Cahuita to David (Panama)
It barely seems yesterday we entered Central America and we are crossing into our last Central American country, Panama. An advanced party of 6 had departed yesterday for Panama as between the borders is the first of the two, difficult to cross, “banana bridges” and the crossing needed to be done in smaller groups.
We had short 40 mile ride to the first part, the exit from Costa Rica, a quick stamp in the passport then fill in a form and exiting the bikes was done in a relatively quick hour. We then each had to negotiate the “banana bridge” a metal lattice railway bridge with some planks laid longitudinally each side of the rails for vehicles. These present no problem to car and trucks, but to a bike they are a nightmare with gaps big enough to loose your front or back wheel in. We walked the length to determine the best side, the left, then it was a matter of constant walking pace speed and concentration to keep on the planks, ignoring the missing sections of the “safety” fence and the big drop to the river below. All except one made it across without mishap, the one dropped his bike 5 times requiring help from the others to get it back on the planks. Having crossed the bridge we had to enter Panama, another “fumigation” (quick spray of soapy water on the tyres) for a charge of 1 dollar then stamp in the passport got us to the vehicle import office.
This office was not in the computer age and a single officer typed out all the documents on an old style type-writer, which looked like it had been bought in the 50’s. This all took another 2 hours while we waited in the heat before we could proceed. The rest of the journey took us up and over the mountains and into much cooler weather with rain storms, some of the groups caught up in these and could barely see due to the heavy rain. I was lucky and missed the worst of the rain arriving in David late afternoon although not without problems, as I got into the centre of town the bike developed a problem with the gears and I was only able to select first gear. having asked a policeman the way to the hotel, I got to the hotel and immediately looked into the problem, it would not be good to ride the 300 miles to Panama city in first gear! After much scratching of heads, I tried bending the gear lever out, I remembered on the off-road course that some bikes had had the same problem due to a bent gear lever, this much to my relief sorted the problem and I retired to my room.
Miles
Today 180
Total : 11476
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Monday 28th September
David to Panama City
I did not get chance to see the town of David, but it’s a basic working town and truck stop, we spend little time riding here in Panama, we have to make the 300 or so miles to Panama City our last stop in Central America. The ride to the city started at 6.30 and we made good time on the main Pan Am highway though a generally boring road with sections of dual carriageway. As ever we still had to dodge around the substantial potholes and bad surface which would suddenly appear out of the blue after miles of good tarmac. We rode, as a group, across the impressive “Americas Bridge” and into the City, a city of wild contrast as we see a “shanty town” of houses back dropped by the skyscrapers of the main city. This is the first “high rise” city we have encountered on our journey, as we have avoided most population centres. We parked up outside the “El Panama” a very posh hotel, though outside its very hot and humid, but I seem to have acclimatised to this and find the air conditioned rooms too cold. I had to also empty the panniers and tank bag into the kit bag I had used to get to Alaska, it was very strange and disruptive, as I had been living out of the panniers for the last couple of months. Once settled in a quick trip to the local laundry shop and a walk around to get my bearings. We then went out to find the “London Pub” for food and drink, it took us 20 minutes of walking to find it, disappointingly it only served Boddingtons bitter from "out of date" cans.
Miles
Today : 287
Total : 11763
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Tuesday 29th September
Panama City
Day Off
Again being hot and humid we had to hang around the hotel waiting for the go to take the bikes to the airport warehouse, at around 10 am we were go. It took almost an hour to get to the airport, on the way we had two toll booths, at the second one my bike ground to halt with the smell of burning at the back end. Closer inspection I found the rear brakes seized on and the disc was glowing red hot, I was stuck in the middle of the lane to the toll booths with lots of traffic behind sounding their horns! I used my water from my back pack to cool the calliper and adjusted the brake as much as I could, enough just to get it free and move the bike to the side of the road. Leaving it for 20 minutes allowed it to cool enough to ride to the airport, where we then spent the next 4 hours processing the paperwork to get the bikes air freighted. After this a taxi ride back to the hotel saw us getting in around 3.30 pm, too late to get any shopping banking or posting done. It was this time we found out that an ex-president of Panama had passed away, this meant that this day and the next all public offices closed and most shops. The evening was spent on group meal and a show of local traditional dancing which was very colourful though a little wooden.
Miles
Today : 0
Total : 11763
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Wednesday 30th September
Panama City
Day Off
Getting up early we hired a Taxi to go see the Panama Canal, the early start was because the big ships go through early. The taxi driver was quite knowledgeable on the canal and the city so we got a running commentary the whole time, we got there in time to see a large container ship pass through the first set of locks. What I did not know was the canal is only part of the way across, most of the transit is on a man-made lake system, the larger part of the canal is in the south to join up with this lake system. The lake is 26 metres above sea level and is kept full of water due to rain created by the surrounding rain forest, driving the conservation of this area. The rest of the day was spent lounging around and final packing for the flight tomorrow as everything is closed even the post office for this Memorial Day. This is our last full day in Central America, we have been in each country only a few days each, some more than others but just enough to be able to get a basic feel for each as we ride through.
Miles
Today : 0
Total : 11763
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