Panama (5th trip)

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ...

-Philippians 3:20 (NASB)

Well...it is that time again. Our 90 day visas will be up and we are preparing for our 5th visa run to Panama.

Costa Rica is a wonderful country with some of the most beautiful sightes we have ever experienced. Although Costa Rica has/relies on heavy tourism, it does not offer many options to foreigners for residency. Upon entering the country you will be issued a visa, the amount of days given depends on the country of your citizenship. US citizens are issued 90 days. Once your 90 days in the country are up you must immediately leave the country and remain outside the country for no less than 72 hours. There is little to no options for extensions on your 90 days. I say little to no because there are occasional exceptions depending on who you talk to. Officially, there is no option for extension.

All options for residency depend almost entirely on money. There are only a handful of options and most involve at least $200,000 in investments in the country. The only option offered that is not dependent on money (per-say) is to have a child born in the country. There is also a religious residency option but we are told this is usually reserved for those affiliated with the Catholic church. In short, we can apply for none of these options. 

We must operate our ministries on a 90 day visa. We have always chosen Panama as our "visa run" destination due to the cheaper prices of food and hotels. The Nicaraguan border has less options and prices are higher. In the past we have gone to David, Boquete and Panama City. Panama is a more developed country and the roads within the country offer a much desired break from the bouncy Costa Rican roads. It is interesting because you drive through very dense jungles to get to the border but once you cross it the jungles immediately disappear.

Panamanian Indians

This is always a dreaded experience for us although we try to remain positive. It is an unwelcomed added expense and the bus trip leaves us with nightmares for several weeks afterwards. After each trip on the bus we vow to never take the bus again to Panama but come 90 days later we always find ourselves out of options. We have tried both bus options to Panama and both tend to be about the same in experience. Usually the air conditioning does not work, windows do not open, bathroom is clogged and offers unimaginable aromas throughout the bus for the almost unbearable 7 hours to the border. There are other issues with these buses involving the drivers and prostitutes during our stops and at the border but I will not go into all the unpleasant details. (We have heard of others having an amazing trip on the bus to Panama. We are told we have simply had bad luck). The border typically takes about 2 hours to get through as you must wait for all the bus passengers to get through. It is another hour ride from the border to the city of David. This is the largest city close to the border but offers very little in things to do. You can basically eat and sit in your hotel.

We are planning to leave for Panama on Sunday. We plan to take the Tracopa bus. We will be going to David again since it will be the cheapest option and shortest bus ride. It should take about 10 hours to get there if (Lord willing) all goes well. We are preparing mentally for the bus ride and hope the lack of excitement in David will at least offer us some time to pray about our personal future as well as the future of Missions Costa Rica.

We usually take only backpacks and carry everything with us since we stay in hostels.

 We ask that you keep this trip in prayer as well as the future of  Missions Costa Rica. We plan to write more specifically on this when we get back.