The Panama Adventure

The license plate on one of our cars expires at the end of this month, so my objective yesterday was to get a new one. There is nothing like a new experience, a new sort of business transaction to make you realize how much Spanish you don’t know!

Step one was to get an inspection, or revisado. We headed to Breman’s, a shop that had been recommended by a friend. They needed our title/registration paper and proof of insurance, and then proceeded to do the inspection. One guy had us drive the car to the space in front of the garage, and then checked that all the lights and blinkers worked. A little while later, another came out with a camera on a tripod, battery dangling underneath, and took photos of each side, front, and back of the car.

The camera with the dangling battery

Then, we were directed to wait in the waiting room because it was going to take 15 minutes to process the photos. It was more like 3 minutes when someone came in to tell us it was ready. We paid $15 and change to the cashier, and left with our inspection paper.

When we bought our car it was registered in Dolega, but since we were going through the neighborhood of the Municipal Building in David, I figure it wouldn’t hurt to ask if we could get things done there.

We were directed to a cashier, who told me to go see the guy at the window that said something about “placa” if I remember correctly, which means license plate. He sent us out to get a copy of our inspection paper. When we returned with that, he sent us back to the cashier, who then sent us to see other people in a little glass room in the corner.

A man in the glass room spoke a little English, thank goodness because I was out of my element, and the place was so noisy it was hard to hear anything in any language. He said the car was registered in Panama (Panama City) so we had to go there, or else we could get the registration transferred to David for $86. OK, lets get it transferred. We were sent back out to the copy place for another copy of the inspection, 2 copies of Joel’s passport (his name is on the papers), copies of the title/registration, insurance, the paper that the license was paid for last year, and a few other things he picked out of our folder.

We return with our growing pile of papers and the lady in the glass office proceeds to go through them. Then she consults with the man who asks us what we were doing in Dolega. That’s where the transfer of papers was done when we bought the car. He explains that they can’t do anything there, and we have to go to Dolega. No problem, I thought maybe that was the case which was why I asked in the beginning about this.

So, off we go to Dolega. The lady in the office there says the car is registered in Panama (city) so she can’t do anything. I pull out the papers that say Dolega on the top, and she says “oh” and proceeds to type things in her computer. Then, she asks for $31 and hands over our new license plate, inspection sticker, and receipt! Just like that, no requests for copies of anything, and I don’t think she even looked at any of our papers. After all the going from person to person and making copies in David, I couldn’t believe it was that easy!

One car down, one to go. The other car has a tag that expires at the end of August. But, we leave for the US on Saturday so I’d like to get this taken care of before we leave. We won’t be back until the end of August and I know we’ll be tired.

Back to Bremans where I feel like I know the drill now. I hand them the necessary papers and the keys, and head to the waiting room. From there I see them put the car up on the lift, check all the lights, and then drive it off the lift without ever “lifting” it. The camera comes out again and they take their pictures. Shortly afterwards a guy comes looking for me to explain that they can’t do it now. The paper says August so they can only do it in August.

I’m not sure what we would do if we didn’t get back in August. But, I checked our itinerary and we should probably be back on the 22nd, so we’ll have time before the month ends.

You never know how things are going to go in Panama. We went from requests for copies of multiple things and being sent to multiple people, to a most simple transaction. The other car is registered here in David so hopefully that will be easy when the time comes. At least I know how to start – “Necesito un revisado, y aquí estan mis papeles y la llave” (I need an inspection, and here are my papers and the key). Just don’t call the waiting room or the photos by other names, or I’ll be lost.

Some people say it’s easy to get a back account here. Others say it’s impossible.

Our friend Eduardo has a friend at Scotiabank, so he took us in to the Boquete branch where she works. Here in Panama you can expect paperwork and hoops to jump through. This was no exception and we left with our list of things to do. But one by one we got all the requirements, and then we went back to the bank to finish it up.

The hardest requirement was getting a letter of recommendation from our bank in the US. First we had to submit a written, notarized request to them. A phone call, email, or other method wouldn’t do. This means we had to write the request, go downtown and visit a notary, go through their process of identifying ourselves and explaining the purpose of the letter, get it stamped, and mail it to the US (hoping our bank would accept the notary stamp from Panama). Then, our bank had to send their letter of recommendation to this specific bank here and our specific person. It sounds tedious but I can understand that everyone wants to be sure someone is who they say they are, especially when money and access to bank accounts is involved.

We also requested letters of recommendation from our lawyer, and gave three personal references. Joel needed his proof of income, and I needed our tax return since I currently don’t have income. We also needed a utility bill, I think to prove that we live here though the bill is in the landlord’s name. And, of course we needed copies of passports, another ID (US drivers license)… I think that was it. There was quite a pile of papers on the desk by the time that was all done.

Then, we had to sign dozens of papers for the bank. The lady was very concerned that signatures exactly match the signatures that were in our passports. But, finally, it was done, and we were taken to the teller to deposit money in our new accounts. We wrote checks from our USA account. There was a fee ($2.78/check) and we were told it should take about 15 business days for the checks to clear.

This was last Thursday, and I noticed today (Monday) that the checks have been withdrawn from the US bank. We have just signed up on the Scotiabank website and the deposits are showing there, but if we try to move money anywhere it says there aren’t enough funds so we’ll wait for the checks to clear. Then, when our money is available, we’ll try and pay the electric bill on line.

Little by little we are getting ourselves better organized. We have a Schwab checking account and debit/credit cards waiting for us in California. (They are supposed to refund any international ATM fees.) When we get them we’ll try accessing that money from here, which we can then put in our Scotiabank account. And, more important, we are establishing a relationship with a Panamanian bank. Hopefully we will apply for a construction loan on a house in the future, and we will be glad for this relationship.