I rode the bike to the City of Colon on the Caribbean side of the isthmus of Panama to get some miles done to help the engine break in.
The amount of litter and decay was stunning. All of the old colonial buildings that lined the main road were either burned out or stripped, leaving decaying empty shells. The city functions as a major port and is the Caribbean entrance to the Panama canal, therefore much of the city is devoted to this industry. The centre of the city is an absolute dump and I decided not to go back there, however one of the guys in a bike shop that I was in told me that some of the best beaches in Panama are along the coast to the East of Colon, so if I decide to visit these beaches that will entail passing through the city but the lure of great beaches will probably not be enough to make me return. Colon is well named, it’s a shit hole.
On the way back to Panama city, I could not resist the smell of grilling meat that wafted over the road, so I parked up at one of the many small grills that line the road here and I ate a pile of grilled pork and chorizo sausages for under 5 Dollars (They use the US Dollar here)
A few days later I decided to try to get some more miles under my belt with a view to getting the bike to 300 miles (500 km) when the first service would be due. So I set off from Panama city and headed over the Bridge of the Americas that spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama canal and headed West along the Highway 1 or the Pan American Highway as it is better known as. After about three hours of riding at a maximum speed of 40 mph (60 kph), my arse told me that it needed a rest so once again I stopped at another roadside grill shack where I had lunch.
Having been fed and watered I pushed on until I realised that the part of the road that I was on was close to the Pacific coast, so I took a small detour off of the main road and found myself at Santa Clara beach which was just stunning and very, very, empty.
Then I decided to turn around and head back to Panama city and en route I had to stop and photograph the scenery which is completely different to that in Europe.
Out and about walking in Panama city I saw lots of small roadside carts selling fast food and cold drinks and most of these have a small bike with the front wheel and forks removed, stiched on to them so that they can move to a different location when required.
After the New Year the bike had it’s 300 mile service and on a recommendation I took a ride up to a town called Anton Valley, about a 2 hours ride West Panama city past Santa Marta beach that I had previously ridden to. The road up to the town from Highway 1 was reasonably twisty in places however it was full of potholes and therefore quite slow to drive along. On reaching the town it was very touristy, there was no litter, there were a lot of restaurants and shops selling tourist souvenirs, the pavements were well maintained, along with everything else.
On the way up I had noticed that there seemed to be a lot of very large houses with expensive looking cars in the driveways behind locked gates and covered with security cameras. I presumed that this is where the wealthy people lived. The place was nice but too artificial for my tastes, I parked the bike and went for a walk but could not find anywhere that would allow me to smoke whilst having a coffee, even outside on the terrace with no other customers present. Therefore I got back on the bike and headed out on a different road. Just before I left I stopped and took a photo of the town sign as that was all that I saw that was worth photographing.
The road back down to Highway 1 was less twisty and better surfaced that the one I had used to get there, about 2 hours later I was approaching Panama city and by this time the bike engine had been fully run in and I was able to overtake slower moving vehicles when required.
A few days later I rode out to the East of Panama city to a couple of lakes, again using Highway 1. About 10 miles from the lakes I hit a stretch of the road which was horrific. The road became worse as I got closer to the lakes and one particular stretch that lasted about 4 miles, I had to ride standing up, dodging very large and very deep potholes. The road was so bad that the large trucks that I encountered on the road were only doing about 10 mph and were swerving all over the road to miss these potholes. Eventually I got to the lakes and the small village that sits at the Western edge of a bridge that crosses over them. I went on to the bridge and took a photo but as there was nothing at the village except a military checkpoint (which I got stopped at on the way back) therefore I decided to return to Panama city.
The hotel where I am living in Panama city has a communal rooftop area with a kitchen and a swimming pool, and over the past few weeks I have met a lot of interesting people there. One of these was an Englishman who was a retired barrister and who was travelling throughout Central and South America. Just before he popped off to the city of Lima in Peru for a few months, he asked me to take a photograph of him on my bike as a souvenir of his time here.
As I have previously stated, this is what I love about my current life, meeting lots of friendly people.