We cleared out with the Port Captain and Immigration this morning. The Port Captain could not have been nicer which is unusual for most countries. Everyone at his office was very nice and helpful and eager to speak English. Of course now that Julie is gone I am eager to try my high school Spanish out( Julie speaks very good Spanish and tends to take the lead in these situations), but that is okay they speak English to me and I try Spanish back to them. The actual port captain saw me waiting outside after I was finished and came out to say hello and call me a cab. This is a first class operation which only cost $9.70 to clear. Salvador, Brazil could learn something from Panama!

On the other hand getting duty free fuel at Flamenco Marina was not easy. We called them on the radio as we approached the marina and they told us that we needed to wait two hours for fuel and could not enter the marina in the meantime. We anchored outside in the heavy south swell and then called them back after two hours. They told us it would be another fifteen minutes. We were tired of waiting so we entered the marina and called them again after the fifteen minutes, and now it would be another 10 minutes. Finally after another thirty minutes they ushered us in to the fuel dock. We filled on duty free diesel at $2.60 per gallon which is much less than the typical discount as non-duty free diesel is $2.74 per gallon. They did not even want a copy of our clearance from the port captain which makes me think the whole thing is pretty shady. This is all coming from a marina that charges $1.50 a foot per night. That should translate in to pretty good service, like Antigua, but unfortunately not.

Okay enough ranting, but Julie is gone so there is no one to calm me down for 41 days now. Actually we stayed in Flamenco Marina three years ago prior to heading in to the South Pacific, when it was first built, and frankly the operation was much better then in my opinion. Of course at that time one of our crew was mistaken by a security guard for a hooker sent to one of the Panamanian government officials who kept his boat there. Actually he gave me his card the day after and told us if we ever got in trouble to present it. I still have the card which basically is the monopoly equivalent of "get out of jail free" in Panama, so let the good time roll!