Pipelined Into Panama...….

Yep.....'Pipelined into Panama' via the Pan American Highway.....not that we were sticking to it religiously, more that it was the main artery into Panama...….turns out there was a whole load of us here travelling down to South America. Find out more as this blog evolves.

We entered Panama on 18th April 2018....maybe a little early but we wanted to ensure we were in Panama as we had a sailing booked to South America at the beginning of June. Crossing the border was fine, no problems and we bumped into a pair of 'bros' from one of the local Panamanian Bike Clubs...'The Brotherhood'.They were very chatty and waited for us as we got stopped at the first police checkpoint moving away from the border. We rode with them for a short distance before they sped off.Nice to meet you guys. Onwards we rode stopping for an overnighter at a little Italian run B&B in Boquerón. Cracking value for money 'Little Italy' it was called.

Next day we headed to the first main port of call.....Boquete. Our main reason for visiting here was that we'd heard there were 'Lost Waterfalls'......yey….an adventure....we like those.We'd booked into another family run homestyle B&B...'Stone Cabinas'... massive room and they own the restaurant at the side as well so no need to go hunting for food. This place was just nicely situated on the edge of town and with safe parking for the bikes, perfect for a few days.

The 'Lost Waterfalls' .....yes they're real, a walk, certainly didn't disappoint. I jumped on the back of Chris for a short ride...maybe 20 mins outside of Boquete. The track down to them is a bit rough so we parked up on the road as did other visitors without a 4 x 4. The trail was easy to find and great fun hiking,take your swimmers with you if you decide to visit .Despite this being a waterfalls trail, one of our favourite things on it,just as you get to the pay shed was the humming birds...lots of them.....beautiful.

Occasionally a little challenging for us oldies....😂 we loved the trail.

From Boquete we rode round to the other side of Panama, the Almirante side, not for anything in particular, just to see the countryside and what was round there. The road took us through the Reserva Forestal De Fortuna which was pretty apart from when we got to the top and were hampered by low cloud. Almirante was a little port town, a jumping off point to some of Panama's islands. Also at this end are a few dams for hydro electricity,which we rode up to. The dams had apparently had been met with controversy in earlier years. We stayed overnight at Bocas Ridge, which to our delight had toucans flying about. On our return over the Reserva Forestal we had better weather and were able to appreciate the views.

Our next stop, another overnighter was in Las Lajas. What a cracking place this was, Residence Las Lajas, a small family run establishment, excellent value for money. The rooms are little cabinas in the large garden. There was also a pool and restaurant.

Whilst we were there, there was sudden excitement about a helicopter.We thought it was just flying overhead until it landed in a tiny space in front of our cabina. Turned out it was workers staying whilst they were flying over electrical lines, checking them. We continue our journey the next day. We're continually heading towards Panama City. Our next stop along the way, again a roadside stopover but the entertainment here ended up being a tarantula......right outside our room.....eek.....'shut the bloomin door'.....as the maid came to usher it off with a broom 🕷👀😂.

A Panama beach was next on the list to visit at San Carlos. Here we stayed in a kind of tree house room in the back garden of an American couple who'd moved down here. The beach was walking distance and quite pleasant, very big. The day we visited it was hot, not too busy down there and we watched a young man schooling his horse.....and mission of mercy or not......we rescued a little seabird. The poor thing was rolling around in the waves as they lapped onto the beach, so I picked it up,put it in the shade, we gave it some water as well. It's feathers were all soaked. I was hoping when it dried out it would just fly away. Anyway we saw a local bar owner at the back of the beach whose friend loved animals and promised to go and see to it. Everything deserves a chance.

Time for the city......Panama City....yikes...….at first the prospect of riding into the city was a bit daunting but in reality it really wasn't that bad. We delighted in riding over The Bridge of the Americas, knowing at some point we'd be staying relatively near it. We'd got tons of stuff to do in Panama...…..like going through all our stuff and re-accessing what we really needed for the second half of our two year trip. We'd also got one broken video camera that needed replacing and needed to stock up on a few personal items that had eluded us along the way. So chores to do along with sightseeing and in the background I've been chatting on social media, everybody is catching up so plans are set in motion to start meeting up.

So we're here....Panama City.....most of you will know it's famous for the Panama Canal and banking....for us....time to get on with those jobs. We posted a load of stuff back home.....jeez that cost but in the box was all sorts of bits and bobs, souvenirs, clothing, camping bits we didn't need. It felt good to get rid of a bit of excess. We managed to replace the video camera, can't do without that on a trip like this and with all the shopping malls in Panama anything else was easily bought.

Time for socialising at last. Having spent many evenings chatting on various online groups and making new friends it was now at last a chance to put faces to names and meet people in person. As many of us were now finding ourselves here in Panama waiting to ship/fly to South America,

First up we arrange to meet Phil and Sapna, a couple working and living their way round the world. You can read their stories on their Facebook page here....'Riding Around The World'......and also on their website at 'r-atw'......

Gosh look at me in that piccy......I'm a 'titch'......lol.....we all got on well and amidst much chatting and swopping travellers stories we also discovered that Phil is a bit of a musician......fancy a listen.....find him on Google Play.....

During our time in the city we stay in several hotel/B &B's, one of them had sloths in the gardens and visited the old town of Panama.

Also on the list the very famous Panama Canal, well worth a visit.Check it out below.

