Time to get a drivers license
So we´ve lived here for 1.5 years and never got around to getting our drivers licenses. If I was stopped, the police, for whatever reason...a smile or maybe an extra $5.00...would let me happily go along my way with a not so stern warning to get my drivers license. I kept putting that on my To Do list but that list never really has a starting or ending point so at times, it would fall off, only to reappear when I received my not so stern warning.
Well my smile didn´t work this time. The police stopped me in Anton (halfway between Rio Hato and Penonome) before Xmas. They often have checkpoints there and it was Max´s last day of Kindergarten. I was driving home from dropping him off ready to go for my daily horse back ride along the beach. The cop asked me all the appropriate questions and upon realizing I had been in the country for a year and half without a drivers license, he promptly told me to pull over.
For the next hour, I pleaded with him and begged his forgiveness so I could go on my way. He wasn´t budging. He told me I would have to call someone to come pick up me and the car. No license, no driving. Ugh. Well unfortuantely my lawyer was unavailable, my husband didn´t have his license and my options were limited. I finally thought to call the one of the employees of Buenaventura. "Alejandro, it's me Allison. I have a problem". Within 15 minutes I had a driver and a ride home.
So the next thing was figuring out how to get our licenses. The police in Anton told me I would have to take an exam in Spanish. That wasn't going to work. After a few phone calls, we headed down (with a driver of course) to Penonome, through Anton, to the drivers license office.
Very nice lady. We needed the following:
1. Proof of valid drivers license. This is different from your actual driver license.
2. Glucose Test. Do not ask me why. maybe to make sure you won't faint from low blood sugar after driving next to your typical panamanian taxi driver)
3. Visa.
First off, down to the U.S. Embassy in the city to get proof that our licenses were valid U.S. drivers licenses. That process took about 15 minutes, cost us, I don't know, maybe $40.00. My husband then had to verify that the verification was real. I don't really know the end part of this story...someting about going down to a Panamanian administration office. In any case, that took 3 or 4 hours. But back to my story.
Second, glucose test. Very strange indeed. We headed the next day back to Penonome to one of the gazillion clinics they have. Coley took his glucose test first. Fine. Then I took mine. I think the range is supposed to be something like 85 to 110. Mine was at 125. She pointed to the half eaten apple I had in my hand. I also told her I had just eaten a cookie. With a sly smile, she said "Let's just mark it down to 100". Perfect. $6.00 later we were on our way.
Headed back to the Drivers License Bureau. Took a vision test, hearing test and answered a few questions, including what was our blood type. That's a hard question. For some reason I've never had to know my blood type but in Panama everyone knows their blood type. Coley quickly jumped in to answer the question. There was no way he was going to let us get this far only to be sent home to have to return another day. I have no idea if his answer was right but as of right now I'm A positive.
So the process was actually much easier than we thought and still not sure why we didn't do this before.
Now, how do we deal with getting new U.S. licenses? I'll worry about that another day.