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Sarigua National Park
Always looking for a site or monument to visit, we find a church north of "Santiago".
San Francisco de la Montana Church has one of the most beautiful and harmonious interiors in Panama;
Mainly in wood, the altar dates from the colonial era.
The famous guide ' Le petit futé " the rating at 1 star !!! funny guide
After this beautiful discovery we reach the "Parque National Sarigua" at the end of the afternoon and we stay there for the night.
Santiago
Definitely Panama is poor in sites to visit.
The many hikes are impracticable in this season and reduce the scope of our visits.
Leaving Boca Chica, we stop at the "El Nancito" viewpoint with its view of the valley and at the archaeological museum where we admire petroglyphs (unfortunately we have no explanation of their meaning and origin).
We absolutely have to stock up on food and spot a supermarket in "Santiago"...
We spend the rest of the day in a gas station parking lot and that will not be the best idea…
All night we are lulled by the engine of a refrigerated truck and the arrival of other trucks.
Nearly sleepless night for Christophe .... Jean Pierre didn't hear anything!!!
Boca Chica
Departure quite late and short stop to admire a mini waterfall.
We do some shopping in a fairly empty grocery store and give up buying bread. Here it is soft and looks more like a milk roll.
According to the guide "Le petit futé" the small fishing port "Boca Chica" is a must on the trip.
Unmissable : 3 stars....
We did not find anything unavoidable .... a small street lined with unattractive houses descending on a nondescript quay ....
Anyway, we ask to spend the night there because the secondary roads are not maintained and filled with holes.
However, we are pleased to meet "Léa et Ugo".
A casual discussion in the rain. .... always present at the end of the afternoon.
Boquete
We wake up with the sun.
We take advantage of this morning to visit the city which has no cachet and abandon the hiking project: the paths are flooded and muddy.
The afternoon is spent in the motorhome updating the site, reading and preparing for the rest of the trip.... It's raining but less than the day before.
Boquete border
We cross the border at "Pasa Canoas".
The exit from Costa Rica is done quickly in 30 minutes, on the other hand the entry into Panama is longer : about 1h30.
According to the official Panamanian tourism website, we have to pre-register before crossing the border and it turns out to be a hassle. In addition to the form, they ask us for copies of the passports as well as the health pass... 2 hours in total to get our QR CODE!!!
Once at the border post, immigration asks us to fill out the form on paper. We tell them that we have already completed it online....Yes, but they don't have a scan to read the QR CODE!!!
We then buy insurance for the motorhome before getting the visa because, here, the insurance is compulsory
After obtaining the visa, direction the customs for the TIP of the camper and finally payment for the fumigation.
We take the road to "Boquete" stopping at "David" capital of the region to withdraw dollars. This is the first border where we don't find a "Walking Changer".
That's bad luck...In Panama they don't change Costa Rica's "Colones".
On our arrival at the campsite, we find a Canadian couple that we met in Guatemala.
A pouring rain greets our arrival until 10 p.m. ... Welcome to Panama
Our odyssey continues... finally
In March 2020 the whole world was confined due to the arrival of "Covid 19" which no one knew about, except its speed of contamination, more or less serious depending on the people affected.
In Europe, the number of cases was increasing at high speed and the number of deaths was following the same logic.
The consequence of this epidemic was that all land and air borders closed one after the other without notice and a large number of travelers found themselves stranded within 24 hours.
We were in Costa Rica during our president's speech and decided not to return immediately, on the advice of our doctor. Indeed, here the country had only 5 deaths and around 100 cases and the health rules had been taken immediately (mask, temperature measurement and gel)
We stayed 2 1/2 months with "Majorie and Alexandre", and finally adopted them.
Our return to France was laborious and during the 10 months that we spent there, we only saw the family... in two words, we lived like hermits.
We absolutely had to return to Costa Rica within 1 year to get our campsite out of the customs, otherwise the authorities would have confiscated it.
In March 2021 we are back but the land borders are not yet open.
We are in the middle of the rainy season and make the choice of driving back to Mexico (in Baja California) where the climate is more lenient and very pleasant.
During this time the virus continues to spread and multiply its variants.
In August 2021 we return again to France where we catch the virus the day after our first injection!!! The next two weeks have been particularly painful.
We remain in France the necessary time to have our three injections which are essential to enable us to travel again.
The air borders are gradually reopening but not the land borders. Wanting to continue our journey in South America, we are waiting for the opening of the borders between Colombia and Ecuador and the borders between Ecuador and Peru.
The other borders further south are reopening with many restrictions.
In December 2021 Colombia and Ecuador open their land borders... finally good news. Then it's the turn of the borders between Ecuador and Peru in March .... Yippee the way is clear.
Here we are again on the roads in March 2022... our odyssey can continue after 2 years of forced stop.
We have learned a lot from social networks about the future of other families traveling in a motorhome or not.
The conclusion is sad: many are those who have completely stopped their trip, others are thinking of resuming and some are already back.
The dream of some travellers died ... with a lot of bitterness
We are very lucky....Our journey continues.
Despite our misadventures concerning our motorhome (some essential repairs) we reached Panama by re-crossing all of Central America .... a journey of 4,500 km between "Mazatlan - Mexico" and "Paso Canoas - Panama".
We crossed 6 border posts with varying degrees of difficulty. The conditions of passage have been modified due to the "Covid".
We hope to be able to rediscover the history of ancient civilizations, marvel at monuments or in museums or simply meet other travelers and inhabitants of the crossed countries.
ROAD BOOK 108
MAVROS ODYSSEE