Back at the ranch....well hotel...we've been plotting the rest of what we want to see in Panama. One of those things is to ride to the end of the Pan American highway to where it ends at Yaviza in the Darien....more about that later. In the background I've spoken to another fellow traveller Ron who we've already told about riding there, something Ron was also going to do. You can read Ron's storie at 'The Ends of The Road'Anyways also in the mix is David, a young man moving to Panama who was behind us on his bike on the way down through Central America. Sooooo we arrange to meet both of them, David sorts out which bar and off we go......What a fun evening......so many stories to swap......

A couple of days later we ride to Ipeti which is about 80 miles from Yaviza but the best place we could find to stay. Ron meets us there just as we've jumped in the pool 😀 What a cracking little place, Hotel Portal Avicar, pleasant clean rooms, safe parking, restaurant and humming birds.... tons of them.

Next........into The Darien, home to the Kuna people of Panama. The road to Yaviza is all paved for those of you reading who are wondering. There's a police check point part way down from Ipeti where you stop and register so make sure you have your passport and bike papers with you. After that it's a pleasant ride to Yaviza.....well in our case it was 'pissing down' but never mind. Once you reach the signpost for Yaviza you're nearly there......just a little further and you will come to the end of the pavement right by Yaviza Port and the Rio Chucunaque. At the side of the port you should see a little restaurant with a small car park in front of it behind a fence and gates. We all parked in here and had some refreshments. Then we walked round back past the Port to the footbridge that goes across the river to the other side of Yaviza. From there it's into the unknown.....into The Darien Gap, a section of dangerous jungle between Panama and Colombia, well known for being a drug running route and infamous for countless stories of travellers and adventurers battling through it. Indeed there's even been horror movies made of it.....'Indigenous'.

And it's still raining....by the time we get back to the hotel we're all like drowned rats.....hmmn, hot shower me thinks. That night at tea Ron announces he's going to go further into the Darien, how exciting, we were just a tad jealous at this point as we've already booked to go over to the other side of Panama at Portobelo.......never mind we ask Ron to keep checking in with us over the extra two days he ventures further in......you'll have to check his page to see what he got up to 😀

At Portobelo the sun was shining, we stayed at a kind of finca with cabinas owned by a very friendly Venezuelan family. We met more travellers up here from Germany and France. It turns out that this place 'Rancho Juancho' is apparently on the 'I Overlander app. From here we visited the small port town of Portobelo and the old fort, if you click on the underlined links you can check out some of the history which makes interesting reading.

So now it's back to Panama City, well not quite, just on the outskirts near the 'Bridge of the Americas. From here we'll prep for our up and coming sailing to South America. We've learnt that Ron is also aboard the same boat and so too is our friend Vince, who, if you've been following the blogs, will know that we've met several times before. He's not landed in Panama yet but he's on his way.

From here it goes 'pear-shaped' !!!!

I open the emails one morning to find a disastrous message........the sailing on the infamous Stahlratte has been cancelled !!!! Shitttttt..........our moods are dampened. I sent a message to Ron who's still in the Darien, Vince sees it too........we're all sooo disappointed. Apparently the Colombian authorities in Cartagena have refused entry to motorcycles via boat for the time being.

And to add to that on the social media networks, a shout has gone out from Simon and Lisa Thomas from the UK who've been on the road for 15 years. You can read their story here '2 Ride The World', Lisa has had an accident, their bikes are on the Stahlratte coming in when we should have been boarding, Lisa and Simon have had to fly in and they need help to get the bikes off in Panama. Tonny a friend of ours who lives in Panama, (whom we met in 2017) answers their plea for help.....well done Tonny.

During all this going on as we're waiting for Vince to land we make more arrangements to socialise. As mentioned above,back in 2017 in Alaska we'd met a couple, Tonny and Lis who were travelling round but who lived in Panama. We'd stayed in touch throughout our trip and had been waiting for them to come back from the USA where Lis had just given birth to a healthy baby boy.....Daniel......Congratulations Tonny and Lis. They invite us round to their apartment in Panama which had fantastic views and we got to meet Daniel too. Tonny told us all about his plans with himself and his brother to help Simon and Lisa and despite the disappointment of us not being able to sail we had a lovely evening. Tonny also has a page 'Moto Soul' and is a mine of helpful information for travelling in South America.

The next couple of days we wandered down to the Bio Museum, watched a few ships come past entering the Panama Canal and made arrangements to move to the same hotel in the city where Ron , now safely back from the Darien Gap, and Vince, who'd now landed in Panama had booked into. There were emails going back and forth everywhere. We had all been in contact with fellow travellers booked on the Stahlratte and everybody was sharing information on whether to fly or container ship to Colombia. Another shout out had come from the Stahlratte, a couple on board since Cuba required a clutch part. We'd been in contact with Simon and Lisa who were now in Panama. Tonny had got the bikes sorted. Another person had answered the parts run......phew.....madness.....with all this going on we did all manage to meet up at one point to say 'Hi'.........

So most peoples problems were sorted. Vince, Ron,Chris and I had all finally decided to fly from Panama to Bogota,Colombia.......back to it then......Air Cargo were chosen, a visit to the warehouse, tons of emails later and thanks to 'the luck of the Irish' ☘....well Vince asking for discount.....we ended up getting a reduction in the price for 4 motorcycles and including 3 months insurance.......excellent. £1000 each with insurance. So after much hanging on in case things changed for the boat we finally booked our flight and got ourselves sorted. After getting over the disappointment of not sailing we were now all eager to get going and back on the road.