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.

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.

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

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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With an hour to kill you went to a bar and drank. Then you went back. Now they had no room available. The only option was a scary hotel by the docks. You smiled again. On your way there, and again when you went to an internet cafe, drunk guys who always seemed to know a smattering of English, came up to you and wanted to shake your hand. You didn’t like touching sweaty drunk people so you offered a terrorist fist bump.

The hotel back at Old Bank had a boat so they drove you over to the main island where you caught a water taxi back to the mainland. While the small, fast-moving boat jumped over the waves you clutched your GPS in case you quickly had to mark the coordinates for a future dive mission to retrieve your bicycle.

Then you rode all day along virtually undeveloped countryside. Jungle lined the quiet highway on both sides and you thought back to Costa Rica and laughed at how the tourist brochures made the country seem like Panama with friendly people, great food, lots of wildlife and jungle everywhere.

Tomorrow you go over the mountain range that splits Panama down the middle. You should be able to make it in one day. If it takes two days you don’t care.

This post dedicated to the craziest writer on CGOAB.

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The girls staying here left this morning but not before a German couple arrived last night. It’s fine hanging out with a bunch of crazy backpackers in their early twenties but it would be nice to run into a solo female adventurer a little closer to my age bracket. The resident drug dealers on the island have been good company for my walks around town (no, I haven’t been a good customer but my nickname is “Miami”).

Everyone else that lives here kind of just does their thing and doesn’t pay too much attention to the gringos wandering around. Aside from the people that work in the tourist sector, everyone else makes their living by farming or fishing, which is to say that they have very little money. Hopefully things don’t get out of hand with tourism like it did in Costa Rica and ruin their culture (and environment). Foreign companies love to come in to places like this so they can take advantage of the economic situation. That’s already happening with a huge, and very controversial, beach club they are building on the other side of the island.

The famous palm-fringed wilderness beaches can be reached by following a narrow path for about a mile through the jungle. Yesterday I walked over to Wizard Beach and went for a swim. It’s a popular surf spot and swimming is mostly just bobbing up and down while the waves break over you. Rip tides are pretty common so you can’t stray out too far.

Tomorrow I’ll take off again and start riding over to the Pacific side of Panama and then heading south to Panama City where I fly out to Columbia. There’s a range of mountains in the middle which I’m looking forward to.

I was wrong about Costa Rica being an island. It is. That’s the only explanation for it being so profoundly different from everywhere else in Central America. To be fair, I’ve only been in Panama for one day but I love it here already and none of the things I disliked about CR seem to exist here. Drivers waved and honked, if I waved at someone on a bike or sitting outside they waved back and if I said good afternoon they actually responded. It was kind of amazing. The road from Bribri to the border ended up being (mostly) paved which was unexpected. No shoulder but traffic was very light. Of course as soon as I crossed into Panama the road was nicely paved and I had a shoulder all day.

Now for the border crossing. Of course I had no entry stamp into Costa Rica so I was freaking out a little when I pulled up to the immigration building. Sure enough they spotted the missing stamp. My plan to play the no habla Spanish card was foiled by an English speaking customs agent. He quickly launched into how serious it was that I didn’t have a stamp and that I’d probably have to go back to where I entered and get one. That made no sense and I could kind of tell where this was going so I drew first blood. I asked if there was a fine or something I could pay to resolve this. He went back inside to talk to his “boss” and then came back out with a little piece of paper. All it said was $50. That was more than what I had in my bribe budget so I countered with $20. His went back in to check with his boss. $20 did the trick and he came back out with my passport stamped. The next part was awesome. I had to go inside and leave the money in the bathroom. With the drop point established I went in with the $20 folded neatly in my passport and left it for him on top of the toilet (that was symbolic on my part). Walking out I did a casual head nod to confirm the transaction and I was off. Entry through Panama customs was no problem. I showed the agent my fake aitine ticket but I didn’t need it anyway.

The flat terrain I was enjoying ended soon after entering Panama but not before I had to ride around for half an hour figuring out how to get to the islands of Bocas del Toro. The Lonely Planet guide said there was a ferry that leaves from Changuinola every 45 minutes from some marine shop but I rode the 5km out of town and didn’t see it. My map showed another ferry crossing out of Almirante so off I went. After riding up and down 10 Guatemala-class hills (yes, I counted) I arrived in Almirante and headed to the docks.

