BORDER CROSSING GONE WRONG [This is ridiculous!] VANLIFE

we're heading towards panama today first stop  for the last night in costa rica pavones which is   a very popular surfing beach then tomorrow we're  going to get tested for covid 19. right now panama   only requires the antigen test and then after to  the border we go people had recommended pavones   so i read into it and back in the day a famous  surfer was flying over the coastline looking for   a perfect break and then he bought all the land  around that wave it's supposed to be one of the   longest waves in the world and it should be a  tranquil little surf town before heading to the   hectic border crossing so the last couple things  that we have to do before we cross the border   is basically just clean up the van we're gonna  head to the border tomorrow night to sleep   there we're gonna also get together our border  crossing stuff like our passports our copies   the pet paperwork the current paperwork and then  we also bring all of the expired paperwork just   in case they need to see any of that stuff  this is like the health pass from costa rica   insurance from costa rica that kind of stuff we're  almost ready to go i'm really really excited to go   into panama well this is an interesting  bridge that we found here no no railing   on our drive we're passing fields  and fields of palm plantations   these palms have no nourishment for wildlife which  destroys the habitat for so many creatures this   is a huge problem in central and south america  palm oil is in a lot of processed foods like   nutella and cheap peanut butters it's super bad  for the environment so best to find alternatives ah pavones is shaping up to be a really   nice spot that would be corcovado national park  out on the peninsula there the osa peninsula because danny's got some friends  while he's swimming today sombrita   so at least the cows get a nice little soak in  this humid humid warm weather then he's got his   soap on going for a little swim with  cows what did you think of the cows girl   and healthy at the beach cooking our own food the ultimate maxin and relaxin in here  when danny pulls up the hammock got the   side door open for a nice breeze got some vita  sleeping over there grammy's sleeping in the front   this is uh of our sadness leaving costa rica   heading towards the border now from  pavones which was a beautiful place it's definitely rainy season and that's why a  lot of people go to these countries at certain   times but we're gonna have to hit a rainy  season at some point and i honestly think that   the weather in costa rica has been beautiful  the entire time we were here even if there   has been afternoons thunderstorms or days that  we had to walk in the rain i still don't think   it was not worth coming or rescheduling to  go down another time i think it was always   really nice and because it rained so much here  you can see like right here how good they are   with guiding the water where it needs to go  jeez i don't know if that's a live wire or what   i guess that truck is just waiting back there but  you think we can sneak over here holy let's see looks like the surfboard is going  to clear it great oh my gosh oh that was tight wow that  was just scary oh my gosh uh we just got our nose jab it's been a while we  didn't need one to come to costa rica they just   have a health insurance you have to buy luckily  it's the cheaper test to go to panama the antigen   the more expensive ones called the  pcr so while we wait for our results   for the cobid test tell you guys some other things  we did to prepare for the border we also got the   pet paperwork we looked up online which coveted  test we would need make sure you check a pretty   valid source because it seems to change quite a  bit we can get an antigen or pcr which is nice so we spent the night here for 2600 colones, have  a bathroom and a shower here and we are very close   the borders just probably a kilometer away here  so we're gonna get into it quick this morning it's   uh 8 am i think we got up at 7 45 hopefully we'll  be in panama by noon come on good morning we're   going to panama today we're starting at 8 30.  here we go passing all these trucks so as always   so this is stop one here aduana customs of  costa rica we parked in the right spot here   at immigration but you actually have to cross  the street and pay your exit tax over here i just paid the departure tax now we're gonna  be able to get stamped out of costa rica   just around the corner from where we got  stamped out we're canceling the costa rican tip   the agent gave us a piece of paper to fill out  referencing the current tip how's everything look   oh it looks good it looks good yeah i just i'm  just gonna double check we actually got kind of   lucky because i noticed the vin number was wrong  on the import permit and we put the correct vin   number on our leaving paperwork and uh he didn't  even read the bin on the van so but that's like a   really good lesson for panama because we were  like we have to make sure every single paper   is done correctly and that's you know i can't  believe that we