The Final Push Through Central America
Saturday, 26 December 2009 14:58
The last push through Central America was just that, a push. I’m not sure what got into me, or why I felt that I needed to be in South America for Christmas, but for some reason, I started pushing to get to Panama and get across the Darien Gap before the year's end.
I left Club Fred after a 24 hour rain storm. The rain was nonstop and I fully expected it would postpone my departure a day or two, but after the rain stopped at 9:00 a.m., I was on the road to Panama.
I reached the border with Panama about 3:00 p.m. Knowing that I needed to make it to David in the light, and knowing that a helper can speed the process, I accepted the help of one of the many helpers in the area. About 1 hour later, I was through the border. This border crossing was as complicated as the one entering Costa Rica. There are about 7 steps, each with their own line, so it was nice to have a little guidance in the process. At one point, I left the line to go back to the bike to grab my keys. When I returned, the helper was upset because we had lost our spot in the queue. Knowing full well that he wanted to speed the process so that he could help someone else, I told him not to worry because I had all day and night if needed. At one point, he asked for some of the papers so that he could go to another line and get them signed. The papers were just copies, so I let him have them and in about 10 minutes, he was back with everything sorted. In the end, I had a bit of a laugh because I gave him about $5 in Costa Rican coins. He started into his story of how this normally costs $30 to $40, and when he finished talking, I politely said that if he didn’t want my coins he could give them back. With the border crossing done, I hit the road to David and found a hotel near the El Centro, got some money from the ATM, had dinner and was off to bed in preparation for an early morning start.
Northern Panama
Northern Panama is very pretty, but as I rode further south, the terrain became flat and the roads straight. At the end of one straight, a policeman was standing in the middle of the road flagging me over. “You are driving too fast”, he said in Spanish (or something like that). I told him I was just trying to get to Panama City and did this road take me there (I was on the Pan-American). “Yes”, he said, “but you are riding too fast.” "Good," I said because I need to get to Colombia so I can ride to Argentina. “Argentina?”, he said. With that we talked a bit about my trip and I noticed he had put away the ticket book. “OK”, he said, “have a good trip and go slower.”
Northern Panama
Panama Canal
As I sit here in Medellin, Colombia, I’m thinking I should have taken his advice and slowed down. In a few ride reports that I’ve read, when people blast through a county, they often don’t have much good to say about the country. Well, I blasted through Panama, spent maybe 30 hours in the country and I don’t have much to say about it either. Of all the Central American countries, I really don’t have a feeling for Panama. Northern Panama looked very nice, a bit like Northern California, but other than that Panama was just a long straight road.
The Beast - ready to send to Columbia
Well, that’s it, after 7300 miles and 66 days, I’m out of North and Central America.
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2009-12-27 13:43:07 | jeff
Because of high winds in the Caribbean there were no boats going to Colombia. This made the crossing easy because all I had to do was go to the airport and ship my bike with an air freighter. I used GIRAG which was easy as they do this all the time. In total I was at their office for about 2 hours signing papers and getting the bike prepared (removed windscreen and mirrors).
Then it was off to the passenger terminal with a taxi and within 3 hours I was on a flight to Bogota. Bike arrived the next day and by noon I was riding to into downtown Bogota to get insurance.
Details on the crossing???