The Nomads

Turn around day!

Left Panama City, Panama Province, Panama
Temp: 30 degrees C
Sunny, some cloud, rain in the afternoon

Susie wished me a happy father’s Day and a promise of new motorcycle boots when we get to California!

I studied the map hard and we were on the road around nine thirty hoping that Sunday morning traffic would be more sane and manageable than usual. It paid off and we were on the Bridge of the Americas and out of the city in about fifteen minutes with no scary incidents.

One of the peculiarities of Panama City is that private drivers buy old school buses from the States and pimp them up with every colour of the rainbow, but the predominant colour is red. The entire bus is coloured with painted pictures of family or country and Jungle scenes and flames and flowers…and the exhausts are usually replaced by twin chrome stacks up the back of the bus. Sue spied on this morning with large golden tassels where the mud flaps would normally be behind the front wheels!

The drivers have no special training. They are independent operators who compete with the regular buses as well as each other. It’s not the least unusual to see them run red lights and stop signs and race around and ahead of other buses and taxis to try and steal the customers. They do not recognize nor obey any of the traffic rules, if “might makes right”, they are the biggest thing on the road and they make it pay! Hence the name….Los Diablos Rojos (the Red Devils). But they are a sight to behold!

We had blue skies and no traffic for most of the day and only got rain in the middle of the afternoon. We made good time and pulled into David around four and headed for the Alcala Hotel where we had stayed on the way down. We were fed and watered and settled in well before five thirty!

Kilometers - Daytrip: 443 km total: 14,386
Gas: $ 35
Lodging: Hotel Alcala $ 33

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 5:01 PM 0 Comments

No Travel Day
Panama City, Panama Province, Panama
Temp: 32 degrees C
Cloudy, rainy

Today we decided to park the bikes and travel by taxi (much safer and cheaper) to go to the Miraflores Locks, and then on to the Amador Causeway and Isla Flamenco. The streets are an unorganized mish-mash and cross- jumble, with many one-ways and a very serious lack of street names or signs. Even with two different maps of the city we could hardly navigate our way. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the people don’t even know the name of the street they are standing on. And in one instance, a local merchant when asked the location of the hotel we were searching for shrugged and shook his head, said he didn’t know of any such hotel. We were about to give up when we noticed the hotel sign not ten doors up from him on the opposite side of the street! This is a large six storey hotel that has been there for about twenty years!

At almost every corner we would inquire what the street names at the intersection were, and never once did the people know the names! Apparently they navigate by old landmarks in the area, some of which no longer exist. For instance there is landmark they refer to as “the old fig tree” where you either take a left or a right, but the ancient giant tree has long since died and been removed.

Driving across Amador Causeway

We toured the shops and stayed for dinner and cocktails, ended up waiting out a long rain squall. Then back to the hotel with a really nice bottle of German Riesling we bought at the duty free and a quiet evening of reading and relaxation.

View of Panama City from Isla Flamenco

Kilometers - Daytrip: 0 km total: 13,943
Gas: $ 0
Lodging: Hotel Parador $ 85

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 5:13 AM 0 Comments

We left Penonomé about nine o’clock and had hardly gassed up and got rolling when we had to stop and put on rain gear, Cloudbursts plagued us off and on most of the way but as we were making good time we drove out of most of them in short order.

It seemed that the closer we got to Panama City, the worst the roads got. There were many vicious holes and broken pavement narrowly and hair-raisingly avoided. By the time we got to the “Bridge of the Two Americas” my knuckles were white and my hands and shoulders were so cramped that I could hardly hold on!

Once across the bridge we rolled for miles through some of the most desperate looking slums and “barrios” to get to “El Centro”, and twice had to ford foot deep water for twenty feet or more in the low lying roads right in the city. It rains a lot in Panama City! So much so that the 52 million gallons of fresh water required for each ship that passes through (today 13,100 annually and rapidly growing) is readily available from the main reservoir of the canal, Gatun Lake, which also supplies all the drinking water for the city!

We decided on the Hotel Parador in the Cangrejo zone of the city, and after a few minor glitches were settled in by five o’clock, had dinner in their restaurant and a bottle of overpriced Chardonnay to celebrate the turn around point.

I don’t recommend their garlic chicken; it kept me running all night and half the next day!

Kilometers - Daytrip: 155km total: 13,943

Gas: $ 30

Lodging: Hotel Parador $ 85

# posted by Richard and Susie @ 5:03 AM 0 Comments