Ah, San José… Beneath that veneer of ‘developed’ hopefulness lies an undercurrent of ‘developing’ reality. Which pays to remember as one marches from the backpackers to the bus station after 37 hours travelling and only a few hours sleep; sidestepping the disheveled state of the sidewalk more akin to a war zone in places. Safely ensconced in my steel chariot, I made my way towards the border with Panama; trying to stay awake but mostly failing dismally.
Late afternoon, the bus pulls up at the border and I am directed to a large, multi-hued edifice in front of me. I make my way there and am enthusiastically directed to a tiny window where a nonplussed immigration official asked a couple of questions, took my photo and fingerprints before stamping my passport.
Formalities over, I was in desperate need of a baño before heading further afield. I found one at the bus terminal adjacent to the immigration centre but they wanted USD and I only had Costa Rican colones. And the Panamanian ATMs had run out of dinero! A helpful señor took me to a local shyster who happily relieved me of my colones for extremely overpriced USD. That gave me USD33 which I hoped would at least get me to the next cashed up ATM.
My helpful señor also let me use his baño and we got chatting. Turns out he is a veterinarian who works for the Panamanian Department of Health and was on duty to clear any cats or dogs wanting to cross the border – no other animals being allowed. He also goes overseas to Asia on a regular basis to clear shipments of tuna for export to Panama so was quite well travelled. He offered to give me a lift to La Concepcion, however, I couldn’t find any accommodation on-line. We did find a neat little motel on the edge of Paso Canoas though which had vacancy. I gratefully accepted a room, although they didn’t do eftpos and I had to hand over most of my meagre USD; leaving only USD11 until I could find an ATM. Undeterred, I wandered down to a nearby service station and bought my first Panamanian cerveza and a some snacks to celebrate my first night in Panama!
Wild Woman Wandering 