December 30: Panama Bound

Hard to believe another 90 days have passed.  Time to exit the country to renew visas.  This time since we're on summer break we can stay longer than the 72 hour minimum stay.  Here's what today (and tomorrow!) looked like:

1:10pm - family prayer

1:15pm - one of our regular taxi drivers, Johnny, drove us 15 minutes to a nearby town where we needed to wait outside in the Pollo Campero (Costa Rican version of KFC) parking lot for our bus.  We followed the 'rule' of being there at 1:30pm even though we knew there was no chance that a bus leaving San José could arrive any sooner than 3:00.  The 90 minute wait was actually pretty enjoyable because we met a Venezuelan couple who were also waiting for the bus bound for Panama.  The seven of us had a good time getting to know each other

3:00pm - got on the bus

3:30-5pm - endured a very inappropriate-for-kids rated R movie filled with violence and LOTS of swearing that blared loudly from numerous small screens throughout the bus.  Thankfully, we could distract the kids for most of it through books, Sudokus and crossword puzzles.

6:30pm - arrived at the Panama border.  We figured out that Sophia's age matches the number of countries she's been to.....7!  Not sure we can keep up that pace :)

Our time at the border went smoothly but it was definitely a  'Central American' experience.  There were three steps:
first, we had to wait in line to get our passports stamped out of Costa Rica.
second, we walked through the 'neutral zone' between both countries and waited in line (behind two other busloads of passengers) to get our passports stamped for entering Panama
third, and the most comical (in a really scary-from-a-security-standpoint kind of way) step was being led into one room with all the passengers of our bus and all our luggage for inspection.  Of course, in typical Central American fashion, there was only one employee there for our entire bus.  The employee, however, appeared to be a sweet, old, gentle 70ish year old woman who began reading off all our names like we were in a classroom and we each needed to respond that we were there.  At that point, I leaned over to Nathan and trying hard not to laugh out loud whispered, "this is sooooo Central America".  No body scans, nothing computerized, no luggage scanners.....just one by one we needed to put all our bags and luggage on a table and she would sort of finger through it a little and smile.  At one point I saw her sort of squeeze a small bag of another passenger, she looked at him, he responded 't-shirts' in Spanish and she shook her head giving him permission to leave without any inspection.  At that moment, I wondered why drug dealers go to such drastic measures to move drugs across borders.  Not sure what all got through last night because it was definitely not what you'd call a very 'secure' border crossing.  However, we were thankful there were no delays or long searches and we were on our way again

8:00pm - boarded the bus and slept off and on

midnight - stopped for a 20 minute bathroom and snack break at a cafe

The girls midnight snacks of choice:  scrambled eggs and french fries

12:20am - slept off and on, waking up every now and then due to sore neck and muscles, cold (AC was freezing!), and three different bus stops where other passengers got off

4:05am (5:05am local time):  arrived safely at the large bus terminal in Panama City, took a touristy picture with the Christmas tree and made a deal with the first taxi driver we saw to take us to our hotel.  Said a prayer of thanks for the safety of our day's travels.  Thanks to those of you who prayed!!