A guy on a bike immediately rode up and said he worked for a water taxi company and I should follow him. Now this guy looked kind of thuggy and he asked a few times about my GPS and my necklace so when he turned down a side road I balked and told him I wanted to go check out the ferry situation myself. He was kind of pissed but whatever. Turns out he was right. No ferry until tomorrow morning. I went back to the turnoff and he was there waiting.

For $6 I secured passage on a boat and donned a life jacket. The ride over was fine but I wanted to go to another island that’s supposed to be more laidback so I went off in search of another water taxi. This one got me to my home for the next couple nights for $7 (I was the only one on it so I had to pay more).

The islands of Boca del Toro are pretty cool. There are 6 of them: the main island where the first boat landed was Bocas del Toro on Isla Colon. I opted for the village of Old Bank on Isla Bastimentos. There are no roads here, just a wide footpath that winds through brightly colored wooden houses. The 1500 people here are of West Indian descent and the place has a strong Caribbean feel to it. The place I’m staying is called The Jaguar. All the rooms sit over water so I can look down between the floorboards and see fish. I’m planning on staying 2 nights but that could change.

Broke 15,000 miles today.

If I write a book it’s going to be called The Gold Necklace and I’ll use the picture of me in Alaska for the cover.

Happy birthday to my little sister Stephanie and my cousin Zach.

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My plans to stop early and camp at Parque Nacional Cahuita were foiled. I was so looking forward to a nice swim too. According to the ranger they closed up the camping areas a couple years ago. Getting in still cost $10. Locals pay $2. Yet another rip-off. She said I could enter the park back up the highway at the town of Cahuita for a “donation”. Well let me tell you about donations in Central America. When they ask for one it’s not an optional thing. There’s a set fee and you either pay it or you don’t get in.

After riding a bit more I saw a sloth sanctuary that looked pretty cool so I rode inside the gate and then promptly turned around and kept riding. They wanted $25 to get in. Freaking zoos are cheaper than that.

Tomorrow Panama and boy am I glad.

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The place I’m staying is Hotel Acon. Little pricey at $37 but one place was more ($56–Park Hotel) and 2 other hotel wouldn’t let me bring my bike in the room (Hotels American and whatever the one is across the street). The city itself is surprisingly clean for having a decent-sized port and I was riding around all over the place. Even the the area along the water looked nice.

Nothing exciting on the road today. Just more ranch/farmland. It’s hard to believe this country used to be completely covered by trees. Traffic sucked even more than yesterday. Maybe it’ll be better tomorrow. At a roadside bakery I was talking to the owner and he said the same thing that I’ve been noticing, people here have less respect for tourists than the other Central American countries. No surprises there but it’s a shame because, handled correctly, tourism doesn’t have to be a disaster like it is here.

Found an internet cafe with a printer so now I have proof that I’m leaving Panama on the off chance that they ask. I just went to American Airlines and found a flight from Panama City to Bogota (via Miami for $636?!). They let you put it on hold so I didn’t pay anything. Hopefully that works and I don’t get busted for being here illegally. I’ll book the flight for real when I get a little closer.

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When a pedestrian gets killed they paint a heart with a halo over it onto the road. Saw quite a few today. As you can see from the picture of the family walking down the road its not surprising that people get run over a lot. It’s either walk on the road or walk in the tall grass with the poisonous snakes. I also saw a lot of ambulances on the road today too. It’s probably easier for them to just drive around knowing an accident is bound to happen sooner or later. Or the same one just followed me all day figuring I’m a sure thing.

Met a couple touring riders from the Netherlands this morning. That was a bit of a surprise. They are just riding around Costa Rica (for some crazy reason). The first thing they said was how bad the roads were.

I did meet one of the 8 nice people in the country today He runs a fruit stand in town. I loaded up on some delicious tangerine fruit juice and he gave me about a dozen bananas to take along. I’m glad I found the place because I needed something to even out all the rtards I encountered today.

It was very hot again today but I beat the rain by an hour. I can’t seem to drink enough fluid though and I’m downing a lot. Didn’t go to the bathroom all day which is pretty bad.

I posted the fact that I’m here illegally (no entry stamp) on the Thorn Tree forum to see how bad it’s going to be when I try to leave. It sounds like just playing the no habla Spanish card might work. We’ll see.

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