Panama, english

Special to enter a country on a bridge that we are afraid will collapse. This is it for Panama. It is very poor; there are only the tourist places that are a bit more pleasant. Panama is particularly mountains, approximately 700 km of asphalted road there are only 100 km on the flat. The first days still well past despite humidity making us feel so heavy. It was still entitled to cloudy days. But the day where it would really have required clouds was magnificent. We cross the Cordillera de Tabasara under a sun lead. 40 km of steep mountains under these conditions you finish by asking yourself what I’m doing here, it would be so nice in the comfort of our home. But when you’re at the top we know why and this is one of the beauties of this journey. It was one of the most difficult steps of the travel. Then clearly once we started to descend the mountains we gain knowledge of violent storms in Panama. Nothing on the horizon and we could not even take advantage of the joy of the descent. Is it too dangerous with this water, we must descend on the brakes. It resulted in sleeping in a school for the night.
The landscapes of mountain... Our most beautiful one. The morning fog is so dense at the bottom of the valleys it is magical. Color contrasts are so intense that we cannot capture them in a photograph. Not easy to find a place to pitch the tent, especially in times of rain. By chance hotels prices are ridiculously cheep, sometimes even less expensive than camping sites we could find 2 or 3.
The famous canal, we passed on top to enter Panama City. It becomes impressive when we know the entire history that comes with it. We went to visit the Museum of the channel that is interesting but only in Spanish. The city is not really great but it is possible to find 2-3 places with not much difficulty. There is a bike path on the water but it is only 5 km and it stinks.
Here we go to the southernmost point of our trip. We return to the Caribbean Sea for the last time. The city of Colon is the worst we have seen. It frightens us. This is ugly, everything is falling apart, even people. Then in Portobelo we try to decide if we should take a boat to Colombia or not. It is tempting, especially as our Australian friends must do at the same time. But no! We never see again the guys who had developed the idea in our mind. We even returned to Colon to find a boat but must believe that it was not for us. It is easier in Panama City to cross South America. It was therefore the beginning of the return.

Costa Rica, english

In the first hour of this country monkeys have given us a very pleasant welcome sign. There is definitely the North American influence on the west coast of the country. The cities are much cleaner and more complete. It’s the place to buy quality bicycle parts but labour is not good. If you are able to do it by yourself, make yourself happy and keep your bike in shape. Playa Del Coco is one of the beautiful destinations; it is located on the Nicoya Peninsula. It is very relaxed but we have the opportunity to observe monkeys and beautiful birds less than 10 feet away. Fantastic!
Dirty road to the periphery of the peninsula discouraged us to venture. We therefore proceeded towards the capital San José. The first one hundred kilometers were too easy! The crossing from West to East is more than just hills, one of which was more than 35 km uphill to reach San Ramon. The ascent would be not that difficult except for the absence of a shoulder and constant buses and big trucks. We even had the chance to do it in the rain, memorable.
Down to Puerto Limon we pass through a rain forest. It's majestic! It is green everywhere, trees are huge and some leaves as big as an adult. We made a stop in the Braulio Carillo National Park; unfortunately the vegetation is so dense that it is difficult to observe animals. We have still found 2 sloths and a few toucans. Then our little luckiest one, a small ant eater next to us for several minutes. This route segment is very pleasant, little traffic, it is surrounded by vegetation, the forest life is really loud and the mountain view is simply wonderful. Big blow of heart!
The Caribbean coast is very different, there is the Jamaican influence. The population is very dark black. The atmosphere is also different and Limon city is very dirty and has really extremely high crime rate. The Cahuita National Park however is a good stop. The range is lined with a fairly populated forest, monkeys, reptiles and others that we do like a little less.

RETURN PATH

What strange encounters sometimes! It came to the time of dinner, the time to find a quiet corner to break bread; an American has stopped us to go by his home. Special guy, a former Olympic wrestler, he would have even fought with Chuck Norris! Very nice, we slept there and he introduced us to the Mamon Chino (same family as the leeches). Road is good up to Dominical, then there is a long segment in the dirt, should I say in shit. The famous rainy season. More than a month with only rainy days. Normally it rains just a small period of time during the day but we experienced 3 days virtually without stopping. The climate is already very wet and heavy here is therefore nothing to improve things. Our bicycles seem to weigh 8 tonnes. We were intending to make the beach, take our time but Costa Rica is very Americanized and they have virtually protected throughout the territory by the national park designation. Then everywhere you must pay an entrance, and our restricted budget does not allow for several tourist attractions of this country. We must however keep in mind that we cannot see everything.
Surprise! Mundial of surf in Jaco. Not just a little bit of people. The city was full to the brim; it was a little difficult to find a place to camp.
After the crowd bath, we went to Puntarenas take the ferry to the peninsula. This time we do it all, go get the dirty road! What an idea... The beaches are not bad but still once quite dangerous to bathe. Max had a sinusitis since 1 month well done clean respiratory tract in having fun in the water and is no longer sick! It is still made surprise, roads are not full of shit and they go up and down without stopping. There we repeatedly push our bikes, what a test.
Under the ardent sun and humidity the hardest times that we lived through. One day we have to cross 3 rivers, it involves removing all our panniers therefore going back and forth four times each. There is one in particular we scored. We began to cross with water when it was calf-high and it finished 20 minutes later almost up to mid thigh. A bit later and it would have been impossible to cross. A Quebecois living there in recent years told us we were lucky not to see crocodiles at our crossing. It was enough; we took up the true road.

Nicaragua, english

Nicaragua welcomes us rather difficultly; there are some 20 kilometers of dirt road then 60 additional km before we arrive in a city. It is still a country which has been tested and which is marked deeply. It is therefore not recommended to visit the capital, Managua, without being accompanied by someone experienced. We have therefore bypassed the town. Granada is located on the shores of Lake Nicaragua and is small and welcoming. The centre has beautiful old buildings which make the city look good but if you venture to market you see the true face of this place.
From Granada we take the ferry to Altagracia province on Isla Ometepe, which is the only thing you have to do in Nicaragua. Please note this is not a large ferry, a little complicated, your best travel to San Jorge. A single paved road made Island tour. A few alternate routes go to points of interest. One of them is to reach the 2 volcanoes to camp and do a bit of trekking. After about 10 kilometres on the "trail" we left the volcanoes and camped by the lake on the ground of a restaurant. Not a bad thing eventually because there was a flood during the night that took a friends tent away at the foot of a volcano. The next day we found a completely slashed road on more than one kilometre. The earth and rocks in quantity.... And with their hands or armed with shovels the people began to attempt to clean the debris from the road. Almost ridiculous. 2 days later mechanical shovels there have been sent to do the job.
The following destination, small village popular for surfers. We have been charmed by San Juan Del Sur, relax and not expensive. We have stayed at the hotel LA ESTRELLA very affordable and with a view of the sea. For those who want to surf must still go a few km more but a lot of shuttles are available every day and it is absolutely worth it. The water is crystal clear! We met the local rum FLEUR DE CAÑA. A little too good maybe!
Small tip, attention! Father’s day is very emphasized in Central America. We waited four hours in order to pass the customs when normally it takes about 5 minutes.

RETURN PATH

It’s not always pleasant to return on the same steps of the route. In fact it removes the challenge whether or not it will happen. Fortunately there are still a few km that are new for us on the way back through this country. It fell on a beautiful hotel, a man discussed with us at a service station offering a cycling price for a room. Very nice location, it was altogether in a botanical garden (EcoHotel El Jardin in Diriamba)