10/02 La Chorrera should be called the Lost City. Coming in from the south I hit a small area of commercial buildings and then a 4 lane road heading off the PanAm toward the west. I didn’t see a sign or anything indicating that the city of 60,000 was that way so I stayed on the PanAm for another mile. Looking back to where I thought the city should be I saw some cell towers but nothing else thanks to some very heavy tree coverage. Realizing the city had to be on the other road I turned around and rode back to it. After following it for a mile, the entire time not seeing any development, it dumped me right in the middle of a busy commercial area. Weirdest city I’ve ever seen.

Long day riding even though I was planning on stopping early. The weather was too nice so I just kept pedaling. I was kind of impressed with myself because even with some big hills at the end of the day I didn’t even feel tired. Bummed that I have yet to see the Pacific Ocean even though I was less than a mile from it. Trees blocked my view most of the time.

I saw something pretty sad and even though I strongly dislike dogs now it still bothered me. The highway, for some bizarre reason, merged from 2 lanes to one right before town so traffic was a bit chaotic. While I was watching for cars and potholes I looked over in the middle of the road and saw a black dog laying there with its head up looking at traffic coming toward it. At first I thought it was just stupid since I see them laying/sitting in the road all the time but when I looked closer I could see blood running out of its nose. I think someone hit it and it was either too hurt to move or maybe it was in shock. Cars were slowing down to avoid it and some people looked like they were waiting for traffic to break so they could help. The worst part was confused/scared look on the dog’s face. Brutal.

Since I’m closer to Panama City than I expected to be today I’ll stay here tomorrow and ride into the city on Monday. Karen and Martin are there so I’ll stay where they are until they leave on Wednesday. They found a bike box for me too so I don’t have to worry about that now. They are so good to me. The only things I have to worry about now are finding a huge bag to pack all my stuff in and hoping that they let me on the plane because I don’t have proof of onward travel. Many other cyclists have flown into Colombia on one-way tickets so its probably not an issue but still I worry.

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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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09/25 Just hanging out here on the island. The food, especially at a place called Roots, is delicious. The hostel is a cool place to lounge around and the owner has been really helpful with local happenings. The only negative is that they are building a new house on the water a couple buildings over so a chainsaw buzzes fairly constantly during the day. It could be worse though; it’s right next to the first place I wanted to stay that was full. The plumbing is kind of crazy. Both the shower and the sink drain straight down into the water. I’m glad I’m using natural soap/shampoo but it makes me wonder where the toilet ends up going and if it goes to a treatment facility why everything couldn’t drain there. The water on this side of the island, where most of the people live, looks clean enough but I think I’d pass on jumping it.

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.

03/17 The big hill ended up being bigger than I thought. The weather was favorable which helped. Cloudy with a nice cool breeze makes for good climbing weather. The ride back down was fun but the scenery wasn’t quite as nice as it was for the last couple days. Had 2 dogs run after me but a dirty look scared them off. I think my dog Dazzer is broken. I don’t even try to use it any more.

Tomorrow might be a short day because the Pacific Ocean is just a quick 30 miles away and I might not get to see it again for a long time. The city of Salina Cruz is a little out of the way but there might be a side road that gets me back onto the highway without having to ride back up the same way.

Saw K/M having lunch at the side of the road which was nice because they left an hour before I did so I didn’t think I’d see them all day. We met up again in town and looked for a place to stay. There’s a motel but we wanted to see if camping at the police station was possible. It was but the places available to pitch the tent were kind of exposed for my taste and the wind is brutal so I rode over to the motel and got a room. K/M were going to stay but the wind drove them over here too. It was so strong I saw it blow the tin roof off a shack. We had to ride into it for a little but luckily we were in town before it got too bad. There’s a big lake at the edge of town and I rode over to check it out but it doesn’t look like any of the land along it is developed. My dreams of staying in a lakeside cabin in Mexico might have to wait.

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02/19 Boy is it getting chilly up here. Broke 9000 feet this afternoon. The air temperature is about 55 F but the wind was strong and much colder. If the sun wasn’t out for most of the day it would have been rough. I’m going to be hitting a road in a few days that dips back down to the Pacific coast at Acapulco. I could stay along the coast for at least a couple hundred miles before I’d have to climb back up into the mountains. That’s pretty tempting right about now because it would be a lot warmer.

The roads weren’t bad but traffic was heavier than I thought it would be on rural roads. There was also a surprising amount of garbage for an area that actually looks really nice. Off in the distance I could see snow on top of one of the mountains.

Found a cheap motel in town that has hot water and cable TV (US $8.50). After getting cleaned up I went out looking for some food. The first thing that struck me was just how many internet cafes there are in this town. It’s not a big place either. It was big enough for me to get something fixed that’s been driving me crazy for months though. The sole on my right hiking shoe was coming off so I was pretty happy to walk right by a shoe repair shop. The guy did an awesome job on the repair and he only charged me US $0.38! I gave him more since I would have felt guilty about only paying that much.

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