The countdown to our road trip started when we got our border permit to take our car over the border into Panama. We had to go to the Office located in the BCR bank in Liberia. According to our instructions we found out we had to first pay the fee, then go to the "teller" who would process our paperwork. We dutifully brought in our passports, cedulas, Auto title and everything else we could think we might need. Naturally the person helping us spoke little or no English so it was Spanish all the way.
It seemed to go smoothly till we hit our first speed bump. Apparently while we had the registration and import paperwork for the car, we had never got the actual correct title form. She rattled off a litany of stuff in Spanish that I understood very little of. Finally she indicated that I had to go back to the pay kiosk and give the man another 8000 colones and then come back with the pink slip. I guess it doesn't matter to the kiosk guy what it's for, you simply tell him the amount and he makes out the pink slip.
When I returned to the teller, as I sat down I caught my forehead on the edge of her computer monitor making a slight gash. So I am sitting there with a trickle of blood dripping down my forhead. She became very concerned then. I guess that worked to my advantage because in addition to getting me a band aide, she became very helpful.
Our next speed bump happened when she presented us with our border document, and Martha picked up on the fact that instead of FRIEDMAN, they had typed FRIEDEMAN. No big deal right? Wrong. It appears that was how it was on the original papers stored in San Jose. Given what sticklers the Panama Border people are she told us we needed to get it changed so that there wouldn't be a problem at the border. OK, then she rattled off a bunch of stuff in Spanish about Correos and San Jose. Apparently the paperwork and computer entry needed to be corrected in San Jose. Ideally it should be then returned to us by normal post, but since we were planning to leave the next week, she'd call them and try to get them to do it now. "Come back in an Hour". Well that was better than "Come back Thursday" or "We will mail it to you in 8 days". We headed off for lunch to kill some time, and then returned to the same teller. True to her word, she got the mistake changed and issued us a new title for the car on the correct form, and a new permit for the border crossing. She then proceeded to use her vast array of stamps to stamp the each document with about a zillion stamps. The permit is good till July 7th, so we plan on leaving sometime next week on a totally un-planned adventure.
It seemed to go smoothly till we hit our first speed bump. Apparently while we had the registration and import paperwork for the car, we had never got the actual correct title form. She rattled off a litany of stuff in Spanish that I understood very little of. Finally she indicated that I had to go back to the pay kiosk and give the man another 8000 colones and then come back with the pink slip. I guess it doesn't matter to the kiosk guy what it's for, you simply tell him the amount and he makes out the pink slip.
When I returned to the teller, as I sat down I caught my forehead on the edge of her computer monitor making a slight gash. So I am sitting there with a trickle of blood dripping down my forhead. She became very concerned then. I guess that worked to my advantage because in addition to getting me a band aide, she became very helpful.
Our next speed bump happened when she presented us with our border document, and Martha picked up on the fact that instead of FRIEDMAN, they had typed FRIEDEMAN. No big deal right? Wrong. It appears that was how it was on the original papers stored in San Jose. Given what sticklers the Panama Border people are she told us we needed to get it changed so that there wouldn't be a problem at the border. OK, then she rattled off a bunch of stuff in Spanish about Correos and San Jose. Apparently the paperwork and computer entry needed to be corrected in San Jose. Ideally it should be then returned to us by normal post, but since we were planning to leave the next week, she'd call them and try to get them to do it now. "Come back in an Hour". Well that was better than "Come back Thursday" or "We will mail it to you in 8 days". We headed off for lunch to kill some time, and then returned to the same teller. True to her word, she got the mistake changed and issued us a new title for the car on the correct form, and a new permit for the border crossing. She then proceeded to use her vast array of stamps to stamp the each document with about a zillion stamps. The permit is good till July 7th, so we plan on leaving sometime next week on a totally un-planned adventure.