Even though we could have caught the bus out front of Land n Sea, on it's way out of town, we opted to go down to the Duty Free Zone and catch it at the start of the route, to ensure we had a good seat. By the time it went past Land n Sea, it was already standing room only!
The ride to the border was about an hour and a half.
The bus actually lets you off PAST the Costa Rica exit point. We got off the bus and walked forward and found Panamanian officials. But they sent us back to find the Costa Rican officials to officially exit Costa Rica.
Then we could proceed to the Panamanian side and enter the country. We were charged $7 per passport for a Panamanian tourist visa and $1 for a stamp of some kind.
It didn't look like a very secure border. As far as we could tell, you could walk in the front door of one of the shops from the Costa Rican side and walk out the back on the Panamanian side. But there was a border guard about half a mile down the road in Panama, spot checking paperwork.
Craig was there waiting for us at the border in Panama. We forgot when coordinating pickup that there's an hour time difference between Panama and Costa Rica!
The first stop was at Dave Bandel's farm in Bagala, Panama, where most of the HP2XBA Winlink station resides, and the Panama Sailmail station. Dave and Craig are partners in the operation (Dave provides the space and operates the setup, Craig runs the business and helps Dave with operations).
The Winlink/Sailmail operation is really just a couple of radios, PTC-2's, and computers, plus some large antennas out in the field. And it's housed in a non-descript old building and a couple of containers. So it's not very photogenic.
More on our trip later!
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