Panama Paperwork

On Panama‘s Independence Day we drove to Colon to check out the ferry that we were scheduled to take in two days. We had just been told the dog couldn’t travel on the ferry, meaning we were going to have to get more paperwork and approvals in order for her to fly to Colombia. That was going to change our schedule as the paperwork could take up to 4 days to get and nothing could happen on the holiday.

The new Garmin maps aren’t great.

As well, we had to get our truck inspected in Panama, and the offices were closed for the holidays.

The representative from FerryXpress, Katherine, surprised us by saying that there was no problem taking the dog on the ferry, and, even though it was a holiday, we could get our truck inspected by the Police in Colon. Also, she said that we didn’t need the insurance document that we thought we might be missing. Jubilation!

We got lost again but hired a cab to guide us to the police station that does the inspection. The police inspector needed time to gather the information to complete the forms. All the staff at the police station were avidly watching TV shows about the narcos, mafia, murder and mayhem, so we sat and watched too.

Police station in Colon

The next day we chased down the paperwork for the dog. We went to a local veterinarian at Veterinario Clinica Tocumen, who said he couldn’t do the health certificate but he recommended another clinic, the Veterenaria Brazil. He couldn’t give us directions to the clinic, and finally, after battling with our GPS, said he would lead us there. The clinic was about 15 kilometers away in Panama City. When we got there, the vet there said it would take 2 days to get the health certificate. The two vets then got together and looked at the paperwork we received when we came into Panama and told us, because it showed we were in transit to Colombia that we already had all the paperwork required.

Capi found a new (coconut) ball.

We only got lost twice on the way back to the hotel.