Getting the Car – 5/22/2013
May 24th, 2013 by rallyadmin
We check out at 6:45 and the desk says that the driver that Sr. Boris has sent for us is waiting in the lobby. Out to the taxi, load up the bags and we’re off to Colon at 6:50 under a dreary, gray overcast sky that looks like any minute the rains will start again.
Panama City and Colon are both on the east side of the canal and there is an expressway that connects the 2 cities. It’s still early and there’s not much traffic in the city or on the expressway. The road goes up and over the mountains that form the spine of the the isthmus and as soon as we cross the top of the spine and start to descend, we exit the expressway and continue the descent in Colon on a simple two lane highway.
It’s a descent in more ways than one. Colon is considered the backwater of Panama. Any guide book on Panama will tell you not to go there at all. If you do go there, the guide books tell you to not stay. If you do stay, the guide books tell you not to go out on the streets. If the container port wasn’t here, there wouldn’t be a road.
And the road looks like it leads to a place that no one wants to go to willingly. The roadside is covered in trash. As soon as we get into the Colon area, the roadside is dominated by truck repair shops and slums. It’s at least as bad as the guide book said.
The driver brings us to an entry for a group of offices that support the container port operations. We’re supposed to be there at 8:15 to meet Sr. Boris and at 8:15 promptly a man, not Sr. Boris, arrives to pick us up and bring us to the aduana (customs) office to finish our paperwork for the import of the car.
I’m getting more impressed with Sr. Boris’ operation by the minute. He called me soon after I landed at the Panama City airport. The driver he arranged was at the hotel waiting for us at the appointed time. Now, at precisely 8:15, Sr. Boris man is here to bring us to the aduana office. This level of efficiency doing imports and exports hasn’t been our experience on this trip. Sr. Boris has a great reputation on the web. Apperently, he deserves it.
We shlep all of our gear into the aduana office, much to the entertainment of the women in the office. As usual, they don’t speak English and our Spanish is woefully inadequate so when we get stumped by a question about our paperwork, I call Sr. Boris and ask him to talk to the woman with the question. He apologizes for not being there. He’s getting our insurance documents and he’ll be there in a moment. I’m really starting to like this Sr. Boris.
And about 10 minutes later he arrives and takes control of the situation. He produces some documents that the office needs. He gives me an invoice for him services with exactly the amount that he quoted me. We pay up. Documents are printed and stamped. Documents are rechecked and sorted. An hour later and we’re in Sr. Boris’ car headed for the container terminal.
Container terminals are now high security areas no matter where you go. Some of the documents that we’re produced at the aduana office we’re for John so that he could enter the terminal and get the car. I stay outside the terminal gate in an old 20′ container that has one side cut off and some window openings cut in the remaining side. A steel bench completes the furnishings. A container port post-modern design, light on style but high on function.
John, Sr. Boris and Sr. Boris assistant disappear into the port and sbout 15 minutes later Sr. Boris returns and tells me that John and his assistant are in the port waiting for the container to be brought around. When they bring it up to the area near the terminal extit, they’ll get the car out, fumigate it and let John drive it out. About an hour later, John pulls into sight driving our reliable Cherokee.
Getting the car is one thing. Getting the car out of the port is another deal entirely. There’s a couple more tops with papers ebeing checked. VIN numbers being checked. Numbers being written in forms. Stamps being affixed. But finally, John and the car emerge from the terminal and we’re ready to rearrange the car, load the bags and get out of this dump.
This whole exercise took about 4 hours. Shipping the car in Cartagena took 2 days. Retrieving the car in Chile took 10 days. Shipping the car in Vladivostok took over a day. Sr. Boris is the way to go if you’re in Panama.
We exit the port, put San Jose, Costa Rica in the GPS and head off retracing our route back to Panama City. And when we get to the outskirts of Panama City we promptly get into a dispute with the GPS. We eventually solve the dispute by picking a place on the northwest side of Panama City, plugging that into the GPS and following the route that the GPSW comes up with.
That turns out to be a good compromise. (I can’t believe I’m compromising with a GPS.) The route takes us back toward Colon for a few kilometers but then turns toward the west and takes us over the canal on a beautiful new cable stay bridge. The bridge crosses the canal at one of the iconic views of the canal. There are no ships in view but there is a dredge anchored just north of one of the major rock cuts.
On the other side of the canal the road turns into a two lane road that runs through a beautiful tree covered tropical forest. We get back to the outskirts of Panama City and link up with the Panamericana again and we’re officially on our way.
Our trip through South America took us through the tropics (obviously, we crossed the Equator) and there were palms, banana plants, bamboo forests and giant ferns but the forests all looked like temperate zone jungle forests. Here in Panama, we’re in tropical rain forest. The vegetation is much denser and even the cleared areas look like the rain forest will recliam the land in short order if given that chance.
We’re here in the rainy season and and the deluge that enveloped the airport last night starts up again as we drive north. At first the rain is spotty and not too heavy but, as the day goes on, the showers get bigger and more intense. And as the afternoon wears on the rain becomes be a steady downpour.
This is the tropics. When it rains, it rains hard and the road floods. No Seattle mist. No middle America steady but gentle rain that’s good for the crops. This is rain of biblical proportions. And I’m getting tired of driving in it.
We come into Santiago, Panama and just as we enter the city we see a nice hotel. It advertises a restaurant and bar. Though the sun is still up (we always promise to stop before dark but often can’t work it out), we stop. They have a room we check in.
We’re still a long way from San Clemente but we’re on our way home.
Obi-wan
One Response to “Getting the Car – 5/22/2013”
Sounds like you guys are starting to miss the old home towns. Hope the rest of the trip is a little less “adventurous”