Home » Panama » Which Canal?

Time and the hour, going thru the same thing again, in your actual Panama City, right by your actual Canal...and trying to take the mind back to where the little note book says I last blogged...scrambled notes from odd opportunities along the road, when passions were high, death just a shot away, all the senses attuned to the present, head full of ideas, heart full of fear, love, scent of roses..whatever...now trying to interpret not only the writing but the sense also...<br />So, out of Domenical and just drifting without any rush, south towards the end of Costa Rico...dense, green impenetrable jungle to the left, towering giants, draped in lianas and creepers, brilliant flowers, masses of insects, butterflies, birds and sure as sure, deep inside, the animals whose calls indicate many, very sharp teeth...on the right side the rugged coastline occasionally glimpsed thru the palms...some BIG developments going on here as well, extensive properties, the gated estates, the mega private properties...same old, same old...

Which Canal?

Bill Shum
2006-03-24 22:01:42

Displayed times (last time: )

and the walls are more thin than paper, its like they attract sound!.....you get the picture?
In the morning ..the puppy is still yapping!............we head around the corner to the frontier...hundreds of semi-trailers are lined up on each side of the road, on each side of the border, waiting their turns...now its a set routine for us..
1/ exit country passport (easy)
2/ exit country bike papers (easy)
then its off down the road, no-persons land, find the new office
3/ entry country - tourist card/passport (more time than anything, forms filled etc)
4/ entry country bike papers....here's where we have to find the actual office, never signed and usually somewhere else from the passport office...and here, someone eventually takes our forms, copies of passport, licence , bike rego etc, then they laboriously type out all the same details, onto exactly the same form as every other border xing!..fantastic, and lots of fun if you're patient!..and this is where we usually find someone who can interpret for us...why they can't send these officials to the same place I learned español?..why do they have to mutter, speak softly and use strange expressions? or why can't I get a grip on this language?
5/ just when you think its all over...customs! and this time they're serious!..they go right thru all of Grant's stuff, then they look a little bit at Ted's, by the time I get there he just signs the paper!!...but they have sniffer dogs going thru the truck cabs and the bus passengers luggage, long bits of wire and sticks to poke and search under the trucks.....but what the fcuk would they be looking for? I mean what more could you possibly bring into Panama?

The frontier building is new, so new, that they're still laying concrete as we go thru', concrete trucks backing and weaving between the semi-trailers, the roof is about 10 metres high, stylishly modern raked angles ...