Clearing into Panama

Dolphin completing paperwork

Wow what a load of talk there was about Panamanian authorities and their ability to change the entrance fees depending on their mood of the day. Some cruisers had paid $400+ for the pleasure of clearing into Panama and then spoke to a fellow yachtie on the same sized boat with the same crew number that had gone to the same office, spoke to the same official and been charged $300. Even $300 for us was an astronomical amount of money so with time on our side we decided to scope out the officials ourselves, deal with the bureaucracy alongside two other boats and you know what, it paid off! How much did we pay to clear into Panama? Zilch!

We chose to sail to Portobelo where there is only an immigration office and they charge you nothing for a stamp in the passport. From Portobelo we caught the bus to Colon ($2.40), an hour and a half bus ride away. First stop, the port authority office which is opposite the Citibank. Yes we had to wait an hour for the port captain to arrive but when he did, more paperwork was completed and no money changed hands. We weren't asked to pay for a cruising permit either which are usually $193 a pop. For more information on where the offices are, you can find it all on Noonsite so I shan't go into detail on logistics. No cruising permit is required to transit the canal.

Finn and Petra lunching outside the Captain's office

 The most important thing we learnt from the experience was that you really don't need an agent. If you have a day to spare (or half day if your boat is already in Colon) then the bureaucracy is easily completed by yourself. An agent charges around $300-$500 (this includes Canal Transit paperwork) to take your papers to these offices and you always pay top dollar on the fees. We saved ourselves almost $700 ($300 agent fee, $193 cruising fee, $100 p/p visa fee).