There are a wide variety of used and new car dealerships in Panama, including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Ford.  However, if you just cant live without your car, here is a summary of the process of shipping a car to Panama:

1 Obtain Customs broker in Panama (Gina Gomez 236-2092 CC Plaza Aventura Piso 1 Oficina 125 Via Richardo J Alfaro Eldorado Republic of Panama Panama)
2  Buy car in USA, get it serviced, new tires, etc, get title, bill of sale, purchase invoice (must say word invoice)
2  Get USA customs broker out of miami (305) 885-4855, (786) 206-6419 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it tell customs broker to send electronic bill of lading with car.  They make booking number appointment with Seaboard.
3  Take car to port of Miami with booking number do inspection kiss car goodbye, USA customs wants two days at the port to inspect the car, they want the original title also, the customs broker will send the title back to you after they are satisfied.
4  Call customs broker in Panama tell car arrival time, advise electronic bill of lading is with car needs to be printed at port.  Fedex, invoice, bill of sale to customs broker.
5 Car arrives Panama, get car out of port otherwist pay $15/day storage.  Advise customs broker to

Just got out of a fantastic movie, Julie and Julia, which was showing at MultiPlaza Mall.  We enjoyed dinner in the food court and a movie for about $14.00.  You just have to love that!  The movie theatre was clean, the sound was first class, and the seats were extra comfy.  Granted, it took about a month for this fantastic movie to make it to Panama, and not suprisingly, the theatre was almost packed, but we left with smiles on our faces.

The Takeaway:

As the sky opened up and the rain pounded down, the drums just got louder.  The experience, in fact, almost moved me to tears to see the strength and fortitude of these young men and women marching through the inundated streets of Panama.  They never missed a beat, and their spirits remained high.  Students from all of the large schools in Panama braved the terrible weather today and the band played on.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to check out the Costa Abajo on the Caribbean side of Panama for the first time.  Wow, was I impressed.  The topography is actually quite different from the “other” side of our Caribbean Coast, which is called the Costa Arriba, or The Upper Coast.  Costa Arriba is by far the more popular touristic area, and includes places like Portobello, Isla Grande, and Playa Langosta.  Costa Abajo, on the other hand, is virtually unknown and up until a few years ago was relatively inaccessible.

Cruise Traffic Exceeds Expectations

Headlines in the local papers last week reported hopeful news out of Colon 2000, the main port and cruise ship hub on the Caribbean coast of Panama. Last August, Royal Caribbean announced that they would be moving the Enchantment of the Seas operations to Panama because of visa difficulties that their Latin-American-based passengers had experienced in previous years trying to get into Florida to start their cruise.

This past December , Royal Caribbean embarked on their first Enchantment of the Seas cruise, marking another first for Panama The results of their first season's operations exceeded all expectations, with the biggest surprise coming from the local Panamanian market, who accounted for over 11% of overall cruise traffic on the Enchantment line. More than