Day 10 - Hello Panama

On Monday, we left the little reggae town on the beach and proceeded south through the last bit of Costa Rica.  My body's reaction that morning was to break out in hives when it realized we were riding AGAIN.  I've never had hives before...they are interesting.  As soon as we started riding, my body gave up and they went away.  We climbed up up up into the indigenous town of Bri Bri and then rode straight to the border with Panama.

Going up...

We had to make a bit of a stop along the way as two members of our group crashed after trying to hug on the bike.  Thankfully everyone was ok - just bruised and scraped.

And then we were back on our way!

What's possibly better than cows?  A pig on a leash.

 The Costa Rican-Panamanian border!  Aka "the dodgy bridge"

Border town

You think I'm kidding about the dodgy bridge...

It was with much delight that we were finally allowed into Panama after only TWO hours of border shenanigans on both sides, much improved over our experience leaving Nicaragua.

Next stop, the water taxi!

20 people and all our luggage fit in that.  It was a little bit scary but you learn to just take a blase attitude in a 3rd world country!

Our destination for the next two days was Bocas Del Toro, a group of islands in the Caribbean off the coast of Panama.  It's a pretty cool and crazy place full of beaches, nature and backpackers.

Hotel lobby upon arriving from the water

View from every restaurant and bar

Tomorrow we would finally get our first rest day of the trip, after 9 straight days of riding.  Time for some fun!

Ride map and profile