accidentally had the wrong bin but   now we know that it is possible to have the wrong  number on the paper so they better be careful the   whole time so now we get to go to panama happy  that this one's so quick yeah this is a lot   faster than nicaragua leaving maybe nicaragua  took like two hours that was it's only 9.7   oh on to the next side oh please i gotta read a  little bit of the steps on my overlander put a   gps pin to the exact right spot to park and head  on over wow so panama is already different off   the bat we have military officers here during  the inspection and costa rica actually doesn't   even have an army apparently the process  has changed a little so we're looking for   where you actually get this insurance he said  it's by the taxis over on the other side here   over here probably by these taxis this is vehicle  insurance you need for panama we just found the   engine number we've never needed it before but  we're worried when we ship to colombia that if any   number is is not there or wrong they'll give us a  hard time so make sure to wipe off this nastiness   and get a good picture of it awesome emily  got the insurance i'm having a little brekky   things are going well things are going well  but the one we worry about is the pet paperwork   sometimes a vet will even say oh the worst  that could happen is they decapitate your dog   and i was like i'm not listening to this bet  anymore sometimes you hear some really alarmist   things to try and pressure you into money right  now we're getting a slight tactic of that up here   there's a guy with a huge crate for animals  and he's been looking at some burritos so but supposedly entering this country   you do have to pay a lot for each animal 136  dollars per pet even though we paid probably   60 each animal to costa rica and vets there  for inspecting the animals giving us papers   leaving costa rica we didn't really do anything  for the pets but that step will be coming up here   entering panama so fingers crossed everything goes  well now we came back to sort of the beginning of   the building here to do the migration and  somebody left a passport here poor guy so   that's why i've been really careful every time we  put something down to remember we filled out our   customs declaration and we're just waiting for the  doctor i guess the doctor had to move his car it's   probably not a thing they would be doing a year  ago have a doctor here and it doesn't seem to be   a smooth process yet okay time to get a temporary  vehicle import permit for panama we have to get   the tip before i the passenger can get stamped  into panama well when trying to get the inspection   you know they took a peek and whatnot they sent us  back here to the doctor apparently she works with   pets too and we have to do something with her then  the guy will sign off in the inspection of the car   and now that we have the permit for the car  emily's got to do her migration stamp over there   now we have to pay for our pets to be imported  it's true it's 130 per pet which we think is   quite expensive actually it's the most expensive  yet but we have to do this to get our tip since   the agent saw the dog in the cat we would not  recommend doing the export paperwork in costa   rica since no one has looked at it and it was  unnecessary money spent on our part unfortunately   and you can get your COVID-19 test here  at the border for 46 dollars a person   which is actually cheaper than we  got but then you'd have to wait   30 minutes so now that we've paid 260 dollars for  this tiny piece of paper and the lady never looked   at the animals once we got to go to another agency  and pay more money basically paid 250 to get   from one country to the next nothing similar has  happened but now going from costa rica to panama   all of a sudden it's a ridiculous amount hi hi  baby anyway we're getting into the country and   it's important to have the right paperwork because  when we go to the next country it'll be by boat   you really want to have the right paperwork to do  that so that's the only reason we went through the   whole thing otherwise i would try to get around  it if you just walk the dog across the border   you avoid that whole thing on the rabies  vaccination papers they have some but it   was her weight when she was three months old so he  tried to put eight kilos on there and i said no no   she's like 22 kilos and he's like what like how  one was she eight kilos like she was only three   months old so um then i had to find a different  health certificate in our in our barely used um   expired paperwork from nicaragua so it does help  to have all the papers from every place ever   they signed off on our our temporary import  permit for the vehicle now that we've finalized   all the stuff in there aka animals so last step  we're gonna go pay over here and get fumigated   the guy with the pet paperwork danny had talked  to him before i went over and did the rest of the   steps and said oh it's so annoying that we do all  this stuff for the pets and no one ever even looks   at the pets so whenever i was finished i he he was  finished with the papers