I don't know what the very latest situation is, but we got our Panamian Visa's in Costa Rica because we enjoyed cruising the area just South of the Costa Rica boarder. In the past visas were not easily available in Pedegal, the first port. I am not sure if a tourist card is satisfactory when you come by boat--we have always obtained the visa. This way, if we were checked by a patrol boat, we would have out visa ahead of time. Also check out about the necessity for a cruising permit. In the past, if you were just transiting the canal, a permit was not necessary--but it may vary. At that time the San Blas Islands were not requiring the permit (at times there has been friction between the Kuna Yala Nation and Panama---and the Kuna's do not want the Panamanians telling them how to run the Islands, even though some of the Indians were members of the Panamian defense force). There are two ways of cruising Mexico and Central America. One is to stay in marinas, and go to the "Tourist restraunts". The other is to anchor out and go ashore where you please, go to the various fishing camps, to the restraunts which the Locals frequent. We rarely stayed in a Marina--In fact never in Mexico. We avoided the tourist places and for the most part other Americas, except those on boats. This gives a much better picture of life and to us was a much more enjoyable experience. It depends on the country and situation, but in some cases it is not necessary to "Check in" until you reach the first port. Some of these may not apply to Scott, since he will be checking in at Enseneda, but we would sail directly to Cabo or La Paz and if it was a weekend, anchor at one of the Islands, and check in on Monday. For Central America, we checked in only at the major ports. In Costa Rica, it s a long way from the wonderful national parks at both the Northern and Southern Pacific coasts, to a port, so we just anchored and took our time. We were never questioned, but avoided going ashore or having direct contact with people. Many of these areas are not heavily populated. The first place we could check in at Costa Rica, was Playa Del Coco--and that was sporadic--but possiable. Same for Panama, we didn't check in, until we got to Balboa--but had spent a few weeks lazily going down the coast. I cannot comment on how this would be accepted today. This was where Ham radio was so handy to talk to other boaters who were in the area, and feel out the situation. On our last trip, I had dinner with the finance minister of Panama (didn't realize who he was, until later that evening) several weeks before we checked in. --so things can be fairly "loose" at some of the fishing camps. Take care, Bob Austin