16 February - 17 April 2024

• 16 February - Río Claro, Costa Rica to San Isidro, Panama (23.0 mi, 37.0 km)

• 17 February - San Isidro to Davíd (31.0 mi, 50.0 km)

• 18 February-1 March - Layover in Davíd

• 2 March - Davíd to Las Lajas (48.4 mi, 78.0 km)

• 3 March - Rest day in Las Lajas

• 4 March - Las Lajas to Rincón Largo (65.8 mi, 106.0 km)

• 5 March - Rincón Largo to Santiago de Veraguas (10.0 mi, 16.1 km)

• 6-7 March - Layover in Santiago de Veraguas

• 8 March - Santiago de Veraguas to Aguadulce (35.5 mi, 57.1 km)

• 9 March - Aguadulce to Antón (38.5 mi, 62.0 km)

• 10 March - Antón to Chame (32.1 mi, 51.7 km)

• 11 March - Chame to La Chorrera (29.0 mi, 46.7 km)

• 12 March - Rest day in La Chorrera

• 13 March - La Chorrera to Panama City (29.8 mi, 48.0 km)

• 14 March-17 April - Layover in Panama City

Crossroads of the Americas

For a country that’s not much bigger than Ireland, Panama has had an outsized impact on the world. School aged children everywhere learn about the Isthmus of Panama (blame the Greeks for saddling us with the difficult-to-pronounce ‘isthmus’), and the importance of the Panama Canal for worldwide shipping. Yet Panama’s influence goes way beyond simply providing a shortcut between oceans. As the only terrestrial connection between South and North America, it ranks among the most consequential land bridges in history.

The land bridge first appeared about three million years ago, before the ice ages of the Pleistocene. As continents shifted, Panama arose from the sea and triggered the Great American Interchange, a rapid mixing of species that had never encountered each other before. The surge of mammals that migrated southward from North America completely reshuffled the ecosystems of South America, as top predators like bears, big cats, and wolves overran their less fearsome, southern rivals. At the intersection of continents, Panama remains one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world - especially for its small size.

Perhaps even more profoundly, the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama cut off the circulation of water between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Among other things, this resulted in the formation of the Gulf Stream ocean current, which sends warm tropical water into the North Atlantic. By warming Western Europe, the Gulf Stream helped to keep places like France and Germany free of glaciers during the last Ice Age. To this day, you can thank Panama for the fact that places like Scotland and Iceland are habitable. 

In modern times, Panama has taken on a particularly vital role as a well known crossroad for shipping. Since its completion in 1914, the Panama Canal has become one of the top three busiest shipping routes in the world. Around 14,000 ships pass through the canal each year, saving more than 20 days of travel time between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans versus the longer route around the tip of South America. Even Panama’s national motto, “For the Benefit of the World,” speaks to the country’s self-image as a nexus for travel, commerce, and cultural interchange that has an impact far beyond its own borders. It would be difficult to find a country more deserving of the title of being “the crossroads of the Americas.”

Smooth Sailing into Panama

We enjoyed an uneventful bike ride from Río Claro, Costa Rica, to the Panamanian border. An early departure helped us to arrive at the immigration office right around 8am. We were delighted to see that there were hardly any people waiting to cross, and there was no line (a first for us in Central America). 

We did have one hiccup. When we walked up to the Costa Rican immigration window, the border officer asked us to show a receipt for the US$9 exit fee - and we didn’t have one. The immigration officer indicated that we should just walk across the busy road (with six lanes of traffic) to another teller’s window, pay the fee there, and return again (across the same traffic lanes) with our receipt. Simple enough - although it did feel a little bit like the video game Crossy Chicken, where you duck and weave between vehicles, and try to cross the road without getting splattered. Once we returned to the immigration window with our receipt, we were stamped out of Costa Rica within a minute or two.

Just down the road, at the Panamanian immigration office, the procedure was even simpler. There is no entry fee for Panama. So even though they took our photo and fingerprints, we were still all done in a matter of minutes. The whole process for crossing both sides of the border took less than an hour. 

We had made it to Panama!

On the far side of the border crossing, we realized something was missing. Where were all the money changers? At every other border we had crossed in Central America, guys waving big stacks of cash shouting, “Cambio!” were many and unavoidable. But no one had approached us to change our Costa Rican colones to dollars (the currency of Panama). We would have to go hunt someone down. 

We stopped a guy who was walking by and asked him if he knew where we could exchange our Costa Rican currency. To our surprise, he said there were no money changers on the Panamanian side of the border. We would have to go back past the immigration office to change cash on the other side. 

Fortunately, that turned out to be easier than it sounded. PedalingGal waited with the bikes while PedalingGuy went in search of the money changers. What he found were two guys sitting outside on plastic chairs, in the shade, on the far side of the Panamanian immigration office, waiting for people to approach them (instead of the other way around). The exchange was low-key and, happily, stress free. Before long PedalingGuy returned, and we were on our way.

