We have heard a lot about Colon while we have been in Panama, almost all of it bad. We have heard that it is ugly, poor and dangerous. We had also heard that the train ride between Balboa and Colon is very interesting. Just to emphasis this we would learn later that an American family staying at the hotel visited Colon today, catching the train over and a bus back. At the Colon end the local police insisted on giving them an escort between the train and the bus, and the bus driver would not let them open the windows of the bus even just to take a photo. As we would learn first hand the ugly and poor part was evident.
The drive to the Colon area was uneventful, but we took two goes before we picked the correct port complex. It seems there are at least two separate ports in the area. Having found the correct port we then had to find the correct entrance. I think we tried 4 different gates before we found the right one and without Norms' command of Spanish we would never have found it. But the right gate only got us the instructions that we had to go back to a different gate and pay a storage fee as the vehicle would be stored in the yard for a few days. So like the borders Nina and I sat in the air conditioned vehicle while Norm worked with the officials to pay the fee and get the stamp. Then back to the correct gate, and low and behold, they let us through the gate. Seems we were in the right place. A bit more discussion by Norm with the officials and then it was time for the police K-9 unit to check the Tiger for drugs. This was done in short order. Then another official came and examined the outside of the Tiger and gave us a document to record the outside condition in case there is any damage in shipping.
At this point we were told - in Spanish you are done, put the key in the drivers door and leave.
It felt really weird, after all of the focus we have had on security to just walk away from the Tiger with the ignition key sticking out of the drivers door. I sure hope we get to see it again.
We completed the day and the process with a nice celebratory dinner at a water front restaurant, complete with Australian red wine.
