![\"The](\"http:\/\/panam.whensparksfly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/2014-09-09-12.15.51.jpg\")
<\/a>The Great Wall of the Sparksmobile<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>A group of travelers waiting in a smelly police parking lot for our VIN inspections.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>These folks are from Florida. They aren’t shipping, but their truck is so cool I had to take a picture of it. Yes, that is a real airplane fuselage on top!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>While waiting at the port I had the opportunity to watch customs officials helping themselves to the contents of trucks. This guy is snagging a nice new shirt for his buddy.<\/p><\/div>\n
We hired a shipping agent to help us through the process. It involved two full days, at least 2 dozen copies of a dozen different documents, and innumerable stamps, signatures, and inspections, followed by a day spent in the port of Manzanillo, a loud, dirty and thoroughly unpleasant place. I’m exaggerating, but only a little. <\/p>\n
If you’re interested in what the process was like, I posted a detailed write-up on expeditionportal<\/a>. If not, read on for photos from the rest of our time in Panama City!<\/p>\n While not dealing with shipping, we enjoyed some of the sights of Panama City, in particular the famous canal.<\/p>\n The Puente de los Americas (Bridge of the Americas) spans the canal a short distance from our hotel.<\/p><\/div>\n We see giant cargo ships passing behind our hotel every day.<\/p><\/div>\n The highlight of our time here was a visit to the Miraflores locks where we had a nice dinner and watched the locks in operation.<\/p><\/div>\n The locks had a great visitor center, which featured models of the trains used in the construction of the canal.<\/p><\/div>\n To get back to Panama City from Colon, we rode the Panama Canal Railway, which we had been promising to Quinn for months. It was a big hit!<\/p><\/div>\n The inside of the train was very nicely done in wood.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>