After an enjoyable night passage, we are in the border town of Obaldia. The town situated at the southern end of the country, is an easy access point for drugs and guerrillas, so has a high military presence, there is an armed guard post on the main dock.
Checking into the country here was not easy, the love paper work, everything is written out by hand. Our first stop was to the guard, after looking over our papers, we were sent to immigration our directions were to walk to the palm tree turn left go over a wooden bridge, you should see it. simple !!! After getting totally lost, we ask a man who directed us to the right place. When we got there, we were told to sit, we were the only ones in the office, the agent would be back soon.
About ten minutes later a guy comes in carrying his lunch. He sat down at his desk, hid behind his computer and watched a TV on a table in the next room. about 30 min went by before he asked to see our passports. he the looked at every page and read every stamp. He then started filling out forms probably 4 papers for each of us, then gave us a e page form to fill out. Parents names, children’s names, ages, where are they all had to be written down. The best was shade of skin colour. luckily there was a place to get copies made just four doors away. They needed 3 copies of all documents. When we were finished we walked aback over to the guard post. the soldier looked over our papers then told us we now needed to report to the Port Authority funny it was 1 small street away from where we just came from. Upon arriving there we found it empty extended lunch hour. Again after waiting for awhile the port captain showed up filled he necessary forms all written out by hand, stamped and singed. We paid our fees and Mistress was welcomed to the country. Back to see the guard it was now mid afternoon and starting to rain, but he didn’t hesitate, “oh my god”….. more copies. Every new formed copied twice. When we finally in the rain, he inspected all our forms and documents before calling for an agent to inspect our boat. No answer, nobody wants to get wet… Manana, tomorrow, we will be inspected first thin in the morning. A whole day went by but we still must complete one last thing to be admitted to Panama. we stood talking to the guard who is learning English, impressed with my Spanish. We gave him correct pronunciation of words he was having trouble with.
We returned to Mistress, to wait for morning.
