23/01/15 Panama

First stop today was the Panama Canal! The most impressive set of locks along the canal, The Miraflores, and the visitors centre,  with a viewing platform, Museum and theatre. It was quite amazing to watch the ships come through the locks, more that 30 ships per day make their way through the canal. It can take 8 to 10 hours for ships to make the 80km journey along the canal. They go one way in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
We left the visitors centre, to a less busy road, to mount up on our bikes for the last time. We continue near the canal on way to Gamboa and Lake Gatun. Along the way we passed another set of locks and through some more rain forests with a large variety of flora and fauna, we saw lots of butterflies.  We arrive at Gatun lake with a single lane bridge in need of repair.  Before crossing the bridge we took our last group photo with the Canal in the background. Crossing the bridge was fun with some screaming, as bikes got caught in the broken wood, a left turn up a small hill then down to the end of our bike journey, that started 15 days earlier all the way in Nicaragua.
We had biked some 350 miles or 565km through heat, sunshine, cloud sprinkles and heavy rain.  We went back to our hotel to get cleaned up then went to the Old Panama City - Caseo Antiguo - for a explore and out final dinner. A great night had by all.

Dave, Ollie, Nicky, George, Dennis, Nanno, Roberto
Stewart, Julie, Audrey, Penny (Countess) Nicolette, Jane, Paul, Moya
Paul, Lynette, Anne, Karl
Jacky taking Photo

Julie and Paul

Audrey and Paul

Dave, George and Stewart in their Mankinnis

Crossing the Bridge with Paul

The Finish Line with Roberto our Guide

A celebration drink

Old City Panama

Thanks Roberto, Paul and Nanno

Final dinner

Panamas Hats, overlooking Panama

22/01/14 Santiago to Panama City (Albrook Inn)

After an early breakfast we drove to San Francisco, our ride today was broken up into four sections (3 stops along the way) the ride itself was undulating, the first section Paul rode with Roberto at the front and Lynette was back with the rest of the leaders. The first stop (9 miles) was at a cascade, Paul wasted no time in jumping into the pool at the bottom and swimming over to the falls. A few of the other riders joined him just in time to get the "Mischa" (let's go) call.
The next stop was a fruit and snack stop near a closed restaurant (9 miles again) and the stop after this was after about another 8 miles near a church, the ride had been hot on back roads through dry tropical forests with little shade. For the last mile of this stage Lynette had a local little boy join her, she came in first with Paul, the little boy was glad he came for the ride as he got some fruit, biscuits and some pencils for his effort. Julie had a bathroom stop near the abandon church, we had a laugh as a coke truck disturbed her privacy, she gave the driver a wave.
The last section Paul and Paul helped Moya to finish the stage first with a helping hand on the back from time to time. Moya had finish last most days at the rear, this was her day for the yellow jersey.
We really enjoyed the riding today, breaking often is really the way to tackle the ride in the heat.
After the ride we had a long drive to Panama, stopping after an hour for lunch, after lunch in rained heavily, we glimpsed the city first, then the Panama Canal as we drove over "the Bridge of the Americas" (very impressive structure) on the way to our hotel Albrook Inn.
We went to an Italian restaurant (Rhinos) for dinner, it was very nice decor and reasonably priced meal. Some of the group went clubbing, while the rest of us returned to the hotel via the supermarket where we bought chocolates and wine and finished off a great day with drinks in Audrey and Julie's room.

Roberto giving us the days riding plan

Paul in the pool

On the bus

First Glimpse of the Panama Canal

Moya with her two Paul's

21/01/15 Bocas del Toros to Santiago

Another early breakfast, then on to the boat to take us back to the Panama mainland of Almirante.  The tourist dollar has not reached this area at all, very poor people.  Loaded our gear back on the bus and headed through some rain forest covered hills.  Saw some women wearing traditional dress as this area is where many indigenous people still live. After about an hour on the bus we got back on the bikes for a 14 mile ride through the rugged mountains, riding through some beautiful rain forest scenery, there were a few undulating hills to climb in this remote region.  It was a good hard ride, I (Lynette)  really worked myself putting everything I had into the hills and the flats as I knew it was only a relatively short ride, I was exhausted and very hot when I got to the end but felt  great about my effort.  After lunch we got back on the bus headed along the continental divide. We headed up the steep Fortuna Road where the rain forest turns into cloud forest as we climbed to almost 6000 feet (2000 meters). The climb was so steep we had to turn off the air conditioning in the bus so it could use the power to get up the hills. We began our afternoon ride, a fast downhill from Los Planes to Guanaco then to the Pan Am highway, it was great fun and got some speed up along the way. Loaded up again and headed to our great hotel La Hacienda in Santiago. A few beers to celebrate the great day, I even got Paul the Mechanic to give me a Salsa dance he is a great dancer.

