Moving to Panama

After few days spent in San Jose I moved to Panama, where I will be majority of time. I was getting used to the conditions here so I can now start from the beginning and learn, how everything works in Panama.

The trip was supposed to be 15 hours long, but as I am used to spent 10 hours in bus on my way home from Prague, I thougt, that it will not be a problem for me. Well...

I left San Jose on Wednesday at 1 pm, and the journey was passing quickly. We were going through mountiains, which surrounds the Central Valley, where San Jose is. The bus was comfortable, so I had no reason to complaint. But then we came to the borders. My friends told me, that it will take time, and the procedures will be long, so I was trying to find someone, who speaks english to help me, if I will need it. There was one french guy in the bus, which seemed, that it is not his first border crossing.

The procedure looks simple - you get out of the bus at Costa Rican side of the border, wait in the queue, till you get the stamp, then you move to the Panamanian side of the border, wait in the other queue, where you pay 1$ and get another stamp. After that you take your luggage out of the bus and wait until the customs officiers will check it and the bus can leave. I just cannot find out, why it took two hours...

But I crossed the borders almost without problems (just a small discussion with officier, because I did not have enough cash with me, and the credit card wasn´t enough for him) and continued in the journey. I fell asleep and wake up just few minutes before we crossed the Panama canal... It is nice view out of the bridge, when you see the huge ships sailing under you.

At the end the trip was bit longer - we had two hours delay, but fortunately Franklin (my colleague from the team - MC VP ER) was still waiting me, so soon in were in car driving to his home.