today, i woke up early and drove to panama. didn’t quite make it to panama city….so i’ll have to wake up early tomorrow as well….to get a full day of talking with shipping companies (…it’ll be a bit harder without the gps, though).
the border today was definitely one of the better ones — only taking about 1.5hrs to leave costa rica and enter panama. in fact, i think the costa rican border may have even had an atm…although, i think i probably mistook something else for an atm. the border crossing cost $17 ($1 for a passport stamp, $15 for a piece of paper for the car and $1 to fumigate the car). as with most border crossings, i’m not sure if i got scammed or not.
northern panama is definitely one of the nicer drives…and may have one of the nicest roads on the panamerican road (in central america). it’s nothing spectacular, like route 1, but is still pretty and varied. the terrain includes small fields, rolling hills, volcanoes and plateaus (with waterfalls too!). the colors are all different shades of green….such that everyplace looks similar….but nothing looks the same. the sky too, is pretty awesome: with textures/layered clouds and different shades of blue throughout the sky. my pictures can’t do it justice — sorry.
also, i saw a few cars on the road filling up their trunks with grass from the side of the road….what’s up with that? food for their cattle?