Upon crossing the border, we entered a new time zone and lost an hour. However, even with the time change it was still only 9:45am. The border crossing had gone so quickly and smoothly, we were well ahead of schedule. In fact, it was only a 10-minute ride from the border to where we had planned to stop for the day. (The next big town was still more than 30 miles away, and we didn’t relish the idea of cycling that far, into the afternoon heat.) So we settled down at a table inside an air-conditioned convenience store for breakfast and an extended break - finally arriving at our hotel around 11am.

After a brisk shower (there was no hot water), we spent the rest of the day in the cool comfort of our roadside hotel - happy to be starting our journey through Panama.

The City of Davíd

The next morning we cycled away from San Isidro just as dawn was breaking. Most of the landscape was devoted to cattle ranches and the small towns that supported them.  

As we rolled into Davíd (pop. 193,000), we were struck by how modern and urban it was. Up until about 30 years ago, the city was quite isolated from the booming, canal-based economy of Panama City (nearly 300 miles away). However, the region around Davíd has some of the best agricultural land in the country. With access to ports on the Pacific Coast, it has a robust industrial base and a thriving, blue-collar economy that contrasts sharply with Panama City’s emphasis on international finance and tourism. As a result, the people of Davíd have their own cultural identity and a strong independent streak.

Davíd is decidedly not a tourist town, and our first impression was that it was an unremarkable place. But we were mistaken. For one thing, our hotel room was by far the best we’d had in a while, for a very reasonable price. And over the course of a long layover (we’ll get to the reasons for that, later) we had the chance to look below the surface, and get a better feel for this proud corner of Panama. 

Celebrating the New Year

Panama has the largest population of ethnic Chinese residents in Central America, and there seemed to be a particularly large community in Davíd. Chinese language characters were often displayed alongside Spanish business names. A large number of the restaurants near our hotel served chow mein, chop suey and other typical Chinese meals. Even restaurants billed as serving traditional Panamanian food would have a Chinese section on the menu. Sometimes both were blended into the same meal - chow mein noodles with carne asada and plantain is a fine combination.  

It wasn’t something we had planned… but we had the great fortune to be in Davíd over the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday. And it soon became clear that the city would be throwing a big party to celebrate the New Year.

The main plaza had been decorated with hundreds of red, satin lanterns, strings of lights, plus images of lions and dragons. Red (for good luck) was the dominant color. Over the weekend, special events were held in the plaza. We attended one of the evening shows, which included a lion dance (to the rhythm of a loud kettle drum and cymbals), and a performance of Tamborito - Panama’s romantic, national dance. It was a wonderfully festive occasion.

Throughout our stay, we enjoyed walking around the streets of town, looking for those occasional splashes of color, and getting to know the rhythms of the city.

A Bit of Nature Nearby

Although Davíd is a pretty dense urban area, we stayed near the southern edge of town. From there it was a 30 minute walk to a tall hill overlooking the city. The hike up the hill led through some undeveloped, scrubby forest to a bristling cluster of communications towers at the top. It was a great place for us to get a panoramic view of the city, and a dose of nature at the same time.

High Time to Replace our Tires

So why did we end up spending 12 days in Davíd, of all places? Blame PedalingGuy’s back tire.

Ever since leaving San Diego to ride the Baja Divide bikepacking route, it had been our plan to replace our tires in Panama City. It seemed like a good plan, but our tires had other ideas.

In the weeks running up to our arrival in Davíd, PedalingGuy’s back tire was constantly springing leaks. Nearly every morning we would wake up to a flat tire, and have to plug another hole or two. Not only was this annoying, but we were also using up our supply of tire plugs at an alarming rate. 

So it was not a big surprise that on the morning we had planned to depart Davíd, PedalingGuy’s back tire was flat as a pancake. At 4:45am we got out the tire pump to try to fill the tire with air, and nurse it through another day of cycling. As we pumped, sealant started to bubble out of two holes close to the trouble spots where we had patched leaks before. We ended up inserting four more tire plugs in an unsuccessful attempt to staunch the leaks. 

The root of the problem was that the outer casing layer on PedalingGuy’s back tire (which tends to show the most wear of all our tires) had become thin and fragile. The surface of the tire was unusually soft, and there were a couple of places where bulges had arisen in the rubber, suggesting the tire was very close to failing completely. 

We sat down and considered the situation. Since our tires are nearly impossible to find in local bike shops, we already had purchased new tires that were waiting to be reshipped to us from the USA. After talking it over, we agreed that PedalingGuy’s back tire was not likely to make it to Panama City, which was still 300 miles (480 km) away. Cycling on that tire might even be dangerous, with the risk of a blowout while out on the road. 

