Day 86: Panama City (cont'd)

We had planned that day to do a tour of the city with Michaela and John. We met them at 10 am at the Panama canal, and proceeded to visit the museum, and to watch ''live'' the process of getting a large ship across the locks. It was a very interesting visit. You can read more about the canal here. I had previously seen a documentary about it, but what I didn't know is that Panama is currently building another set of wider locks, in order to accommodate even the largest cargo ships in the world. 

There are actually two sets of locks in parallel, so two large ships can be moved up simultaneously.

These locomotives stabilize the ships laterally with steel cables, preventing them from colliding with the concrete reinforcements.

One of the several beautiful maquettes in the Panama canal museum

Photo of a photo of the construction site of one of the 3 new locks.

How the new locks will look like.

From the canal, we headed to Casco Viejo, which apparently was supposed to be a point of interest. I was a little skeptical, based on what we've seen on our first day in Panama City. Well, it turned out that we had previously seen the shitty area of the neighborhood  and it had a lot more to offer than I expected. Casco Viejo has many beautifully renovated buildings. The government is spending a lot of money in rejuvenating the area. With roughly 50% of the work done (my approximation), it is already looking real good. Five years from now, this place will be very impressive.

Old in the front, modern in the back.

From Casco Viejo, we jumped into a cab to check out the modern part of town, with its condo towers and office skyscrapers. We ended up our tour at the impressive Trump Ocean Club tower, and had some drinks on its awesome terrace.

Trump Ocean Club in the middle. It is supposed to be a sail-shaped building, but on this photo it reminds  me of something else.

Terasse at the Trump Ocean Club. Can you see where the pool ends? 

Trump Ocean Club: view from 35th floor.

Trump Ocean Club: lobby

It was a great day, all in all. Tomorrow, we are off to Carti (2.5 hrs from Panama City), where we will load the motorcycles on the ship that will take us to Colombia. Next entry should be sometime after Jan. 17th. Hasta luego!

Last but not least: I finally got my new keyboard. Sweet!

Days 84 and 85: Panama City

Day 84:

Mihai's mom, Michaela, and her husband John have arrived in Panama City two days ago, in order to spend a week of vacation here, and to get to see Mihai. They were kind enough to invite both of us to spend a day with them at their resort, so we jumped on the bikes in the morning of day 84, and met them around noon. It was nice to be treated to a day of luxury, and we had a good time. Thank you Michaela and John, it was very appreciated.

Surprisingly, the resort was packed with French Canadians, or Quebs, as Josh calls us :) When closing my eyes, I could have sworn I was at the Oka beach, and not in Panama City..lol. 

Later that night, I got sick, with stomach problems. This was a little puzzling, since the food we at the resort was among the best meals we had since we left home. I guess my digestive system got used to crap and no longer tolerates quality..lol.

Yet another beach. Starting to get bronzay by now :)

View from Michaela and John's room at the resort

What you see on the horizon is not settlements, but the long line up of ships awaiting to cross the Panama Canal.

The four of us at dinner 

Day 85:

My stomach problems continued in the morning, whereas Mihai was now feeling like crap as well, with what appeared like symptoms of another cold. We wanted to shop for a few missing items that day, so we popped a few pills and took a cab to Albrook mall. This thing is HUGE. There are over 800 shops, and there's even a small motorcycle dealership. I was hoping to score some tires, but didn't like what they had in stock. I guess we'll have to wait until Bogota, Colombia, to find some fresh rubber for our DR's.

Josh was flying out the next day to Bogota, at 6 am in the morning. His bike was supposed to leave on a cargo plane on the previous day. We will most likely meet up again somewhere in Colombia, maybe even in Cartagena.

Josh, crashing in our room for a few hours on his last night in Panama City, before heading out to the airport at 4 am.

Days 82 and 83: Boca del Toro to Panama City

Day 82:

We caught a boat back to Almirante in the morning, and were back on the road by 11 am. Most of the riding on that day was good stuff: twisty roads over mountains.

TWISTY road, just the way we like it :)

Josh was obviously having fun

We stopped that night in Santiago, on the Panamericana. Not a town of much interest, just a place to stay overnight. That night, La Bamba was playing on TV. Mihai and Josh had a good laugh, whereas to me it brought some frustrating memories (remember my licence story from Granada, with the LDP look alike cop?)...lol.

La Bamba on TV. It brought back some bad memories from Granada ;)

Day 83:

Uneventful and boring 250 km drive all the way to Panama City, on two lane highway. There was cops all over the place, so we had to stick to the 80 kmph speed limits. It was scorching hot too, so all three of us were close to dozing off at times.

We arrived in Panama City in the early afternoon, and as soon as we got into town, we hit heavy traffic. Someone has recommended us a hostel in the old part of town (Casco Viejo), so we headed there first. After riding around for a little while searching for the hostel, we agreed to just go somewhere else. The neighborhood was a dump and none of us had any interest in staying there. We settled for a half decent hotel at 40$ a night, in a slightly less sketchy area, in between Casco Viejo and the modern Centro. 

Days 80 and 81: Boca del Toro, PANAMA

Day 80:

We left Puerto Viejo at 9am, and quickly covered the 30-something km to the border with Panama. Checking out of Costa Rica was easy, but getting into Panama turned into our worst border crossing yet. We got to the customs around 11am. There was a long line up, as there was a power outage. When we finally got our passports stamped, it was 1:30 pm. The next step was to purchase the mandatory liability insurance for the bikes, but the only guy in charge of that was nowhere to be seen. He finally showed up around 4 pm, and at 4:30 pm we were finally back on the road. Over 5 hours of waiting in scorching heat had all of us slightly irritated ;)

We drove another 45 km to Almirante. Our plan was to spend the next two days on the Boca del Toro island, and we didn't want to bring the bikes along with us; the ferry cost 40 USD per moto, and we were not going to ride there anyway. Fortunately, someone has previously tipped us off that it was possible to leave the bikes at the fire station in Almirante, so we went there directly. It all worked out, and we managed in extremis to catch the last water taxi at 6pm.

The never-ending border crossing between Costa Rica and Panama.

Bridge between Costa Rica and Panama. I might be smiling, but I was NOT having fun.

Secure parking at the fire station in Almirante

Fire station in Almirante, where we left the bikes.

Water taxi

Day 81:

The next day, we did a cool day-long boat trip, which included some snorkeling. Boca del Toro is a great place. I definitely recommend it.

GoPro shot on our boat tour in Boca del Toro (photo credit: Josh)

Crappy underwater picture, but you get the idea. The corals are spectacular (photo credit: Josh)

Almirante, on the other hand, is not that nice. Slums right by the canal.

Ship wreck... Almirante again.