Trudging Day

I spent the better part of yesterday trudging behind my wife and our lawyer as we made our way through the byzantine Panamanian bureaucracy as we tried to make progress on my application for a resident visa (something needed for the condo bank loan). The best news was the day spent in Panama City was worth it since the stamps we got there were recognized by the stamp inspectors here.

Reward for Long Day - Dinner (and laughter) With My Wife's Family

Once that was established we parked the car in central David and moved through various governmental offices to get the appropriate documents and then other offices to get those documents stamped (of course). It really is a fascinating process (tongue firmly in cheek during that comment). In most places you had to go to one window to get the document, then sent to another window to pay the usually small fee, before returning to the original window to get the need document out of bondage.

My View Most of the Day as I Walked Behind my Wife and Our Lawyer

We also needed copies made of everything which is cottage industry in retail stores surrounding governmental offices. I know I got a lot of curious glances during the day as to why a big gringo was haunting civil offices. I also needed to get a physical to assert I was in good health. It was the easiest physical ever as it only involved lifting a five dollar bill out of my wallet to pay for the needed certificate (I must exude good health!). We ended the very long and humid day at the Notary where everything had to be notarized (at $5 a page) with the requisite stamps (of course). I will say that by the end of the day processed documents are a thing of beauty with all the paraphernalia hanging off them as well as the stamps.

Luckily the regularly scheduled monsoon rains held off (only appearing when we have an inbound flight apparently) and we stayed as dry as you can in 100% humidity. Today we’ll find out if all our work yesterday was worth it as we have a 2pm appointment with the immigration office (stay tuned). We were recompensed for the very long day with a couple video calls back to the USA so the Panamanian branch of the family could bask in the reflected beauty of the First Blog Reader. As usual she was very busy with a couple of her toys but she did deign to bless us with a couple of her signature smiles and hand waves. We topped that off with a family dinner at El Fogon, my “go to” neighborhood eatery here. Unfortunately for all of us, my daughter hasn’t shared any new pictures of her today so we’ll have to make do with some repeats.