PowerCycle

Sadly, I think Antigua, Guatemala might lose the top spot on my list of most beautiful cities. Cartagena has everything: cobblestone streets, buildings dating back to the 17th century, Spanish forts, tree-lined plazas and lot’s of interesting things to see on the streets. Last night we went walking around and ended up at a small plaza where some kids were playing soccer (on one end 2 statues were used as goal posts). Lot’s of people just hanging out enjoying the cooler temperatures. A TV news crew even made a visit, presumably just to catch the local happenings around town.

The city is very safe and a strong police presence, especially in the touristy areas, helps keep it that way. Almost every other corner has a police officer on it. Several other corners also have some “ladies of the night” who do a cute little dance if they see you. I think it’s a good sign that the police aren’t packing huge machine guns like they do in… well, everywhere else. All the ones I saw just had a night stick and a handgun. The gringo presence here is still very small for such a large city (pop. 1.1 million). Hopefully it picks up because it really is an amazing place.

Karin and Marten leave for their home in the Netherlands tomorrow and won’t be back for a few weeks. I’ll miss them and it’s going to be strange not seeing them all the time but I’m happy they are able to make it home for a family visit. I still have to plan a route through Colombia so that’ll keep me busy tomorrow. Not too sure which roads I want to take south but I’ll stick to main roads due to repeated warnings about FARC activity further south and into the jungle areas on the other side of the mountains. I’ll look to head out Tuesday morning.

Mmmmm.

Some pesos.

Yep, there’s a Hard Rock here.

Each city has its own license plate.

Took another chicken bus ride over to the Miraflores locks, one of 3 sets of locks on the Panama Canal. We got there just in time to watch a ship pass through. It was pretty interesting watching the whole process. For one thing I thought they towed the ships but the train things on the side just kept the ship from smacking into the walls–it moved ahead under its own power. They also let east-bound ships through in the morning and west bound ones in the afternoon.

At the mall next to the bus terminal we found a Dairy Queen. I sure did miss those Snickers Blizzards. They are cheap here too. Only $2.50 compared to $6.00 in Canada and whatever they are in the States ($4-something?).

After we got back it was time to pack my bike. Except for one minor bolt on a water bottle cage that I snapped off, everything came apart easily enough. There was plenty of room in the box the frame and wheels. I just hope the airplane people don’t toss it around too much. Credit goes to Karen for taking all the pictures of me getting my bike ready.

First ship coming into the lock.

The guys on the bow were having fun.

I think they said this ship paid $78,000 to go through the canal.

The boats had plenty of streering assistance.

They paid $500 to go through the canal.

Bunch of weird people taking pictures.

Dirty work.

Checking to see if the bike will fit.

Hard at work.

Finished!

10/04 Panama City is just like Miami except more people speak English here. I stole that from Lonely Planet. After being here for the afternoon and heading into the more lively areas for dinner, I think it’s more like New York though.

Traffic was definitely like NY. The PanAm for the last 20 miles had the most wretched shoulder so most of the time I had to ride on the roadway. Oh and it rained the entire time too. I’m sure I used up at least 2 of my 9 lives.

My luck changed when I arrived at the Bridge of the Americas. There was a minor traffic accident on the other side so traffic was moving a crawl. Perfect for me since there was no place to ride the bike except in with the cars. It was pretty cool riding my bike across the Panama Canal. Since traffic was moving at a snail’s pace I had lots of time to stop and look around. The bridge and entrance to the canal were both quite the sight. The bridge is extremely high to allow the cargo ships to pass beneath.

The next adventure was finding the hostel where Karen and Martin were staying. I thought I was all slick pulling the GPS coordinates off Google maps using the address they had for the place. With the waypoint marked on my Garmin I took the ocean route knowing that I’d be able to find the hostel whenever I decided to head in. Well that didn’t work out. The address Google maps shows for the hostel is wrong and my paper map only had major streets marked. So I had pretty much had no idea where the place was. I kind of knew what intersections it was close to so I rode around on busy, one way streets, in the rain, with crazy drivers honking at everything for 2 hours. Finally I thought to myself I really just need to see Karin and Marten walking down the street. Sure enough not 10 minutes later that’s exactly what happened.

After settling in and having a few beers, Karin and I went over to the bike shop and picked up a bike box for me so that’s covered. They also picked me up 2 really big shopping bags I can use to pack my gear into. Then we took my first Chicken bus ride ever to grab some dinner. We even got to see some street ladies getting hauled away by the policia. It’s a bit of a culture shock this city. It’s seriously just like walking around Lower Manhattan except there’s less people. Neon signs abound, street vendors hawking everything, major chain stores on every corner and massive skyscrapers.

Kind of sad that this was my last day riding on the North American continent. It was about 10 months ago that I crossed over into Mexico where I’d end up riding around for the next 6 months before getting into Belize and officially entering Central America. My flight leaves for Colombia on the 8th so I’ll be hanging out here till then.

GPX Track

Am I in the wrong country??

Riding (slowly) across the Panama Canal.

I can’t lie; this part sucked.

09/27 2 records broken today. The mountains running down the middle of the country provided a healthy dose of never ending hills once I made the initial climb. 6124 feet is my new number to beat for elevation gained in one day. My Dad won’t like this but I broke my top speed record at 44.4 mph. Panama is only about 40 miles across in this area. I was within 12 miles of riding from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean in one day.

The climb up into the mountains wasn’t bad but the hills after that were relentless. Fortunately traffic was light and there were a couple places to grab some water. I didn’t even stop for lunch so I’m looking forward to dinner tonight. A sign indicating the continental divide (3,600 feet) was at the top of the first big hill and the views back to the Caribbean Sea were amazing.

At about the halfway mark I arrived at Lake Fortuna. Not sure how much of it was natural since a massive dam held the water back but it was pretty nice looking. There were a few touristy shops selling all kinds of food/drink so I bought some candy. The surprise of the day was at a checkpoint. The guard actually asked to see my passport. It ended up being kind of a pain because my stupid Pacsafe money belt broke (both zippers) so now it’s kind of buried in my front pannier.

The weather cooperated all day except when I started the big descent. Rain came down in buckets right up until I found a cheap, little motel to stay at ($10). My detour into Chiriqui Grande for a hotel could have ben avoided. Not too far after the turn toward the mountains was a little motel. Oh well.

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Thought I might have to tow it out.