In the end, somewhat reluctantly, we decided that our best course of action would be to have the new tires shipped to us while we remained in Davíd, instead of Panama City as originally planned. We were actually pretty lucky to be able to wait for the delivery in a very comfortable hotel room. Furthermore, Davíd was a large enough town that shipping a package might actually succeed. We extended our hotel reservation, spent a full day trying to figure out the best way to ship bike tires to Panama, initiated the shipping of the tires, and hoped for the best. 

We were hugely relieved when the tires arrived in Panama. But unfortunately, they seemed to be stuck in customs in Panama City. Apparently our shipper (FedEx) thought the best way for us to get the tires would be for us to travel to Panama City, pay the customs fee in person, and pick up the box ourselves. We contacted FedEx and explained our situation to a few people, who then found a way for us to pay the customs fees online. But since FedEx didn’t have an office in Davíd, they handed off the box to another shipper for final delivery from Panama City to Davíd. Eventually the big box with tires arrived at our hotel. All that was left to do was to take off the old tires, and mount the new ones. 

When we removed the old tires, we were rather annoyed to see that there was almost no sealant left in PedalingGuy’s back tire. Back in Guatemala City, when PedalingGuy’s back wheel was rebuilt to replace a cracking rim, we had specifically told the guys at the bike shop to add a bunch of extra sealant to that tire (in fact, we asked them to add 6 oz of sealant, which is a lot). Even though the tire had lost some sealant over the past couple of weeks with all of the holes, it couldn’t possibly have lost more than an ounce or two - so there should have been a couple of ounces left if the guys in the bike shop had followed our instructions. We suspect the lack of sealant had contributed to the ever-increasing number of problems we were having, and the fact that the plugs didn’t seem to be working that well (Dynaplugs interact with the sealant to plug holes). But it didn’t really matter at this point. It was past due time to change the tires.

The new tires went on the rims easily enough. However, it turned out to be a bit more challenging than expected to seat the beads of the tubeless tires on the rims. We had thought we might be able to get it done at a small motorcycle repair shop just over a block away. But when we showed up at the shop carrying our four wheels, we discovered that the little compressor at the shop wasn’t strong enough to pop the tires into place. 

The guy who owned the motorcycle repair shop suggested that we could go about four blocks back down the road to a car tire repair shop, that he guessed would have a stronger compressor. So, we hiked down the road carrying our four wheels and a bag full of sealant. But we were in for another disappointment. The nozzle on the air hose at the tire repair shop was on the end of a long, metal adapter, and we couldn’t get it positioned correctly over our tire valves. Strike two. 

Running out of ideas, we decided to do what we probably should have done in the first place. We took a taxi to another part of town where there was a nice bike shop. Once we were in the bike shop the mechanic pretty quickly had all of our tires seated properly. After one more small hiccup while adding the sealant to the new tires (one of our valves was clogged), we were finally all set to go.

Deeper Into Panama

Panama is one of the least densely populated countries in Central America (only Belize has fewer people per square kilometer than Panama). With more than half of its citizens living in Panama City and the Canal Zone, that leaves a lot of the country with a fairly sparse population. And we were about to cycle across one of those areas.

Between Davíd and the city of Santiago de Veraguas, there are very few towns. Surprisingly, nearly all of the land is private - there are no big national parks or reserves. Instead the landscape is a mix of pastures, banana plantations and large swaths of second-growth forests (the original forests were cleared for cattle ranches that have since been abandoned, or for wood harvesting). For us, that meant there were long stretches of road between services, and few places to spend the night. Partly due to this, we have heard of other cyclists who have opted to not even visit Panama. Instead they fly from Costa Rica to Colombia. That’s a shame, because they are missing some fantastic cycling on well-maintained highways with nice, wide margins. Panama’s roads were some of the safest and best roads for cycling we have seen in all of Central America.

The ride from Davíd to Las Lajas would be nearly 50 miles. We knew that it would be critical to get the ride done as early in the day as possible because of the brutal afternoon heat and humidity. So we were up and on the road by 5:40am - an hour before sunrise. We departed Davíd in the darkness, using the headlights on our bikes for the first time in more than a year.

It was awesome to be out on the road that early. By the time it was light enough for us to even read our odometers, we had already cycled nine miles.

Even though there weren’t any big parks along the way, it seemed like there was a lot of wildlife around. At one point we passed a “wildlife bridge” set up by the highway department. It was basically wire mesh strung high over the road, so that arboreal animals like monkeys and sloths could safely cross the highway, high in the air. We also saw some fun birds, including another toucan.

When we arrived at our hotel a little bit before noon, we were disappointed (although not completely surprised) that our room was not available yet. Leaving our bicycles at the hotel, we headed about a mile down the road to the only restaurant we were sure would be open. There we enjoyed a humongous lunch before heading back to the hotel around 2pm.