he gave me the papers and   he said oh we'll do an inspection now and i said  okay so i took him around to the side door and he   said oh is this your dog and it's like somebody  done just pet her a little bit she gave him a   couple legs he was excited he was like oh nice  pets where's the cat and then he started petting   the cat i don't think it was a health inspection  i'm pretty sure he just wanted to pet the animals   because danny said no one ever looks at the  animals yeah you know whatever it looks at you pay   250 dollars each it's like let's see how expensive  your dog really is the 250 includes 90 each   for the paperwork that we thought was going to be  required from costa rica that nobody ever saw i'm   going to pan them on my voice okay our entrance  to panama just gotta get fumigated coming in here   so i'll shut off the intake oh there's just  a light mist oh how nice welcome to panama okay so yeah we have to show basically all  of our paperwork one more time to this guy   which is a nice fail safe you know if you  find out like oh shoot i don't have every   paper then this guy at least is gonna tell  you before you get too far before you get   to panama city and you can't get on a boat to  colombia well let's see let's see if he even cares again like i had been in costa rica 10 years  ago but i have never been here and it feels so   good it's 12:05 that means we did make it by noon  like i was hoping and the total time was 8:30 8:30   we started yeah so then that's three and a half  hours not great not bad not bad not too bad   there's there have been easier borders but we had  to make sure everything was gonna be perfect so   and we've already seen a couple gas stations  the gas price here looks like 88 cents a liter   or regular whereas in costa rica it was more than  a dollar a liter so it's going to be kind of nice   first stop in panama is to do some van maintenance  this oil is not common um this far south   but it was only 48 dollars for six quarts  of synthetic but here he said the oil change   would just be 20 because we're coming  in with that stuff it seems okay to me   yeah yeah this oil change is not going well never  had a mechanic need help to remove the oil filter   we got out of there after you know helping  the mechanic youtube i youtubed it figure out   now you don't have to take apart the engine to do  an oil change so anyway we've got the oil change   hopefully now we can do a little relaxing but  when it comes to choosing mechanics that's always   really hard we found this one for my overlander  you go to all these countries thinking they'll be   different then you see the same chain wait that's  not mcdonald's every time we cross the border we   try to use up all our fruits and veggies so we  really don't have any food that's true so we're   gonna hit that groce looks like the big four here  are you turning left are riba smith ray super 99   and price mart so let's check out  our first grocery store in panama what are these ton of them this is their tortillas that's something different every country has his   own kind of tortillas but these  are like the weirdest ones yet okay finally to the good stuff the produce  section dang it's looking nice what do you   think you're gonna have to become a meat eater  no definitely not ah they got all the goods here   i haven't seen a produce section  this complete in a while honestly do you think this is a pomegranate and it looks like a little bit different right it  is a little bit different yeah it doesn't have the   top and it's a little bit  heavier and it doesn't feel as   thin i think we gotta try one just for your  sister and mom see what the heck's inside there   okay well that didn't mean these  tortillas are weird they're just different   the most different but some of them come  with stuff inside they're calling those   the last country that had really thick tortillas  we remember him was uh guatemala no el salvador   and we're kind of more fans of the thinning ones  but you know we're gonna try these see what it's   all about probably not from the grocery store  though the balboa i guess that's also the currency   which is technically just a dollar but sometimes  they call it the ball and the beer the changes seems easy to remember oh atlas and then  i like how they have ceviche here too   yeah i thought it was design it was good i found the first vegan ramen in years so what  did you think of the vegan selection in rey   oh i loved it yeah there's such there's  pretty good stuff there yeah we got some   chicken nuggets we got some soy milk they  have some soy milk brands we haven't seen   ramen or i can use the flavor packet  yeah and we even got some vegan cheese   thanks so much for watching our panama border  crossing today is our three-year van adversary   we've lived in this thing for three years  and we're so excited to bring you guys on   the journey with us it's been epic traveling the  world for three years now and we're really glad   to have you all along with us on the journey  all right we'll see you guys next time see ya

2021-08-08 21:30

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