The Coles Notes version is this; stand in line for your passport stamp out of Costa Rica (about half and hour), then go to the Aduana office and check the bikes out of Cost Rica (5 minutes). Then drive through the construction zone to the Panama side, go to the Immigration office and buy a sticker for your passport $1, go into the umarked customs inspection room to pick up a declaration form to fill out while standing in line for over 2 hours to get your passport entry stamp. This timeline is our experience and may vary depending on time of day and how many busses you arrive behind. We were unfortunate and had two full busses in front of us. Ok, now that your passport is stamped, go across the road to buy travel/bike insurance, take that paper back across the street and upstairs to get it stamped. ? Then take the paper down to the Aduana office, they put the info into the computer and stamp the paper again. From here you take the paper to customs for yet another stamp. Then, find the customs officer in the parking lot and have him inspect the bikes and of course don’t forget to get the paper stamped again. After that, pay for the fumigation, wheel the bike across the road to get sprayed and we are finally done. Total cost $34US, total time 4 hours.
Things we learned:
1) It pays to be rude and jump the queue, even though the locals may shoot you.
2) Go earlier or later in the day. Arriving at 9am is not good timing as the busses get there at 8am.
3) Take the side trip to Reo Serena and avoid Pano Canoas all together.
After the border, we made it as far as David. The PanAm highway is twinned the whole way and in pretty good shape. Lots of police presence but no stops. Gas is 3.35 per gallon for 95 octane. The city is very lively with store after store selling alot of the same merchandise in different stores. Pretty good prices from what we can tell, but again, we don’t really need anything but it is fun to look.
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