Then we hit a snag. The hotel manager practically had a fit when we asked if we could keep the bikes in our room. This is extremely unusual, and we’ve been able to keep our bikes inside our room in nearly every hotel since beginning our trip in 2022. In fact, the only times we had not been able to keep our bikes inside was when the room was too small. Yet even though the room was quite big, and there was plenty of space for the bikes, she seemed concerned and wouldn’t even consider it. Fortunately, there was a nice, covered patio on the front of our cabaña. We couldn’t really understand what the problem was when, at first, the manager didn’t even want to let us keep the bikes on the patio. But eventually she relented. We felt like this was a good compromise, since the property was gated, the cabañas were set back, pretty far from the road and it seemed like the bikes would be safe. Everything worked out fine, in the end. 

Las Lajas (pop. 1,500) was a pleasant town for a layover. Our hotel was located a little bit outside of town, so there were lots of patches of forest around. We enjoyed exploring the neighborhood on a morning walk.

The other notable thing about Las Lajas was that it had a sizable community of Italian expats. The owners of our hotel were from Italy. And two out of the town’s three restaurants were pizzerias. Not just ordinary pizzerias, but tastefully decorated restaurants with Italian chefs, and the kind of pizza you could expect to get in Rome. Of course, we had pizza for dinner and it was delicious.

A Long, Hot Ride

The ride from Las Lajas to our next stop in Rincón Largo was more than 65 miles (105 km). In addition to the fact that it was really long, there was a significant amount of climbing (4,600 ft or 1,400 m). It was going to be a challenge to hit our goal of finishing the ride before the the afternoon heat set in. To give ourselves a prayer of success we were up and out on the road before 5am. It was awesome to be out on the road that long before dawn. We cycled in the darkness (with our headlights) for almost 2 hrs before the first light crept into the sky. 

Just after sunrise, we arrived at a police checkpoint. And for the second time in the past month, we were asked to stop. Although cars and trucks often have to stop at these checkpoints, it has been rare in Central America to require cyclists to stop, and we weren’t sure what to make of it. The checkpoint was manned by an older officer, and a much younger one that we soon guessed was a trainee. That might help explain what happened next. 

They asked to see our passports, so we produced the photocopies that we carry just for this sort of occasion. But after the young guy looked at the copies, he said he needed to see our original passports. That made us nervous. Every seasoned traveler knows that you never hand over your original passport at one of these checkpoints if there is any alternative. Copies are supposed to be good enough. And if an unscrupulous police or immigration official gets his hands on your passport, you can find yourself paying a ‘fee’ to get it back. 

Trying not to seem to defensive, we protested that it would be tough to get the documents out because they were buried in our panniers (which was true). But they insisted, and it became clear we would have to comply. We were comforted by the fact that the Panamanian police don’t have a bad reputation like police in some other countries. So we unloaded our bikes and rummaged through our panniers to get out our passports. Feeling uneasy, PedalingGal tried to keep one hand on her passport as the officer thumbed through the pages, looking for the Panamanian entry stamp. Fortunately, all went well and we got our passports back. We guessed that the older guy was ‘training’ the younger one, and that caused the interaction to be more formal than is typical. Before long, we were back on our way.

The day’s ride included two high passes, plus five or six smaller ridges. We reached the top of the first big climb by 8:30am, which was great. The temperature was warm, but not oppressive. 

We started the second big climb after 9am. It took us an hour to cover the next 3.5 uphill miles (5.6 km) to a remote, roadside market. Wilting in the heat, we dragged ourselves onto the shaded porch. We sat on a bench at that market for 45 minutes, drinking cold fluids and eating our fill of potato chips and cookies. We really needed the break. Even resting in the shade it took a long time for our heart rates to come back down.

That rest set us up for climbing the next five miles to the top of the second, big ridge. It was heaven cruising down the far side, but that only lasted 20 minutes - not nearly long enough.

When we reached the bottom of the descent it was noon, and the heat was brutal. At that point we were only about two thirds of the way to our destination. We managed to make it up another, smaller climb and crawled into the shade of another remote, roadside market. This time we rested even longer - nearly 1.5 hours. A couple of frozen popsicles helped a lot.

It became abundantly clear that because of the oppressive heat our pace had slowed dramatically. From then on we stopped to take a break every half hour to let our body temperatures come down. Finally, around 4pm the sun moved toward the horizon, and the crushing heat eased up somewhat. It still took us more than an hour to cover the final stretch, but we were thrilled to arrive at our destination before it got dark. By that time we had been on the road for 12.5 hours. We were very tired.

The lodging at the Cabañas Green Mount was a little odd. It had a pool, restaurant, playground, obstacle course, and a collection of cabins with names like ‘adventure,’ ‘tsunami,’ and ‘lightning.’ The facilities seemed geared towards hosting large groups, but we were the only guests. The owner/proprietor lived on the grounds with his chocolate lab, Gray, who did not like bicycles very much and was constantly growling and barking at us. The whole area was surrounded by a high security gate that the owner had to open and close for us when we arrived and departed.

