I have to tell you a story that is not directly about travel but illustrates some of the challenges of long-term travel. As we reached three months on our trip, Michael needed a refill of his prescriptions. We had arranged with his doctor for 90-day refills on the prescriptions and for Lindsey to ship the medications to us. We decided to do the shipping in Panama City because it is a big city with good international access.

Beginning with that premise, we made a series of decisions that cost us money and stress. As we were entering Panama they required that we show a return or onward airplane ticket before we were allowed to enter. Our next stop is Columbia and we can’t take a bus from Panama to Columbia because of an area called the Darien Gap that does not have road access. We purchased a non-refundable plane ticket to Medellin, Columbia for the end of October, giving us over two weeks to get the package.

We were told that we needed an address to receive the package so we contacted Holiday Inn to see if they would receive the package for us. They agreed so we booked two nights (non-refundable) at the Holiday Inn Panama Canal. This room was over twice what we are typically paying at hostels but we wanted a secure business to receive the package in case it arrived before we got there.

When Lindsey went to DHL to make arrangements to send the package she was told that sending the package to a private address caused additional customs issues. It would be better to receive it at the DHL office (completely different from the information we got on an online chat with DHL). As soon as we arrived in Panama City we located a DHL office to receive the package. We were lucky that the staff person at the office was very helpful and gave us all the information we needed. Little did we know that Jair’s helpfulness would be central to us receiving the package.

With an address to send to, Lindsey stuffed the DHL box full of all the things we had added to the list and sent it on what was supposed to be a two-day journey. Lindsey sent me the tracking number and I eagerly began to track the box. Because it was sent on Saturday, according to the tracking website, it sat in Stockton (or Clovis) until Monday. On Monday afternoon it left for San Francisco on to Cincinnati and arrived in Panama City on Tuesday morning. We were excited that everything was working as planned.

But then on Tuesday afternoon the box was pulled by customs for what they call a “clearance event”. That means that it has to have special processing. By Wednesday afternoon it was still being held for the “clearance event” and we were beginning to panic. So, we walked back to the DHL office to see if Jair could help us. He made some calls and said it would take three more days (three days would be Saturday so it was actually five days until Monday) to clear customs. That was a problem because we were set to fly to Columbia on a non-refundable ticket in two days. Jair made some calls and told us that for $45 we could hire a “special agent” to walk our box through customs and “perhaps” get it released by Friday (Michael thinks it is a scam but I think we paid for special service).

We left the DHL with our fingers crossed that we would get the box and not sure what the alternatives would be if not. I continued to track the package progress on the DHL website. By noon on Thursday the package had cleared customs and it was available for pick-up on Friday morning. We had moved to the Holiday Inn (which was a luxurious two night break from our usual budget accommodations) so it took us two buses and a lot of walking each way (instead of a $30 taxi ride) from the hotel to DHL, but we finally got the box!!

All’s well that ends well but we learned some important lessons about international shipping that will come in handy when more prescriptions are needed in 90-days.