1. Bienvenidos a Panama
Day 80
Another restless night before the border crossing due to my “Border PTSD”. Nothing a big pot of coffee wouldn’t fix. The sun is shining but I don’t think it will last too long. It is only 7 km to the border and they open at 7, so no rush. This particular border is away from the main route through Central America. I am hoping for an easy crossing today. I did my homework so I know where to go and what to do. There are some good websites which give you tons of useful info regarding any border crossing. Any help is welcome. Not too much info is there about this one. But enough.
Sleepy little village in the hills in the middle of nowhere. It is Saturday, so that can make it interesting. I get to the border in no time. Nobody is there. I head first to get my mandatory Panama bike insurance. That created few problems in the past with fellow travellers. So the plan is to get my insurance first then stamp out of CRC. No problem finding a little tin shack, already on PAN side of the border. But the internet is down! Oh boy. Luckily not for long. It took awhile for the lady to enter all the details into her computer. All done. Head back to CRC side. I had to wait as they are not open yet. Panama is 1 hr ahead of CRC. There is another lady travelling, she is a Canadian with her CRC boyfriend. They housesit and take care of other people houses and animals. Interesting life. Border guys showed up, let’s get this party started. I get stamped out of CRC in 2 minutes. Great. And I even got a sticker from the Customs. Cool. Now the bike. And right away, there is a problem. I need to scan a QR code but there is no wifi and my phone has no coverage. Great. Luckily, the boyfriend offered to me to join his hotspot and I am able to download the files. By then, there were few other guys and they all tried to help me. Thanks! But there is another problem, they can’t find my file in the system. My licence plate doesn’t show up. It is not problem with me as all these files on CRC side are digital, I have no physical copies. But I did take a photo of it and showed the guy that there was correct info put in there system. After few phone calls he stamps me out and I am on the way to Panama side. First, the bike. I have all my docs ready and plenty of copies to hand out. Didn’t take too long and I am done here. The last thing is Migracion, to get my entry stamp to Panama. A few people ahead of me but not too long a wait. All done! The customs lady and another guy was waiting by my bike and asked me to open my bags. And very superficial “check” and I am on my way! 2:30. Pretty good. I think I am getting pretty good at this border crossing business. As with everything, good preparation is very helpful.
Hallo Panama! I am in a very good mood. I’ve been through 4 difficult border crossings in 10 days. And all went very well. Happy to be in Panama. It is very cloudy and misty by this time. The route takes me through the hills and it is very twisty, as ALL roads in Central America so far. The temp goes down to very nice 21˚C. It feels sooooo nice. I am enjoying the road, it is lots of fun with clear head without any border worries. Behind one blind corner there is a police checkpoint. Can’t run away, no need to. A routine check, passport, my bike permit and I am on my way again. Around is a mixture of jungle, pine forest and fields. It seems more land is farm fields. Nice road, though. Steady descend from 1,500m to the sea level. After about 60 km I joined the main highway to Panama City. Pretty busy at first and around cities, then not bad at all. The first impression it that Panama is on a different economic level then other countries in Central America. More cars, newer models, big stores full of goods, nice malls, tons of shop. It feels very developed. And the gas is a bit cheaper here as well. From MEX up till here, average the price was about $1.60-1.70 Canadian pesos. In Panama, the regular is USD1.06 and Premium 1.14 (= 1.45 - 1.56) But it is in the same ball park. I don’t need gas so I settle into a steady pace on the freeway. I’ve read about frequent police checkpoints so I am paying attention to my speed. The limit on the freeway is 100 km/h so I dial that into my cruise control. Exactly. And no more then about 5 km later there is a cop waving me to stop. He looks serious and has bigger bikes then in the other countries. And he is holding a radar gun. I think I can easily outrun him but I stopped this time. Passport and licence. OK, no problem. Well, I was doing 100 in an 80 zone, he said. No friggn way! I was VERY careful about it. He said there was 80 sign 2 km back. No way. I showed him my cruise control on my dashboard. Luckily I didn’t cancel it so it was still showing 100km/h. He looked at it, gave me my docs back and told me I am good to go. WTF was that all about? Well, two police stops and it is not even a lunch time! I am watching the speed signs like a hawk now. I am also watching the clouds. There is no way I will get to my destination dry. Drives me nuts when I get wet at the last 10km … And that’s exactly what happened. But only some sprinkles so no biggie. But it is very black ahead. Found my home for tonight. A nice setup with 4 bungalows and a swimming pool with a nice view. The host is super nice, she is from Romania so we hit it off as I used to go to Rumania for holidays with my parents few decades back. A super nice room, I’d said top 3 on the this trip. Cleaned up and off to the beach which is about 10 km away. There is a nice restaurant so I treated myself to a nice dinner with couple of beers and a piña colada, of course. I went for a walk on a endless beach and took some pics. Only iPhone with me, left my Nikon in my Casa. It wasn’t raining entire time I was there but started pouring right when I was leaving. I was wearing only shorts and a T-shirts. I needed to wash it anyway.
I have a super fast iNet here so I need to take an advantage of it. I confirmed my bike shipment details to Colombia, bought my flight ticket to Bogota and booked a hotel there as well. Very efficient today.
So, for now, the plan is to spend 5 nights in Panama City then fly to Bogota and spend another 5 days there. I will write about it when it comes. But for now, my leg through North America is coming to an end. I have only about 360 km left on this continent. Can’t wait for the next chapter.
Panama City tomorrow!