Portobelo forts at sunset
bonding with the animals
gives new meaning to the term ´riding shotgun´
Panama Canal
Panama City church
Colon waterfront
Spanish fort at San Lorenzo
another spider in the garden
campsite at playa Lajas
Playa Lajas
green tree snake
Panama City
Chris spins to the top of Volcan Baru, highest point (3475 m) in Panama
Ye ha...into Panama (our 8th country if you count Canada) and its an easy crossing and better yet cheap! Our first stop is the mountain town of Boquette which is home to more Americans than Panamanians (or it seems that way!) City size lots go for around 150,000 US! Our first trip is a run up Volcan Baru...basically 14 km of rolly rocks! She was a bit of a work out (took the 250) but I made it to the top which happens to be the tallest point in Panama. Lots of fun and I think that the 250 Hondog has forgiven me after I gave it a oil change!
The next day we headed back into the mtns on the 650 and did a fantastic hike called the Quetzel Trail. Most folks do a one way trip on the trail and use a taxi ride to return to Boquette. We decided to hike it both ways (the trail guide says 12 km each way) and it truly is a fantastic cloud forest experience. We also got to find out why they call it a rain forest! After making it to the far end of the trail we got hit with a most incredible storm...the bad news being we had to return to Boquette. In less than five minutes we were totally soaked to the skin...dry creek beds were running bank to bank etc. and we had over two hours of hiking then a 16 km MC ride back to town! We froze our butts off and even the hot shower then into sleeping bags with long johns etc. couldn't warm us up! However it was great even if I still have not found one of those darn elusive Quetzels!
Back to the beach! Next stop is Playa Lajas where we found a huge white sand beach (that we can ride the bikes down) and a neat campsite under the coconut trees. All is good until a group of young residents set up camp within 20 feet of us (and there is close to 1km of camp area) and proceeded to party, scream and basically carry on all night...sleep equals zero. I spent the night thinking of how great it was going to be to fire up the old Hondog at 6 in the morning and let er rip at 1o grand for a while. So here comes the sunrise...turkey vultures are sitting all over the coconut trees scrounging on the mass of garbage our party animals have left laying around, a dog comes over and pisses on one of their tents (good doggie!!!) then...they get up!!!! Tough dudes but I did have some revenge watching them puke!!!
The coast is just to hot for us so its back into the mountains and Parque Torres where we bounce over some rough roads to get into the park and set up camp way up in the mountains where cloud and rain cool us off. The trails are a leg surgeons dream...slippery roots and rocks everywhere and straight up and down...no wonder there are no tracks! On top of that the park rangers do not have maps and the area is covered with old trails etc. Some fun finding your way back out but I did see some neat birds including my first Trogan.
So today we crossed the Panama Canal at 11...feels fantastic to look over this piece of history that cost so many lives and is considered by some to be the 8th man made wonder in the world. We have always dreamed of visiting the canal and what better way to do it than by riding over it on MC's! Spent the day exploring Panama City.. a surprisingly small place that appears to be somewhat run down with some real sketchy looking Ghetto areas. We feel real comfortable around here and will be spending some time getting our bikes to Colombia and checking out the Panama canal and the old city of Panama Veijo.
