Additional Panama Border Crossing Information

Views

From Drive the Americas

People's experiences vary depending on crowds at the border, corrupt or honest border officials, and rules can also change. Read about individual experiences at specific borders below.

[edit] Entering Panama

Paso Canoas, March 13, 2009

This was one of the more orderly and efficient border crossings we have encountered after 7 Central American countries. The officials were wearing uniforms, and while children and others offered to help us through the process, they weren't particularly pushy about it. A wandering official outside of the building with a white shirt (see picture of his shirt) and badge gave us our sticker (which cost a dollar) while we were waiting in line at the migracion window. We had to present our passports to migraction who then gave us our tarjetas to fill out and bring to the Tourism window. We then went to the aduana window to present our passports and vehicle title to get our car import permit. They asked how we planned on leaving Panama with our car, and told them we would be shipping it from Panama City. With the permit in hand, we had to find a D.F.A person, who was wearing a black vest and had a badge. He looked in our car and asked us what we were bringing in to the country, and may have been asking for a small bribe, but his Spanish was so fast and he didn't speak English so he gave up after we looked confused. Another wandering official came over to point us towards a separate window, where we had to pay for the fumigation. We then drove through the fumigation station and were on our way. The highway leaving the border was a great 4 lane paved highway - quite a pleasure after the gravel roads in Costa Rica. --Posted by Kristin

Sixaolo - Guabito crossing (North)

Into Panama - Insurance needed! Then you cross the bridge - it is a little scary but huge trucks pass here.. On the left hand side right after the bridge is the fumigation (at least for motorcycles) which is 1 USD. Two windows down is Migration. Then - before going to Aduana - you need insurance. THIS IS NEW - initiated June 15th 09 - and costs 15 USD for one motorcycle for one month. We did not pay for any sticker or for tourist cards. The temporary vehicle import permit was also free (good for 1 month). No hassle - 2 hours and we were off..   The road to Sixaolo was in places not too great - but not bad - and follows the coastline at some point - beautiful.. After Guabito the roads are good and plentiful - which is very confusing - but people are very helpful - which is good - since there are no road-signs.. --Posted by Louise

[edit] Exiting Panama

Sailing from San Blas Panama to Cartagena, Colombia, April 11, 2009

Our ship's captain took care of immigration for us at one of the tiny San Blas Islands - he needed our passports and did the rest himself. For info on boats sailing from Panama to Colombia, see The Darien Gap

Want to add information or your experiences to this site? Join our community! If you would rather not edit this page yourself, please look at other ways to contribute information to this website.