Panama

[7. April 2008]

Fun time was over one day and we were back to hard cycling life. The first days ride was through the Caribbean of Panama, the country of the bananas. It seems like we developed a special love with the Caribbean. Like already in Belize and Honduras we felt like at home here again. The main quality of people here is not only that they are very friendly and easy, they just are happy. Their contentment is catching.

One night we asked at a little shop in the middle of nowhere whether we can set up our tents in the yard of the school nearby. One of the men in the shop spontaneously invited us to stay at his house. This way we had the chance to see how simple the houses are built in this region: wood huts with cracks in the walls, no electricity, no running water.

These indigenous people have been living here long before the Spaniards came and they still keep up their traditions and language. Miguel, our host, spoke Spanish, his parents only a little bit. He is working in the banana business – of course. Everything is about bananas here; nearly everybody works for the big banana companies.

Cycling from the Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean is a question of one day in Panama. The “only” obstacle is the continental divide, a huge mountain range. Unfortunately there was not a lot of money spent to construct the road through the mountains which results in very steep grades. We were nearly pushing our bikes more than riding them up the mountains.

We ride downhill according to the following motto: the faster we ride, the stronger the wind resistance becomes, the less we need to use our brakes. Doing the same on the first steep downhill we were surprised by a bump in the road. We slammed our brakes as hard as we could and still nearly fell on the bump. Stefan’s rear wheel was squeaking because he lost grip for a short moment… When we stopped our (disc-) brakes smelled bad. A view on our speedometer explained everything: we were riding on a speed of 102 km/h (64 mph)! Happy about the new record we still decided to take it a little easier for the rest of the downhill :-)

After having crossed the continental divide we were back on the Panamerican highway. There were five more days to go to Panama City and we decided to get there as soon as possible, without a day off. Usually this would not be a big deal but in Panama the HHH-factor makes a bikers life hard: hills, heat and hunger. Our standard 100km-days were hard to cycle in this heat and the hills were doing the rest of it. Additionally sometimes the distances between the villages were larger than they used to be in the last weeks so we had to fight hunger till we got to the next restaurant.

Once the hills gave us a brake and the terrain was flat we had to fight a heavy headwind. This wind from the north-east has been blowing us in the face for large parts of Central America since Honduras. People use to say: “God is with you on this trip!” often. So we were asking ourselves: “Why isn’t He riding in front of us so we can use his wind shade…?”

After seven and a half days of fighting the heat we were rewarded with the ride over the panama canal on the Puente de las Americas. It felt nearly as good as riding the Golden Gate Bridge. First it looked like the dream was going to turn into a nightmare: bicycles are not allowed on the bridge! After we explained that we are riding from Alaska to Fireland and we ride EVERY meter they made an exception for us and a police car guided us over the bridge and blocked traffic behind us. Thanks to the cops we could enjoy the ride over the bridge even more in the end.

In Panama City we were welcomed by Miguel, our Couchsurfing host. His apartment is right in the center of the city and we got our own room there. Miguel was the perfect host: he rode through the city with us, showed us the beautiful old part of the city, took us out to the causeway to enjoy the view of the famous skyline and of course we had to get into nightlife.

Panama City is different to every city in Central America. Retirees and businessmen from the USA flood the city and bring a lot of money here. Poor meets rich, everywhere in the city. A saying here is: “Panama is like Miami, only there is more English spoken here…”

Another trip took us out to the canal and the Miraflores locks. After the very interesting museum about the history of the canal we were lucky to see the passing of one of the biggest ships that can cross the canal. 1300 containers on one ship, each weighting several tons, passing by in front of our eyes! Amazing.

Now we are heading out towards the San Blas Islands where our sailing boat is waiting to take us to Cartagena. Colombia, we are coming!

[28. April 2008]

Our trip from Panama City to the "Stahlratte", the sailing boat that would give us a ride to Colombia, became harder than planned. Not hills, not wind and no breakdowns were the reason, no, a girl tested our strength! We expected a quiet evening in Portobello on the Caribbean Coast. But then we learned to know a Swiss girl in our hotel and together we wanted to go for dinner. Spontaneously we decided to go for a beer before dinner and ended up with a big bottle of cane booze on the beach. The drinks were great, the sunset breathtaking and the talking in Swiss German very interesting (we found out that we share many friends back in Zurich).

After the first bottle was gone we were more in the mood for a second bottle than for dinner. So we bought some cookies and started the second round... After a day of cycling even two beers can make us feel quite dizzy, 1.5 liters of booze for the three of us with hardly anything eaten before made us feel reeeal good :-)

It's not the first time we have been drinking a little too much on this trip but it was the first time we had to get up at seven the next morning to get on the bicycle! As we did not know when the last boat from Miramar was leaving we just had to stick to our plan and start cycling at 7:30. We felt so bad after only four hours of sleep that we had problems keeping balance on our bikes. Pius was very close to vomiting...

In Miramar, hundred hills and sickness-attacks later, we finally were able to ingest. This was very important as we had to ride over the open ocean in the canoe of the local Indians. For four hours we were tossed up and down the large waves, constantly focusing the horizon - no, we did not vomit.

The endurance was rewarded with the arrival on "El provenir" the main island of the San Blas Islands. Well... main island means: 500 meters diameter, one tiny airport, one post office, one small hotel and one police station. That's it.

If there is a place on earth that comes close to paradise it is probably here. 300 islands, most of them picture perfect consisting only of white sand and palm trees are spread along the coast of Panama and inhabited by the Kuna, one of the most independent indigenous groups in the world.

One night in a hammock later (overlooking the white beach and the turquoise water - it was amazing!), we were ready to board the Stahlratte, a 30 meters long steel sail boat www.stahlratte.org. Together with us 16 other backpackers and bikers were on board and introduced to seamen life by a crew of five nice and funny Germans.

For the first two days we anchored between a handful of tiny islands and had time to explore and enjoy this paradise. There were countless snorkeling spots around us and we explored remote islands with a small sailing boat. We had endless time to chat with the other travellers, made a BBQ on one of the islands... Pictures say more than words, have a look at them.

After the days between the islands it was time to head towards Colombia. For one day and one night we crossed the open ocean and it was here where we realized how lucky we were to be on such a big boat. The boat was gliding over the up to four meters high waves and then fell down in the trough behind. Contrary to the small sailing boats that usually transport tourists from Panama to Colombia, our heavy boat was able to partially split the waves which made our trip a lot more agreeable. Our sleeping places were in the bow of the ship and we therefore experienced the full force of the waves. Sometimes we were nearly lifted off our beds! We were a little tired due to the seasickness pills we took but in general we had an agreeable trip.