Our cabin had definitely seen better days. The paint was chipped on the cinder block walls, the sink looked like it hadn’t had a thorough cleaning in a while, and the cold water shower did not have a shower head. The water simply trickled out of a pipe coming out of the wall. If we hadn’t been so tired, with night falling, we probably would have forced ourselves to cycle the remaining 10 miles to the city of Santiago. But we were ready to be done, and we appreciated that the cabin was available.

A Short Hop to Santiago

The next morning we ‘slept in’ until 6:30am, even though the local roosters started crowing three hours earlier. We thoroughly enjoyed the extra rest. The ride into the city of Santiago (pop. 23,000) would take just over an hour, so there certainly was no rush. We enjoyed a leisurely trip that included a two-hour breakfast break.

However, the final two miles were surprisingly challenging. Upon entering the urban area, we lost our lovely, paved road margin. Instead we had to cycle on the very sketchy sidewalk, which was quite narrow, crumbling in many places, and treacherous at each road or driveway crossing. We had to really pay attention. Fortunately, there were few pedestrians to contend with. That helped a lot.

We spent an extra day in Santiago, recharging for the next big push to Panama City. That gave us a chance to visit the historic central plaza, and to get better acquainted with the town.

In the morning we visited the Veraguas Regional Museum, across the plaza from the Santiago Cathedral. For a relatively small museum, it hosted a remarkably diverse collection of artifacts from around the province. But the thing that made our visit special was that the docent on duty gave us a detailed, personal tour of the exhibits. Although he only spoke Spanish, he made a big effort to ensure that we were following along and getting the main points. It was interesting to hear about the pre-Columbian trade between the region’s indigenous communities, and how they have adapted to the more recent influences brought by immigrants from Spain, Africa and China. 

There wasn’t a lot of public art in Santiago. However, all of the city’s bus stops were painted with wonderful images relating to local life.

The Flatlands of Central Panama

Over the next four days we enjoyed relatively easy cycling through the broad plain that surrounds the Gulf of Parita. The miles passed quickly as we cycled over small rises and mostly easy gradients. Outside of the towns, the road margin continued to be wide, paved, and a pleasure to ride. The highway cut through a landscape of pastures and sugar cane plantations. Where it was still standing, the sugar cane towered over the surrounding vegetation. But with the harvest under way, there were also many freshly cut fields.

La Chorrera (pop. 190,000) was our final stop before heading into Panama City. It’s a pretty big town, and the ride in was very hectic. There was a major construction zone where two highways met. At first it was great, because we could ride on the far side of the traffic cones, away from the rest of the vehicles. But before long we found ourselves cycling along a narrow band of asphalt beside the fast-moving cars. We were both worn out when we finally arrived at our hotel, and ready for a break. 

Return of the Chicken Buses

We took a day off in La Chorrera, so we’d be well-rested for the big push into Panama City. One of the most notable things about the town was the ‘return of the chicken buses.’ Known as red devils in Panama, they’re actually quite rare here compared to the many we saw in Guatemala. Panama has slowly been replacing the privately-owned, smoke-belching old buses with more modern, more comfortable, and less polluting transportation. 

However, in La Chorrera, the Panamanian the red devils still reigned. And they typically had a couple of uniquely-Panamanian characteristics. For one thing, most of them had two, massive, chrome exhaust stacks on the back that helped to send the black fumes a bit higher into the sky, instead of right in the faces of nearby pedestrians - a nice touch. But what really caught our eye was the custom of painting a portrait of someone on the back door. Often it appeared to be an image of the bus owner. But sometimes the pictures were of children, or other people who looked like they could be family members of the owner. It was fun to look at the faces, and think about who those people might be.

Cycling Across the Panama Canal

The ride into Panama City was very challenging. We had been on the road barely half an hour when we reached the tail end of a huge traffic jam. For the next eight miles (13 km) the vehicle traffic was at an almost complete standstill. That might have been alright for us, since there was a nice, wide, paved shoulder to ride on. However, the shoulder was almost as wide as a traffic lane. So we weren’t too surprised when the cars stuck in the traffic jam treated it as such. We were squeezed up against the edge of the road, trying to ride alongside all the cars that had adopted the road shoulder as their own. Fortunately, they were moving very slowly. So it was mostly annoying rather than being too dangerous. 

When approaching Panama City from the west, a key decision is where to cross the Panama Canal. The two choices are the Bridge of the Americas or the Centennial Bridge. The Bridge of the Americas route is shorter, but it doesn’t have a road shoulder so it’s quite a bit more dangerous (actually, it’s officially illegal for bikes to ride across the Bridge of the Americas, but many do). The Centennial Bridge is farther inland and adds five miles (8 km) to the trip, but it has a paved shoulder all the way across the bridge. We decided to take the longer route and go over the Centennial Bridge. 

As we approached the spot where the road to the Centennial Bridge splits off the main highway we hit another, major construction project. It was crazy. Sometimes we rode inside the construction zone, on packed dirt or gravel. Other times we were squeezed right into the traffic lanes by concrete barriers on the side of the highway. And in a few cases we were able to cycle on a dirt or gravel shoulder. Of course, whenever there was a shoulder, lots of cars used it as an extra traffic lane. It was very sketchy, and extremely tiring because we had to stay on high alert.

