Good Bye Costa Rica – Hello Panama

Date: 06/01
City: San Isidro de El General, Costa Rica
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 29828

Not much happened over the next three days. Marvin, the hotel owner was very nice and organised a mechanic which would have a look at the bike today – Sunday – and see where the vibration on my bike came from. I had a pretty good idea after I mutilated the back tyres bead yesterday while trying to fit it. So he came, had a look at the bike, everything else seemed fine. He was also sure that he could organize a new tyre if needed, and fit it within one day. That was good news! So the next day we dropped the bike off. And after he removed the tyre everybody could see the reason for the vibration. There was no question, we needed a new tyre.

So he organized a new tyre and put it on, all within a couple of hours which ensured that we could make it in time to Panama City. Here are our heroes.

During the whole day I felt sick and had a bit of fever which didn’t go away for the next two days, so in the end we decided to consult a doctor. Marvin was once more nice enough to organize a doctor’s appointment and drove us there as well. We are really thankful for his help since I didn’t feel like riding a bike. The doctor ordered a blood sample and prescribed some tablets to get rid of an infection. Marvin was once more driving us around. Below are Marvin and I in the waiting room and the doctor that looked after me. Bye the way, she was not only a nice looking doctor; she spoke English as well, which made the whole conversation easy.

After taking the tablets, the fever went away within a day, so on the 9th January it was time to get moving; otherwise we would miss our boat to Columbia.

Date: 09/01 – 11/01
City: San Isidro de El General, Costa Rica to Panama City, Panama
Kilometres ridden: 753
Cumulative kilometre: 30581

Today was the day to leave Costa Rica and to go to Panama. I felt much better, so we packed the bikes, said goodbye to Marvin and Vera and got moving.


We arrived at the border two hours later and once more did the border crossing without a helper, using the great border crossing description from Lisa and Dan, an English couple who travel the Pan American Highway 2 month in front of us.

After the border crossing we rode another 50km to David, the next big city, and organized some accommodation. Two days later we arrived in Panama City. Not much happened on the way. In Panama City, Sigrid organized a small flat with a kitchen for two days. Tomorrow we’ll visit the Miraflores Lock on the Panama Canal.

1 comment

  1. Your trip is awesome. It is so much fun following you on your adventure. This is Donna Morgan, we met along with Don Morgan, Michael Blind and Norman Melbar in San Quintin.

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