We had a short ride down the Pan Americana to David (Daveed) and then up the under construction new 4 lane highway to Boquete. We drove thru town and asked where a good hotel was and were directed just up the road to the Casa de Abuela. We were greeted by an American traveling south by car.
While we are turning the bikes around to park another bike pulls up. When I went over to say hello to him he said “hi I’m Christophe we met on the Internet”. Nice another rider from BC and he has not met another rider for 2 months.
About 15 minutes later while we are unpacking we hear another bike pull up with Ramiro and Pia. He has traveled from Buenas Ares and she met him in Panama City on their way to Alaska.
We were only going to spend 1 night here, but we had so much fun we stayed three. Datura grow like weeds here. Apparently you can make a hallucinogenic tea from it?? This is a funky town with all kinds of shops and restaurants.
Day one we did a loop thru the mountains on a silky single lane paved road. Daniel can never resist a side trip and this took us down a rough steep dirt/gravel track. It was all good until Christope was not behind us at the top of the last steep slippery hill. His F800GS had decided on a small dirt nap in the ditch. Then it was back to town and a great lunch at Mike’s (have the falafel).
Part 2 of our adventure was to go the hot springs which were supposed to be on the way to “the caniones” which is a slot canyon you can jump off the sides of into the water. Our directions there were suspect and the 45 min there became 2 hours of on and off road riding. First we headed off road across the canal and several bridges. We met a guy in a care who could speak English well enough to direct us back to the correct turn off. We finally made it there in time for a few jumps and a swim.
The sun way blazing hot and the sky blue at 245, but at 3 the sky had opened and it was pouring buckets. The thunder and lightening were very close too. “Hiding” under a tree with 3 sets of riding gear in a huge pile was useless. We were drenched. It did let up enough after an hour or so for us to put on our soaked gear on over our wet swim suits (we were smart enough to put our helmets and boot at the bottom of the pile where they were still dry).
Sara is always making friends with the local police. Getting a hair cut for Daniel is always an adventure.
This kid bought a Chinese bike in Lima and is rideing it home to the USA…in flip flops?!?
For more check out our ADVRider Ride Report Finding Freedom