From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

We got in touch with Bob from the couchsurfing network to see if we could stay with him while we organized the flight to Quito. He wrote back right away to say that he lives and works in Dallas, but that he had an apartment in Panama City that we could use. We couldn’t believe our luck! All we had to do was confirm with him and then pick up the key from a friend’s place. So we had an amazing apartment, with security at the entrance and access to the pool. The apartment was on the 27th floor, with two rooms, each with an ensuite, a fully-equipped kitchen, AC in all the rooms, internet, a flat screen with cable… and hot water! We could barely believe our eyes. It seemed like the lap of luxury – although not all together sustainable, and certainly more than we were used to or really needed.

The city center in Panama was a stark reminder of the deep divide between extreme comfort desperate poverty. Grand apartment complexes sidled up to dilapidated buildings and little lean-tos. The areas around the complexes all really dirty and unkempt, and we went through areas of the city even more impoverished.

So here we are in the Ciudad of Panama, after having followed the Panama Canal for a quite a bit. Because of our chosen method of locomotion, we weren’t able to take the most direct route on the “Puente de Las Americas”. We had to go North, and cross the “Puente Centenario.” The canal was actually built twice. The French started work on the canal in 1881, but they underestimated the project. 22,000 workers died of yellow fever or malaria in less than ten years, and the whole enterprise went bankrupt. The US pressured the French to give up the concession, and work started up again five years later, and lasted another ten years, and !!include!!d many more deaths from tropical diseases. The first ship crossed the canal in 1914. The US held a lot of influence over the canal and Panama politics generally, under 1999 when the revenues of the canal were entirely given over to the country.
The canal is highly profitable, and has allowed Panama to improve its infrastructures, and fund health and education programs, among other things. The canal is 80 km long and connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Currently, about 15,000 boats pass through each year, and it is overcrowded and too narrow for the big ocean liners. In 2006, there was a referendum approving a project to widen the canal. 

We had some trouble getting our bearings in the Ciudad de Panama. There are no street names or numbers. The only way to orient yourself is based on the shopping centres, the apartment complexes, and the bank towers. It was pretty disorienting for us Europeans. We frequently had to ask people on the street for directions. And we discovered that although lots of people would know where a certain landmark was, they just couldn’t explain how to get there!

We’re getting ready to fly tomorrow (Sunday) to Quito, Equator. When we left, we hadn’t planned on going through Colombia. As we travelled however, we began to reconsider. We read the blogs of recent bikers who had gone through Colombia and they wrote positively about their experience, and so we thought about changing our plan. In the end, however, we don’t have to time. It will have to be for another trip.

For the flight, we found two boxes for the bikes, although unfortunately a lot smaller than the ones we had to go to Anchorage, which meant that we had to take the bikes apart. We also got a couple of big, cheap, travel bags to put our biking paniers in. So our stuff will be well protected from the not always very careful luggage handlers.

This will mark the end of our journey through Central America and the Northern Hemisphere. It is also the half-way point of the trip: 12,500 km down, and about that many left to go!

We hope – although likely in vain – that it will also be the end of the high UV indices. In France during the summer, on sunny days the UV index can reach 8 or sometimes 9, but here the index goes up to 12. And when the number goes above 10, they advise to you stay inside and avoid all sun exposure. And yet, we bike all day! It certainly explains our extreme tan and the 5-8 litres of water that we drink each day…!

Sara & Sébastien