We’re sitting on the beach, only a day away from Columbia. Our bike is broken, essentially unrideable. And for the next three days or so we’ll be taking a series of lanchas (motorized boats) in order to circumnavigate the Darien gap. It’s not exactly peak experience for us; as a reminder for those who don’t know we’re not big fans of the ocean or beach. However, we are feeling super grateful for the kindness we’ve received and confident in our ability to find a solution for our bike in Columbia, and overall actually pretty at peace with where we’re at at the moment.
Despite feeling comfortable, mentally and physically right now, in the spirit of Festivus I’ll still explain our last week in the form of an airing of grievances.
Grievance no. 1: It is too hot and too humid. The heat in Panama was a challenge for us throughout the country. Many days we finished drenched in sweat as if we’d been riding through a downpour when not a drop had fallen from the sky. We celebrated Christmas with Mr. Heatmiser, Christmas Day high temps in Santiago around 95 degrees F. This too made it hard to camp, and despite the increased cost (Panama is much more expensive than many of the other countries we’ve ridden through), we decided to pay for rooms in hostels for 4 of our 8 nights in the country. This did, however, result in several fun encounters with other travelers. We spent Christmas dinner with a girl from Sweden and a Guy from France, all of us excited to practice our Spanish with other Spanish speakers at similar levels (they both spoke English too). And then a few days later, a couple who were serving with the Peace Corps who were also from Colorado.
Grievance no. 2: Panama does not know the meaning of tortilla. Tortillas in Panama are more equivalent to polenta. They are thick corn cakes fried in oil. Actually, we have felt that there has been a series decline in general food quality since leaving Mexico. We haven’t eaten in many restaurants because they have even less vegetarian options than usual and they are pretty expensive. The local grocery stores (our usual go to for snacks, lunch and dinner) are not well stocked and are also expensive, the smell of the meat and or dog food is often overwhelming, and they are all stalked with the same assortment of unappealing cookies and chips. Once, we were even sold rotten eggs. After this we resigned ourselves to only buying the most basic foods from these grocery stores, deciding that American cheese and white bread to make grilled cheese was the safest option for Christmas dinner. The big grocery’s cstores have a better selection and quality, and for this we actually did get to make a really good salad. Still, for the first time since leaving the states, we found ourselves at an American restaurant (there are lots of them in Panama, we chose Little Cesars) finding the price and quality just as good as what we were finding elsewhere. Similarly, we had multiple meals at the gas station, Va & Ven where we would eat potato wedges and donuts.
Grievance no. 3: There is no good way to ride a bike across the Panama Canal. The bridge on highway 1 was narrow and busy, but it would have added quite a few km to take the other bridge, besides the fact that they allegedly don’t allow bikes on that highway.
Grievance no. 4: There is no good way to ride around Panama City. Despite our intention to never ride through a big city again, there we were, right in the middle of it. In the end we felt like that was the safest way to go, and we did get to treat ourselves to some expensive (and delicious) coffee and croissant.
Grievance no. 5: The Panamanian accent is hard for us to understand and our American accents are hard for them to understand. Consonants and syllables are frequently left out, never mind that a large number of people we’ve talked to are predisposed to speaking quietly anyhow. On our end, I’m not sure we’ll ever learn to pronounce alcohol in a way that can be understood: we use an alcohol stove so when we’re looking for stove fuel we ask for “alcohol pura, 96%” Usually it takes 2-3 tries for us to be understood. Anyone in a time crunch or feeling impatient usually gives up before this.
Grievance no. 6: The hill to Puerte Carti was too steep. It was nearly unrideable. Well for us is was unrideable, we had to walk up and down multiple stretches of the paved road, and still wrecked our rear hub trying to pedal up one of the hills. Thankfully after some coasting, pushing, and a few attempts to hitch a ride, a military truck scooped us up, and after a 15 motion sickness inducing ride, we were at the ocean at Puerte Carti, where I am writing this blog.
In reality, Panama is way more than our grievances. And certainly being here has felt like quite a milestone. Panama looks like a long way from home on the map, but turns out, we can ride our bike here! We’ve met some really friendly people, had the best oranges ever, the best lemonade ever, and ridden through some beautiful parts of the country.
Hopefully, in just a few days we’ll be celebrating the new year in Columbia!
Thanks for reading!
– Nic