Banana Republic-Not Just a Place to Buy Clothes

Heading out with a feeling optimism to the border of Panama this morning, just a few miles down the road.  Viewing dozens of green parakeets in the trees just off the deck of the room as we left put me in a good mood.  As we made our way to the remote crossing, I thought of how satisfying it would be to our wives, and the entire female gender for that matter, for them to see two grown men stop numerous times to ask total strangers for driving directions.  St. Maria, our GPS, is not always trustworthy in the rural countryside, and road signs in the outback are nonexistent.  We soon found ourselves at what looked like a border...a small green building with a flag and soldier in camo standing out front.  Of course, he didn't think we could see him in that outfit, and we played along until he revealed himself.  He looked bewildered when we asked him if this was the border immigration office...where is customs?       Where do we get our passports stamped? I used my trusty iPad translator APP to spit out a couple of pertinent sentences, but he was still confused.  Just then, a taxi pulled up and luckily the driver spoke english. He invited us to follow him down a windy mountain road and around to the  right crossing about 4KM away.  

There, we found ourselves fussing about a potentially sticky situation.  We'd already crossed the border up the road, and were approaching the gate from a place Costa Rican authorities had not given us permission to be in.  At other Central American border crossings, this would have been enough to take us into custody, or at least deny us entry.  But life, and the attitude of the officials in rural parts, seems to be more casual...no problemo, they say,  just drive the 50 yards acrosss the border and get the stamp, and then come back and see us...

The whole process was unstressful, but equally lengthy as the others, as we had to wait 2 hours until the woman in the insurance sales shack returned from lunch/siesta.  After all the paperwork was done, the official inspected the vehicle and was greatly impressed by the contents of our cooler...that is, the quality of our beer and limes.

The rest of the day was spent traveling on a winding 35 mph road through the incredibly beautiful countryside toward our goal, the city of David, Panama.