20/01/15 Bocas del Toro

A treat today, no early rise and breakfast, rest day, unfortunately, our body clocks were still set on early rise time, we had a lye in and didn't head down to breakfast till about 8.30am. A long breakfast, on the terrace overlooking the Caribbean Sea.  Upstairs to the lounge area for a bit of Blogging, reading and relaxing. We then headed into the small township on Island of Colon, beautiful houses, and buildings, tourism is really taking off there. wandered around for a few hours. back to our hotel for the heat of the day, rested, read. Headed out again search of the white beach near the cemetery the others had told us about. found the beach and saw more of the Island. Headed back through the main town area, lots of people out and about, street food carts setting up, lots of music and street performers. We had dinner on the water, then walked back and stopping for an ice cream on the way home. Some of the others had dinner at El Ultimo Refugio the food was fantastic and said to be one of the best places to eat on the Island.  The Island had a great relaxed feel to it, it reminded Paul of his childhood holidays to Burrum Heads.

Playing Soccer at the end of the Airstrip

Kids playing on the "White Beach"

View from out accommodation Hotel Olas

19/01/15 Atlantida (Costa Rica) to Isla Colon (Panama)

This morning Lynette and I rode at the back with Moya again as we enjoyed it yesterday, we rode out from the hotel and headed south along the coastal road highway 36. The ride was flat again to begin with, the rain had stopped with just a bit of cloud cover, enough to keep us cool. At the 10 mile mark there was a long hill at the top Lynette and I waited and had a drink, when Roberto and Moya arrived, Roberto pointed out another three-toed Sloth and we had another show as it moved from one branch fork it was sleeping on to another. It's good to ride at the relaxed pace as we get to see so much more. We rode on the the to where we met the others at a junction where Audrey had missed seeing the small group at the front and rode on to be lost for a while. After the break we still had about 18 miles to go, at this stage Lynette rode on. She found her biking legs today and took off to the front, I stay with Moira until there was 8 miles left then took off to blow some cobwebs out. Saw Penny and Nicola standing by the road, Nicola had a flat so stopped off to change the tyre then off again, I got a hell of a sweat up as the sun was fully out at this time. We stopped at the border town of Sixola, the exit process from Costa Rica was straightforward, then we walked over the derelic bridge at Rio Sixola to the Panamanian town of Changuinola where we paid for the stamp at a small window, then turn down what looked like a shopping street to find the actual border custom post to complete the formalities.
It took the bus some time to join us as it was lunch time and customs shuts down for lunch, each bike had to have its serial number check before entry. We then drove for 1 hour to Bocas del Toros for a 1 hour boat ride to the oasis of Isla Colon. The hotel we are staying at, like all the others around here is build over the water. It is a beautiful place and seems very laid back.
We walked up the main street to a restaurant at night where the rum flowed and we all became comedians. A great night out.

18/01/15 La Fortuna to Atlantida

Early morning start again for us, at least riding was easy to begin with, tending downhill from La Fortuna to El Tanque. The route we travelled passed through farmlands of papaya, pineapple, sugarcane, plantains, bananas and Yuca (cassava root). We rode at the rear of the group today keeping Moya company. Paul (Mechanic) stopped us to show us a tree full of Iguanas, while we were looking at these he spotted a Sloth with gave us a good show, slow but good. He had also spotted some Toucans earlier. We regrouped with the others at our fruit break. After 25 miles we jumped in the bus for 2 hours, we stopped for our lunch break at a cafeteria style restaurant at the Rio Frio junction then it was back on the bus for 2 more hours, heading towards Puerto Limon. Just south of Puerto Limon at the start of the Santa Rosa- Bomba back road we offloaded the bikes to ride 28 miles following the coast, it was quite flat. The only break we had was to watch the Howler Monkey's that we thought were Sloths at first. A bit further down the road some monkeys were throwing fruit at us, they missed.  At the turn off to our accommodation at Atlantida Roberto was giving us final instructions to our hotel, we heard a bit of commotion across the road, an old drunk man had fallen into a deep culvert, so we went to fish him out and retrieve his shoes. We arrived at our accommodation on the Caribbean coast, next door there was a very hot soccer game going on.  Paul enjoyed a couple of Imperial beers by the pool and read a bit, then we walked to beach.
Dinner was down the road a nice seafood restaurant. This is the poorest region of Costa Rica.