Panama August 2009
John, our captain, made sure that we were well fed before we departed his boat. We woke up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and thought that we were still in a dreamlike state as the smell of bacon wafted through into our cabin. Sure enough, John, had woken up early to cook a full English breakfast and he surprised us with hot buttered sliced toast, bacon, eggs and fried potatoes. It was a breakfast we had been dreaming and drooling about for months on the road.
After our breakfast, we bid our farewells to his family and the three bikes, 16 bags, 3 cyclists and John, somehow squeezed into his dingy and he took us ashore...Panama, here we come!
Back in the UK, as we planned our adventure, we would pour over maps and we often wondered what Panama was going to be like - the land bridge between North/Central America and South America. The only thing we really knew about Panama was the famous Panama Canal, the rest we would have to learn about on the road.
Having been absent from our bikes for a few days whilst we were at sea, we were keen to hop on the bikes and get going. The three of us attacked the hills with vigour. The first thing that struck us was the humidity, which seemed rather intense, and within a short time, we were all drenched in sweat. The second thing we noticed was just how "American" Panama seemed. We past signs for Burger King, KFC and Subway. We were sad to see McDonald's litter lining the hard shoulder. American style 4x4s screamed past us, complete with tinted windows and at short intervals adverts lined the side of the road advertising luxurious condos in gated communities - suggesting that the American Dream could be played out right here in Panama. It wasn't an initial good impression!
We were relieved to find that the people were still friendly and we encountered waves and shouts of hello (in English with American accents). We had only been cycling an hour when a cyclist pulled alongside us and invited us to stay the night. It was a shame as we had only just hit the road and had our sights set on a good day of cycling, otherwise we would have loved to have taken him up on his offer.
As we left the nicer area around Portobello, the towns began to look more and more run down. The friendliness of the people that we had encountered earlier on in the day was slightly tarnished when a coconut was hurled at my head by a group of teenage boys. They had an excellent aim, hitting me square on the back of my head. I was thankful that my helmet did its job, otherwise it could have been quite dangerous. We were not too sure whether to go back and confront the group, until a group of adults who had witnessed the incident waved their hands to indicate that we should pedal on and not linger. In the distance we could hear them shouting at the boys, hopefully they explained the consequences of what could have happened.
Dave and I did not really want to enter Panama city, but as there were very little places to stay between Portobello and Panama City and no other road options to bypass the city, we decided to stay just the one night. We found a cheap hostel, Pension Las Palmeras (Avenida Cuba entre, Calle 38 y 39 No. 38-29, frente al Hospital Nacional) in the city centre and decided to carry out a few jobs the following day. Panama City could have been any non-descript US city - Panama had failed to impress us so far.
In the hostel we had flicked through "Panama Planner," a magazine aimed at both retired people and "medical" tourists. We were impressed by the photos of the country, advertising virgin rainforest, amazing beaches, surfing, mountain villages and incredible islands and looked forward to seeing a slice of it as we crossed the country...unfortunetely we didn't see any of this scenery.
Once on the road and out of the Panama City, we unanimously decided that in order for someone to get the most out of Panama they would have to have a car, a boat and a lot of money. If you look at a road map of Panama, you will discover where the problem lies. There is only one road, the Pan-American highway that cuts across the country from Panama City to the border of Costa Rica. As a cyclist it is very difficult to sightsee as it would mean departing the main road and then having to backtrack on yourself a number of times. As a result, we decided to burn up the miles and hoped that Costa Rica would offer more.
Our first three days of cycling out from the city were pretty unspectacular, nor was it beautiful scenery. For over 300 kms we felt like we just had our heads down and worked the highway, some of which was in an appalling condition. Sometimes we had to join the vehicles on the road as the hard shoulder was cracked or littered with debris, whist other times the vehicles drove on the hard shoulder to avoid the big pot holes in the road. Thankfully from Las Ruices towards David, the road had been repaired and the scenery began to improve with greener mountain scenery.
There were only a few excitements during those three days which we care to mention:
The first was crossing the Americas Bridge which spans the Panama Canal. It was amazing to see the Pacific Ocean on one side and enormous cargo ships slowly making their way through the canal on the other.
The second excitement was when I heard Dave shout, "BEES. CYCLE!" A swarm of angry bees hovered just above us so we cycled as low and as hard as we could, we successfully managed to lose them without getting stung!
The third was after a 100km day of cycling we were quite hopeful when we asked directions for a hostel. Strangely enough, about four different people kept pointing us to motels where you pay by the hour. Were we phrasing the question in a particular style? In the end we had to rephrase our question to include, "Is there a hotel near here? We have cycled over 100km today and we are VERY tired. All we want to do it sleep ALL NIGHT long!" After that, we managed to find a respectable hotel.
I fear that I am being too harsh on Panama, but the problem is that tomorrow we will be crossing the border into Costa Rica and neither of us feel like we have learnt very much about the country,and we have not had enough time to explore and get to know it which is quite frustrating.
So why aren?t we staying longer in Panama? It is really a question of money as Panama and Costa Rica are the two most expensive countries in Central America, so rather than linger in these two countries, we would prefer to spend a little longer in the other cheaper Central American countries where we hope it will be more in keeping with our budget.
However these are some of the things we did like about Panama as a cycle tourist...
Jugs full of ice cold water are served in every restaurant we have been into, filling up our camel baks has not been a problem.
We have found more supermarkets on a more frequent basis-they even sell bacon and crusty French bread!
The police have been friendly and let us camp the night in their grounds.
The hills are not like the monster climbs that we have become accustomed to in the last few countries we have cycled through, as a result, we have managed to cycle 137kms - our longest day so far!
