Half Time

A full day in Panama City arranging the shipping of the truck to Colombia.  Ships leaves every Saturday or Sunday, and unfortunately, we missed the opportunity to depart this week.  Shipping the truck is a frustrating multi-level process that starts in Panama City, departs in Colon, on the Caribbean side of the country, and ends in Cartegenia,Colombia.   The process starts on a Monday, for a Thursday delivery of the truck at the dock to load into the container for a Saturday or Sunday sailing.  The boat trip takes about 3-4 days and we cannot travel on the boat with with the truck.  So, it requires a flight to Cartagena, Colombia, to meet the boat.  Two days of bureaucracy later, if all goes well, we will be on the road again...theoretically.  It's an expensive endeavor, and one can save money if another vehicle is sharing a 40 foot container.  We have no one to share the container with thus far but we are hopeful the agent can find one for us.  Nevertheless, it costs about as much to ship the vehicle as it does to buy an airline ticket to Europe.  So, we were faced with the problem of killing three days in Panama until we started the process.  After much deliberation, we came up with Plan B.  We are scheduling the transport for the following week...Jim will fly home for a week, while I hop down to Medellin, Colombia for a week or so of paragliding.  Jim will then return to Panama City to see the truck onto the ship, while I will make my way to Cartagena to meet him when it pulls up in the port.  We should be on the road on the Pan Am Highway by February 23rd...theoretically.