Getting RV inspected for exporting

To leave Panama for South America, the RV will go on a container ship because there are no driveable roads between Panama and Colombia. To get on a ship, the RV needs a police inspection to verify vin matches the paperwork. I'm not sure why that isn't done at the border anyways like other countries. For the police inspection ioverlander recommended arriving before 6 am. The police inspection office is in a slum. I parked on a basketball court facing this building and took my place in line at the closed gate. I was behind two others but they were together, the car owner and his helper. At 6am an officer showed up and gave us numbers so we knew who was next and he asked us to park in the gate or closer. I drove around the block to the parking lot and was told that I was too big so I went back to where I was parked earlier except on the street instead of the basketball court.

At 720am the inspection started and 15 minutes later it was my turn and we walked to my vehicle and he checked the vin to my temporary importation permit and title and took copies of the TIP, title, passport and told me to go to the office across the highway with the originals. At the other office I was told I had to wear closed toes shoes and so I walked back to the van and put on sneakers and went back to the office. The office opened at 8. At 830 a lady came out and asked for my originals and copies of my paperwork and then returned the originals and kept the copies and told me to come back at 2pm.

Back at the hotel, the kids had just woken up and counted their candy from the night before. I took them to the pool for about an hour.

It got sunny and hot; the first time the sun shined since we had arrived. For lunch we decided to venture out of our hotel. I drove to the El Dorado area to a Chinese restaurant.

We were lucky there was big strip mall next door we could park at. The food was great and familiar. We ordered pot stickers with chives, one with corn which was good, congee, and noodles with pig trotters. $27. 

We headed back to the inspection office and Christine sat in the RV double parked outside for about 40 minutes until I got my paperwork. We then drove across Panama City to Overland Embassy, our shipping broker and asked them about the procedure for shipping next week and paid for the shipping ($6000).

I stopped to get some gas and we were given an umbrella and a small Panamanian flag. There are three holidays this weekend: separation day, flag day, and colon day. Two of those holidays celebrate Panama's separation from Colombia. There were small flags everywhere on display. 

Driving in Panama City is challenging even with gps because it is difficult to discern which lane I should be taking and I end up having to drive miles out of my way because I took the wrong lane. This happened many times. An Uber is a better way to travel in the city. And it's cheap.

Christine wanted to look for a sunshirt to wear in the water so she took Ellie to the mall to go shopping.

Dd and explored the arcade at the mall and he played on the giant gorilla until he declared himself hungry and we went back to the hotel to eat leftovers. 

We had an early night because tomorrow we have a 530 pickup to go to the San Blas Islands.