We crossed the border from Costa Rica at Paso Canoas, and followed the main road to the city of David. From here we took a biking side trip to Volcan Baru National Park. Due to the poor road conditions described above, we took a series of buses from David to Panama City. After a few days in the city we biked north along the Panama Canal to Portabello, visiting Soberania National Park along the way. From Portebello we borded the sailboat that would take us to Colombia.
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| Turqoise-browed Motmot |
Favorites
More than just a canal! We loved the natural preserved areas we visited in Panama. During our time there we visited Volcan Baru National Park and Soberania National Park, and saw so many new bird species!
Least Favorites
The Pan-Am is essentially the only road to cross the country from west to east, and it is a horrible cycling road. No shoulder in many parts, 200 km of construction, and a lot of traffic made our decision to bus through most of it. See "Our Route" below.
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| The megalopolis of Panama City |
The Basics: Food, Water, Shelter
Food
Rice and beans are still the staple food here. We often ate at restaurants for a filling lunch and made our own dinner with instant pasta, veggies and nuts.
Water
Water in Panama is good to drink from the tap. We didn't purify our water and had no problems.
Shelter
At Volcan Baru we visited the park and camped for free because the ranger was so impressed that we arrived on bikes. Camping is an option in other parks a well, sometimes for a small fee. In cities, fire stations are happy to host cyclists, and cheap hostels are easy to find. In Panama City we stayed at Mamallena hostel, which was an excellent place to arrange our transit to Colombia.
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