After nearly an hour, the construction finally ended - a few miles before we reached the bridge. From there we enjoyed a wide, paved shoulder - which we had all to ourselves - until we had gotten all the way across the bridge. It was a nice reprieve. We were particularly happy that it allowed us to stop along the bridge, and enjoy our first view of the Panama Canal. 

But the good times didn’t last. On the far side of the bridge we lost the road shoulder completely. For the next 45 minutes we made our way towards the city on a narrow, two lane road (one lane in each direction) that was a big obstacle course for cyclists. When we couldn’t ride on the gravel and sand that bordered the road, we had to ride out in the traffic. The only glimmer of hope was that there was so much traffic that often the cars were fully stopped or moving very slowly. By taking our time, we managed to pass through the gauntlet.

Just as we reached the urban edge of Panama City, PedalingGal heard the telltale thump-thump-thump of something stuck in one of her tires. We pulled over, and discovered that she had a big wood screw lodged in the left side of her front tire. It was a bummer to get a big puncture in the new tire. Fortunately though, it only took one tire plug to fix it - and we could thank the new tires for that.

We road into the city on a highway viaduct, and before long we could see the Pacific Ocean. Soon we had left the crazy highways behind and were sailing down the city’s famous waterfront bike and walking path, called the Cinta Costera. It was heaven.

Five Weeks in Panama City

Since the beginning of our journey in Alaska, we knew that we wanted to take a long layover in Panama City. There were some practical reasons - like the need to replace some of our worn out clothing and equipment, do some much needed bike maintenance, and take care of other delayed personal projects unrelated to cycling. But Panama City also has a great reputation as a welcoming place for travelers. It has a near-perfect mix of modern city amenities, a lovely, historic old town, a beautiful waterfront on the Pacific Ocean, and a big natural park within walking distance. It sounded perfect. 

We ended up spending five weeks getting to know Panama City, and enjoyed every moment. Each day we made a point to get out to explore, often via morning walks or bike rides. Here are some images from the time we spent at ‘the crossroads of the americas.’

Panamanian cuisine isn’t as famous as some other countries, but they still have their specialties. The first thing we learned was that ‘tortillas’ in Panama are very different from tortillas farther north. They’re actually thick, dense, cornmeal cakes that have more in common with Colombian arepas. Another breakfast staple is the hojaldra, a slightly sweet, fried dough that is the perfect complement to a pile of scrambled eggs. A trip to the market was always an adventure, where the variety of fruits and vegetables - including unusual varieties of well-known produce - was always fun to explore.

Panama’s Historic Old Town (Casco Viejo)

Any trip to Panama City is not complete without a visit or three to the historic old town (a.k.a., Casco Viejo). The old colonial center isn’t very big (about 5 blocks x 8 blocks), but it packs in as much charm as many, larger historic districts. There, the streets are narrow, the facades are colorful, and the old churches and convents still look impressive. It’s the only part of Panama City that still has old-style, intimate plazas that invite just sitting and enjoying the passage of time. 

A Tropical Forest Near the City

One of the cool things about Panama City is that there is a really big park with tropical forests very close to the heart of the city. A 50 minute walk from our hotel took us to the Metropolitan Nature Park - a 573 acre (232 ha) green oasis. The park boasts a surprisingly diverse mix of birds, mammals and other creatures that live on the forested slopes of Cedro Hill. Each time we visited, we saw something new.

The Metropolitan Nature Park is home to both of Central America’s species of sloths (two-toed and three-toed). These charismatic animals are definitely one of the big draws for the park, appearing on nearly all of their promotional materials. And everyone who goes to the park tries to see one. We were very lucky, and had the chance to get great looks at both the two-toed and three-toed sloths. 

Most nature walks are quiet strolls through the forest. But once in a while, nature’s drama appears. While we were walking down one path, we saw a coati climbing up a tree. As we watched, it crawled into a cavity between two large branches.

Suddenly, we heard a shriek and lots of loud, aggressive snarling. Our first thought was that there was another coati up in the tree, and they were having a fight. But moments later, a much smaller, reddish-brown animal literally fell out of the tree from where the coati had gone, and landed with a thump on the ground at our feet - a fall of about 20 ft (6 m). Startled, we watched to see what would happen next. 

The smaller animal turned out to be a Derby’s woolly opossum - an animal that is rarely seen because it is nocturnal, solitary, and usually stays high in trees. But there it was, on the ground. It had clearly been injured by the coati, with some blood showing around its face and head. Coatis, like their cousins the raccoons, are omnivores and will eat anything they can catch and overpower. However, the woolly opossum, which was about a foot long, sounded like it put up a good fight. Perhaps the coati thought it could win in a surprise attack while the opossum was sleeping, but it wasn’t quite fast enough to prevail.

