By Larry and Joan Dolinski
The plot thickens...leaving San Jose, Costa Rica we bicycled toward the borderwith Panama. Nowhere have we witnessed more beautiful country or moredifficult bicycling. On the first day out of San Jose we encounteredconditions that included an 80 km (50 mile) climb to the 11,500 footelevation, narrow roads, extreme heat early, a cold raw rainstorm later, oilslicks on much of the road surface, cross winds in gusts, steep gorges, fogand clouds. Less than 20% of the bikers were able to complete the day bybicycle. The rest of us used creative means to get sagged to the finish line(including stopping an empty flat-bed truck for transport).
The following day we had a most exquisite morning of bicycling throughbreathtaking scenery (rain forest vegetation) and were spontaneously cheered bylocal folks (had the tone of a parade). The afternoon marked the return ofthe killer hills.
Then on to the Panama frontier to cross the border, an experience for theages. Three consecutive queues to stand in, visitor forms to fill out, and ofcourse the protocol (no matter how long the line), for the border officials toclose down for an hour for lunch while we stood in line to hold our places.The crossing of the border took 3 1/2 hours.
We arrived in Panama City by way of the Canal Zone and over the "Bridge of theAmericas." The highlight of our stay in Panama was a tour of the Canal. Thesense of place and history that we felt was kind of hypnotic. Here, until the1950's was the largest earth moving project in the world (The Subic Baymilitary complex, in the Philippines now holds the record). The major taskwas to cut through the Continental Divide. To transit from ocean to oceaninvolves a distance of 50 miles and takes 8-10 hours. A ship must passthrough three separate sets of locks, travel through three large lakes, getraised a total of 85 feet and then get lowered back to sea level. We watchedships move through the canal in both directions and were amazed at the speedand efficiency by which they were raised and lowered. The average cost for aship to pass through the canal depends on the cargo and passenger capacity andaverages about $42,000. One passenger ship was charged over $100,000.
We then toured the city of Panama. Here is a city where traffic lights areextremely rare. Traffic is intense, and pedestrians are really challenged. Agentle beep from a cab means that they consider you to be a potential fare. Aloud continuous beep means you have about three seconds before you get hitunless you jump out of the way in a hurry.
There are more than 250 banks in Panama City representIng most countries inthe world. Besides the unmentionable products related to money laundering,this is a vibrant economy of hard goods trade involving both manufactureditems and agricultural products.
The dollar is the currency standard for all transactions (although there isalso something called the Balboa, which is used as coins and is on equalparity with U.S. coinage).
The next leg of our journey will take us from Panama City to Santiago, Chile.
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