Overall we spent five days in Panama City, and were nicely surprised by how pleasant it was. Having previously avoided most major cities on account of their hectic and expensive nature, Panama City was actually very clean and civilised and we really enjoyed our time here. We visited the Panama Canal, watching huge ships pass through the docks whilst we tried to figure out how such a feat was possible. We went up to Cerro Ancon, a big hill amidst the city with fabulous views and were allowed to ride our bike right up to the very top so she could join us in some photos!
We also spent one evening at the Trump Tower Hotel Bar - on the 66th floor of the tallest building in Panama City, the view was breathtaking, particularly as the sun went down. We could have bought fourteen beers in our hostel for the price that two cost us up Trump Tower, but it was worth it. Plus we had a quick spin in the Casino and the five bucks Tom won on roulette paid for our taxi back, so thank you, Donald Trump, for that little treat.
Whilst in the city we had to go and get our bike inspected prior to sailing to Colombia, but this was a surprisingly straight forward process that was totally free and only took up about an hour of our day. A pleasant change from the usual faff that we normally have to go through for anything bike related! After five days we were ready for a change of scene, so headed up to Portobelo a day early. We kind of wished we didn't, because it turns out there is very little in the tiny port village of Portobelo, and to top it off we arrived amidst a torrential storm which meant there was no electricity for our first day there.
But the second day the power was back, and we headed to nearby Colon to get our Panamanian temporary import permit cancelled. Again this was a fairly quick and easy process and we were back in Portobelo by lunchtime. We spent the next couple of days wondering around, looking at the old ruins and chatting to the local characters. Like a lot of port towns, Portobelo seemed to attract a certain amount of rather strange individuals, who if anything at least gave us a bit of entertainment (and a strong incentive to never take copious amounts of Cocaine) whilst we waited for our boat to depart!
On Friday night we met our 11 fellow passengers and the crew of our boat - Wild Card. There were also five adventure cyclists on our boat who had already travelled incredible distances from various places in the US or Alaska, and some of which were heading all the way down to Ushuaia- the most southern town in the world. There were also two Swiss girls, two Dutch girls, two British lads, a Californian guy and a German guy. Our chef was Australian and our captain was South African, and his wife was Venezuelan! So we had a rich melting pot of nationalities on board that we were sure would make for a really fun journey.
The following morning Tom and I met Captain Charlie to go about the challenge of getting our extremely heavy boat from the little concrete dock out to the boat and up onto its deck. We had our hearts in our mouths the entire time, first as four guys hauled it into a little wooden boat, then as they drove it out to the yacht (with Tom sitting atop to keep it from falling sideways into the water), and then as they looped various straps and ropes around it and by sheer manpower hauled it from the little boat up onto the deck (see video on our Facebook page to se how terrifying this was!).
It was extremely impressive and certainly put our trust in the crew that were to sail us to our next continent.
With motorbike safely aboard we now just had to wait until the evening when we were due to set sail for our last Central American destination - the heavenly San Blas Islands.