It took a minute for the woolly opossum to regain its composure. Slowly it got up, looked around, and then headed up another tree, disappearing into the branches overhead. Meanwhile, the coati gradually descended out of the big tree. It sniffed around on the ground where the opossum had been and headed for the tree that the opossum had climbed, following its trail and bearing its sharp teeth as it hunted. 

We never saw the end of the drama, but it seems likely that the opossum got away. Once it recovered from the fall, the opossum moved much more quickly than the coati, and it could probably escape by traveling along smaller branches that wouldn’t support the coati’s weight (coatis weigh 10x as much as Derby’s woolly opossums). But the forest will probably continue to be a dangerous place for the poor woolly opossum.

A Visit to the Panama Canal

Of course, we also wanted to visit the country’s most unique attraction, the Panama Canal. A short taxi ride (made much longer by the city’s horrendous traffic) took us to the Miraflores Locks that help raise and lower huge ships 54 ft (16.5 m) above sea level. Even after more than 100 years, the building of the canal is considered to be one of the most difficult infrastructure engineering projects of all time. Some new locks that can carry even bigger ships were added in 2016, but the original locks at Miraflores are still used, and still very impressive. 

A few fun facts about the Canal: It is approximately 50 miles long (82 km), and brings in a revenue of more than US$2 billion each year - nearly a quarter of Panama’s entire national revenue. It takes about 9-10 hours for a ship to pass through the canal from one ocean to the other. Amazingly, all of the water that fills the locks (52 million gallons per load) is delivered via gravity from a massive reservoir that straddles the continental divide, and is fed entirely by rainwater. That’s very energy efficient, but it also leaves the canal vulnerable to drought. This year (2024) the canal was operating below capacity because there hadn’t been enough rain (mostly due to the El Niño weather phenomenon) to keep the locks going at full capacity.

When we arrived, the last boat for that morning was already preparing to leave the second lock, heading for the Atlantic Ocean. We were able to watch the big ship depart, followed by a tugboat, a sailboat and a tourist boat that had ridden up in the same load.

Other City Parks

One of the biggest areas of open space inside the city is Omar Torrijos Recreational Park (a.k.a., Parque Omar). There’s a 2.2 mile (3.5 km) walking/running path, multiple ball fields and courts, playgrounds, a gym, a swimming pool, and more. Our favorite part was a bike racing track (BMX), where the races were in full swing on a Sunday morning. People of all ages participated, from little kids whose bikes didn’t even have pedals, to seniors with white beards. It was really a blast to see everyone out having a good time.

On the outskirts of town, on the far end of the Amador Causeway, lies a small patch of greenery at the Punta Culebra Nature Center, which is run by the Smithsonian Institution. It included just a couple of buildings that housed some native frogs and fish, plus some great views of the Pacific Access Channel for the Panama Canal. 

Near the Panama Canal Administration Center lies another wooded area called Ancón Hill. An oasis of green space surrounded by concrete, the climb up Ancón Hill is a popular hike. We cycled up the steep road, reaching the highest point inside the city limits. 

Holy Week in the Historic Old Town

We were fortunate enough to spend Holy Week and Easter Sunday in Panama City. The holiday is much less commercialized than in North America, and is generally a time where people focus on gathering with their families. In Casco Viejo, the city’s historic center, the Catholic Church still holds a series of religious processions commemorating the final days of Jesus’s life. We attended two of the processions: a nighttime procession on Holy Thursday, and the big celebration on Easter Sunday.

The Easter Sunday procession was a bright and joyful event. It took place on a beautiful, sunny morning. Acolytes dressed in white carried flowers instead of candles. One procession bore a ‘paso’ of the Virgin Mary, and a separate procession bore a ‘paso’ of the resurrected Jesus. The porters sang and danced as they carried the heavy ‘pasos’ forward. The two processions met in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral, where the crowd of onlookers joined in the singing and celebration. It was very festive.

A Little Bit of Bicycle Maintenance

We had already replaced our tires while in Davíd Panama, but there were still a few other maintenance tasks to take care of. While in Panama City, we replaced our brake pads and bike chains. These two tasks should be relatively quick and simple. But as our bikes get older and crustier, things don’t always go as planned. 

Three out of four sets of brake pads were replaced with minimal fuss. But when PedalingGuy removed the old brake pads on his front wheel, one of the ‘pressure feet’ fell out (probably because PedalingGuy was a bit too enthusiastic in loosening the brake to get the old pads out). The pressure feet are round, metal plates that push against the brake pads to engage the rotor on the disk brakes, and stop the bike. It is a very important piece of the mechanism. And (being relatively new to disk brakes), we were not even aware that this piece could fall out. 

