30 or 6.  If it is not cloudy, you can see both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans from the peak.  We were kind of tempted by the challenge but also worried about totally messing up our sleep patterns for a few days  as we were now on a pretty short schedule to get the truck into a container. Additionally, it would not have been a dog friendly hike on the volcanic scree. Finally, the fact that we are feeling somewhat out of shape from sitting in the truck so much, and the amount of cloud and rain we had been having, made us decide on an easier hike.

 

 

After leaving Boquete, we stayed for one night on the beach at Playa Las Lajas in an odd, slightly grubby camping area, then made our way the next day to Panama City.

 

We had a lot of things to do in Panama City to get ready for South America and for the shipping of our vehicle over the Darien Gap.  The truck spent a day at Procars , a shop with an English speaking Venezuelan proprietor who specializes in Toyota trucks and other off-road vehicles and accessories. Rui was very helpful and even offered to accommodate us at the shop if the vehicle were to take more than one day. Fortunately all the fluid changes, inspection and adjustment took no more than a full day and nothing more than basic TLC  was required. Piper needed an updated health certificate from a vet, which we then had to take to a government office to get a form saying we could take her out of the country.  We needed to have our vehicle inspected by the police and then needed to return later in the day for a document saying that the vehicle was not stolen and had no outstanding tickets (required by the container shipping company).  We drove back and forth across Panama City, sometimes having only a few hundred meters to cross 5 lanes of traffic to get on the right road….lot’s of fun.

We were a day or two away from driving across Panama to the Caribbean Coast and the port town of Colon to have our truck loaded into the container, when we discovered two things…Piper’s skin problems were not getting better, and my phone battery was dying.  We found an english speaking vet and she did a skin scraping and told us that Piper had ring Worm, and that the antibiotics that we had received in Costa Rica were not sufficient to clear it up.  Ring worm, apparently, is a fungus, not a worm….just putting that in here cause it makes me feel a lot better about the whole situation.

Next we drove to a huge shopping mall to look for a new battery for my phone.  Derek stayed with Piper in the truck so that we could have the windows open (it was super hot), and I went from store to store in the mall and from kiosk to kiosk, but no one sold LG G4 phone batteries.  One salesman told me it would be very difficult to find one in Panama.  I decided to head back to the truck, and as I walked by yet another kiosk selling phone accessories I decided to give it one more try.  Yes!  He could get me one but it would take an hour or so!

Back in the parking lot, we discussed how to kill the hour, when Derek said “If we are in Panama City and don’t get to see the locks, I will be upset!”  And so, off to the locks we went.

Derek got to pilot one of the ships through the locks……

Okay, maybe there was a simulator at the museum.  And afterward he narrated the following video….

Finally, the day came to get the truck loaded into a container so that we could ship it from Panama to Cartagena, Colombia.  We drove to the Port city of Colon (which is definitely not a “destination” in itself except by necessity), where, after stops at Seaboard’s office and customs, we delivered the truck to the port where the containers were.  No additional passengers were allowed through the gates, so Piper and I waited for Derek while he drove the truck to where it would be inspected.  The container entrance height is 259.7 cm. After deflating the suspension airbags to the minimum and dropping the tire pressures significantly, Derek did a final measurement on the truck and convinced himself it would fit with not much to spare, at about 253 cm.  About 3 hours later, after a sniffer dog inspection as well as a custom’s officer inspection, we watched the truck be driven off by an employee to be squeezed into a high top container.  We had nothing left to do but hope the container didn’t fall off the ship in high seas!

After the loading process, we made our way further along the coast by taxi to the small village of Puerto Lindo (means Cute or Pretty Port, but there was too much garbage around the impoverished town to justify the name) for two nights in a dog friendly hostel. The hostel itself was very friendly, peaceful and well run so we spent most of our time relaxing there. Two days later we would meet up with the crew and fellow passengers of the sailing ship the Amande, which we would board for 5 days in order to sail us and our dog to Cartagena.

Here’s a video taken from our hostel of a little rain storm that came through:

After all the stress of getting the truck ready and the paperwork done for the cargo ship, we were happy to be making our way to South America.  It was a huge milestone in our trip.  Up until the moment the truck was handed off in port, if we had wanted to go home, all we had to do was turn the truck around and drive.  Crossing the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia involves a lot of paperwork, a lot of hassle and a lot of money.  But all the hard work was done (at least until we would go to retrieve the truck out of the container in Colombia!), Derek had several days ahead of him with no driving, and we were anxious to get on the sailboat, meet the crew and fellow passengers and enjoy some down time.