As the day was slipping past and we still had some miles to make it was time to dry off and hit the road. It wasn’t long before we were back on the PanAm dodging cars and merging traffic, so much for the relaxed state we were in. The destination for today, Volcan, was not very far but sets us up for crossing the border into Costa Rica the following day. We once again chose a hostel, Llano Lindo, and were then off to find some supper and a few road snacks. Back at the Hostel it turns out that a large group of kids from Colon had arrived to participate in the Volcan town festival. They were a dance group that did the tradition dance of the Congo people that were brought, by the Spanish, to Panama as slaves and brought with them their native culture. They preserved this distinct culture and it is now are part of Panama’s history and diverse cultural makeup. The kids ranged from about nine to thirteen, they looked so good in their costumes that Brenda and I decided to go the festival to see their show. The festival turned out to be a Agrocology and EcoTourism exhibition. So in addition the musical stage there were midway games, a few small rides, a bunch of handicrafts, produce, and livestock. Fun for everyone!!
The road splits in Volcan, one branch goes to Reo Sereno the other is only 20 km long and goes to Cerro Punta. We managed to get an early start so we decided to go to Cerro Punta before heading to the border. The road is a typical mountain road winding its way up and around until at the right elevation and climate it must be the perfect combination for farming as the mountians are covered with all types of farms. This reminded us of the area above Boquete but just a much larger scale, and they seemed to have a larger variety of crops.
Back towards the border and up another scenic route, the road gets narrower and more twisty as we progress and I am expecting the pavement to end around every curve. The jungle forms shear walls of green and the a natural canopy over the road in spots, then instead of gravel the next curve finds us driving on a manicured highway with trimmed pine trees, nicely landscaped yards, and of course, endless fields on both sides. In Reo Sereno we find a flat place to park in front of the Supermarket and are surrounded by guys shortly after I get my helmet off. They are curious about the bikes and where we have been. The usual rundown of questions and answers.
The Panama Aduana office is directly across from the market and the Immigration office is just next door so the Panama exit took a total of about 15minutes. From there we moved the bikes about 200 meters to the Costa Rica offices. The officer was very helpful with our entry and told us to go to Paso Canoas, as there is no Aduana at Reo Sereno. Hmmm??? I know for a fact that there is, but the officer and I could not get our broken languages to synchronize so I thought I would ask for some kindness of strangers and ask Jonathan who I had talked to at the market for some translating. He confirmed that the officer was not going to let us into Costa Rica and also clarified the reason.
So get this, because Canoas has the bike documents from when we exited, we would have to go back there so they can give them back to us when we enter.
The Canoas crossing is about 1hr from Reo Sereno so that is doable, the issue is we had already checked out of Panama. Sooo...Back to the Panama Aduana office with Johnathon in tow to get our paperwork back because we will need this document to start the entire process over again once we are at Canoas. Jonathan convinced the officer to return our papers without having to pay the importation fees again, so he more than earned the beer I bought him as a thank you for helping.
Beer the new international Currency. (Johnathan in middle)
Turns out he runs a security company in San Jose and was only at the border to make some contacts to supply canine units and such. The only thing we didn’t do was get our passports restamped for entry into Panama, this was because the officer assured us we didn’t need to plus he was not really willing to do it anyway, so at this point we were in limbo personally but the bikes were ok in Panama. Now we had to ride down to Canoas but not via Volcan but via this other road that everyone assured us would lead us straight to Canoas. (did you ever get that feeling in your gut but had no choice but to ignore it, yes this was happening now). With no other options we headed out down the “direct road” which turned out to be one of the most amazing roads we have ridden the whole trip and it doesn’t even show up on any map. The road IS the border line between CRica and Panama, so on a map it is a border not a road, wild sh*#t.
Now in Canoas we visit the Panama Aduana to get the bikes checked out of the country again, no big deal and it didn’t take long once they understood what was happening.
While I was waiting in line I sent Brenda to Panama Immigration to see if they would stamp our passports. “No, not needed you are out”. Cool, so once again the Panama process is complete and we are on our way to the Costa Rica side. Here the wheels of bureaucracy come loose. CRica will not stamp our passports for entry because we do not have a Canoas exit stamps, we have Sereno exit stamps. The officer speaks English so I explain the day’s events to which he shrugs his shoulders and says go back to Sereno and check back into Panama. Not going to happen, plus we already checked the bikes out of Panama for the second time today. Last shot was to try and talk the Pana immigration to restamp the passport. With a little help from another stranger we managed to find an English speaking officer with seniority. He listened attentively to the day’s events, studied all the stamps in our passports, then agreed to stamp them again. He also stamped Anulled over the Sereno stamp. Finally, back to Costa Rica side, stamp stamp, customs check, and we are through. WOW, what a day! Now we have to make some miles and find a hotel before dark as it is now 2:30pm. We haul ass up the PanAm to Palmur Norte and call it quits.
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