A few desperate internet searches suggested that we should be able to ‘pop’ the pressure foot back in. But that was easier said than done. For a couple of hours PedalingGuy strained and pushed, using any tool available - but the pressure foot refused to pop back in. For a while, it looked pretty grim. We were increasingly worried that we might have to delay our departure from Panama City so we could order a whole new brake online and have it installed. Eventually PedalingGuy was able to get the pressure foot re-seated just enough to install the new brake pads. Unfortunately, we also did some damage to our Leatherman multi-tool during the process. But we were very relieved that the brake problem seemed to be solved.

Our effort to replace the bike chains was just as exciting. PedalingGal’s chain went on fine, without any issues. But once again we had problems with PedalingGuy’s bike. Our Tumbleweed Prospector bikes have something called a Phil Woods ‘eccentric bottom bracket insert.’ This piece rotates inside the bottom bracket shell (part of the bike frame), which lets you adjust the chain tension. This can really extend the life of a chain as it stretches with age (an especially useful feature on bikes like ours, which have Rohloff Speedhub internal gears). 

As our previous chains had gotten worn, we had adjusted the bottom bracket inserts to accommodate the stretch in the chains. When mounting the new chains, we had to rotate the brackets back to fit the shorter length of the fresh chains. When we went to do this on PedalingGuy’s bike, the insert wouldn’t budge. Not even a little bit. Perhaps it's worth noting at this point that PedalingGuy can lose a lot of moisture from sweating in the hot, tropical air. This salty solution drips down his bike, and causes a lot of rust. It appeared that his eccentric bottom bracket had corroded, and was frozen in place.

This was not good, because the current positioning of the bracket was too long, so we couldn’t even get the new chain onto the big chain ring. Once again, we spent well over an hour heaving and pushing on the stuck piece, trying to get it to rotate - fear once again mounting that this might be leading to major bike repairs. Then suddenly, voilà, the piece rotated just a hair. Hooray! It was just enough to get the new chain on the bike. But we knew we had a bigger problem brewing. Without some kind of intervention, it was likely that the insert would simply freeze again, causing more problems in the future. 

We ended up buying a can of WD-40 (the variety with fast-acting penetrant) and sprayed it into the holes for the screws that hold the eccentric bottom bracket insert in place. Several hours after that, PedalingGuy managed to get the insert rotating again. It was still incredibly difficult to get it ‘unstuck.’ However, once it started moving, the WD-40 went to work, and eventually the insert was rotating smoothly in its casing. Even the next day, it was still working fine. Another bicycle repair disaster averted. 

The End of the Road in North America

Our arrival in Panama City marked the end of our journey across North America (including Central America). From there we had to decide how we would continue onward to Colombia, and officially cross to South America. This is not a simple matter, because there are no formal roads or trails that connect Panama to Colombia. Instead, there is the lawless and rather dangerous Darien Gap - which is mostly in the news these days because of the huge numbers of unauthorized migrants that cross the jungle there, aided by some very unsavory criminal gangs. 

The three main choices for us were: 1) take a tourist sailboat to Cartagena, Colombia that includes stopovers in the beautiful San Blas Islands, 2) pay local cargo carriers to ferry us from northern Panama to a remote port in Colombia via small motorboats, or 3) take a commercial flight. In the end, we opted for going by air. Several cyclists we had met who had taken the sailboats and motor boats told us they had lots of problems with transporting their bikes (rough handling, saltwater corrosion, etc.), or some pretty awful bouts of seasickness. Flying seemed like the best way to go. That meant we had to disassemble our bikes and put them in boxes for the trip.

A Panama City bike shop (Rali Bikes) had a service where they would pack up the bikes for travel. The price was reasonable, so we decided to save ourselves some effort by using it. That turned out to be a mistake. They did a pretty lousy job, and we wouldn’t recommend that any cyclists use the Rali Bike packing service. 

One big issue was that they packed PedalingGuy’s bike - which is the larger of our two bikes - into a box that was clearly too small (even smaller than the box they used for PedalingGal’s bike). The headset of his bike protruded above the ‘natural’ top of the box, deforming its shape and exposing the headset to serious damage (they didn’t even add padding to protect it). When we complained, the guys at Rali Bikes gave us another, bigger box, but we had to repack the bike in the new box ourselves. 

On top of that, we had some specialized equipment that required our handlebars to be disassembled differently than is typical when packing bikes. We gave the bike shop specific instructions on how to disassemble our handlebars for packing. They followed the instructions on PedalingGuy’s bike, but not on PedalingGal’s. That caused us some serious heartburn when it came time to reassemble the bikes in Colombia. There were half a dozen other minor things they did wrong, that showed the bikes hadn’t been packed with much care. It was pretty disappointing. We spent a couple hours repacking and fixing all the issues - about as much time as if we had simply packed the bikes ourselves.  

Eventually everything was packed and we were on our way to South America - excited about the next stage of our journey. Columbia would herald a return to cycling through really big mountains, which we hadn’t done since leaving Guatemala. Fortunately we would have a few days of flat land cycling before things got too mountainous. We were eager to get started!

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