Entering Panama

Border crossing day. We walked to the beach through the foliage before leaving

. Uvita is known for a "whales tail" beach visible at low tide, but were leaving in the morning and would miss it.  We wanted to get to the border before noon in case people went on lunch break.

The border is one of the easiest but I missed the Costa Rican immigration and customs area because it was on the left hand side of the road and allowed you to pass without doing anything, unlike any other border crossing. We walked back to the immigration and exited quickly. I had already paid the $8 exit tax online the night before and printed the receipts but immigration did not want to see it. Maybe it's already online attached to the passport number. Cancelling the TIP was just as easy, only requiring me to fill out a small form. No line for either at 1140 am. On the Panamanian side ioverlander instructions said to get insurance first which cost $25 for 30 days and then to go to immigration for the driver and to the customs after. This took a while because the lady doing the paperwork messed up three times. First she gave me someone else's paperwork, then she typed in the license plate incorrectly and then she typed my name incorrectly. The ioverlander instructions warned about this happening. After this, we all got stamped into Panama. It only took 1 h and 20 minutes for this border. Amazing.

Panama's currency is pegged to the US dollar, making it interchangeable.

We stopped for a late lunch at a roadside place and had two set plates, one with pork and the other with chicken $8 for all. We took a soup to go for Christine ($2). Both kids like to try the hot sauces and they tried the Panamanian sauce and said it was as hot as siracha.

Tonight we camped at a British overlander's campground. We were the only guests but there was a nice patch of grass and we played soccer and badminton, cut up pineapple and soursop we bought at a road side stand. Both were great but the soursop in Taiwan is smaller but better.

We watched fireflies at night before going in for the night. Tomorrow I have an appointment to drop the RV off at a mechanic for a check up. We will hopefully camp in the mountains and cooler weather.