Following the Talamanca Mountains from Costa Rica to Panama

After one week off our bikes on the Osa Peninsula, we were excited to get riding again. Once we arrived back in Palmar Norte, we walked all over town looking for a thank you/ Christmas gift for Alcides and asking people what would be an appropriate gift. To our surprise, multiple people suggested an lamp (like a bedside lamp) or knick-knacky house decoration. We couldn't picture Alcides, a tall, husky, tough man, appreciating such a gift, so we settled on a pocketknife with a cool leather holder.

When we arrived at Alcides´s shop, he wasn´t there so one of the policemen in front called him for us. He arrived with his son, both on bicycles, all smiles, and both donning the standard working man´s look of tall rubber boots, leather skin, and dirt and grime all over. He opened his shop for us and of course everything was there untouched. We chatted about our Christmas celebrations and our time on the Osa Peninsula while we packed up, and shortly after we gave him his gift, expressed our thanks, and said our goodbyes followed by a stiff handshake.

After packing our bikes back up, we headed through town to the highway to hitch a ride 40km 

up the road. (You´d think we would ride them after packing them up :) ). Earlier, we decided to 

take an alternate route toward Panama which would enable us to avoid a significant amount of riding on a particularly dangerous section of the Pan American highway (due to road conditions and traffic). However, the alternate route still entailed about 40km of highway 

riding which I was not comfortable doing. So, we spent about 45 minutes on the side of the highway flagging down pickup trucks with empty beds asking if they could give us a ride up the road to Paso Real. Eventually, a father and son heading back to San Jose after a Christmas celebration at the beach picked us and our bikes up. The father explained that his son was a champion motocross rider in Costa Rica (which is why they had the pickup, to haul his bike) and that he would be competing in the US this year. We wished him good luck, offered some money for the ride (which was declined), and parted ways not 30 minutes later in Paso Real.

It was already late afternoon when we got to Paso Real, but we knew we had some climbing 

ahead of us and wanted to get a head start on the next day, so we rode just a little further to a little town called Las Vueltas. In Las Vueltas, we camped at the house of Juan Carlos, the local schoolteacher. We had already begun climbing into the Talamanca mountains, and from 

his porch we could see down into a valley below and up the other side. In the daytime, we couldn´t see any houses or towns around, just some cleared land and a radio tower here and there, but at night the view was much different. There were clumps of lights all through 

the valley denoting little towns that were previously invisible. Juan Carlos named each of the little towns for us while we ate dinner on his porch. Now we know why the roads are so bad in Costa Rica, it seems all the tax money goes to providing electricity and clean water to the small towns (not that I´m at all complaining).

From Las Vueltas, we rode half a day to San Vito, a town founded in the 1950s by some Italian immigrants. The ride included some steep hills, but the countryside was green, sky was blue, and people were friendly, so it was another great day to be riding in Costa Rica. We were seriously in need of a laundromat and grocery store, so we spent the day stocking up on food and getting some laundry done while enjoying the mountain scenery. You´d think there would still be a strong Italian influence in such a town, but it really didn´t feel much different from other Costa Rican mountain towns. The only place where we noticed the town's Italian heritage was in the cemetary where more than half of the tombstones had very Italian last names on them. We celebrated our last day in Costa Rica with some coffee and delicious treats from Panaderia Flor down the street.

It took us only an hour and a half to ride from San Vito to the Panama border at Rio Sereno. 

It is a little used border crossing which made for a very relaxed crossing. It´s apparent that illegal immigration of Panameños or Costariccense to either side is not a concern for either government, as we easily could have gone across without anyone noticing (and it seemed many peoplewere). We actually crossed into Panama and then had to go back down the street to Costa Rica to get exit stamps in our passports. Although the vibe was very mellow, it was not without a bit of typical Central American hassle. On the Panama side, we had to go past the immigration station into town to pay our entry fee at the bank (which took an hour waiting in line), then go to the supermarket to make a copy of our recipt (but we had to search for the right supermarket, which ended up being back on the Costa Rica side), and then finally go back to the immigration station to present our documents and get stamps. In fact, David didn´t even have to go in to show his documents, I went in with both of our passports and got them stamped for us both. Made getting that kilo of cocaine across the border pretty easy...just joking :).

The steep rolling hills continued in Panama, but the grassy hillsides soon turned to coffee land to as far as the eye could see (sort of). We passed two apparent huge coffee producers, Cafe Duran and Cafe Balboa, with big processing sheds and plantation housing for the workers. By late afternoon, I was spent and so we pulled over at the entrance to "Finca Selva Negra" where there was a wooden shack with some nice shade. After relaxing for awhile in our new travel hammock which Stephanie and Olivier gifted to us (the French couple we spent Christmas with), the coffee pickers started to show up at the shack to get ready to weigh the day's pickings. We got to talking to one of them named Roberto. He was of indigenous heritage, the Ngobe Bugle tribe, as were all of the other workers there. He said they come to the area for 4-5 months every year from their homes in the Comarca Ngobe Bugle (an autonomous province of Panama) and then go back when the coffee picking is done. To get to his town he said he has to go two hours by bus and then walk another 5 hours. Soon after, the boss pulled up in the truck with all of the day's coffee and they began to measure it in a seemingly inefficient way (only to us though). Each worker would pour his coffee into large cans and they 

would count how many cans they picked. When they were done measuring, we got to talking to the boss, Roberto (a different person, same name). He said that each worker picks about 5-7 cans per day and each can weighs about 30 lbs. For each can they get $2 (the US dollar is the official currency of Panama). So, they make about $10-14 per day and get roughly 7 cents per pound picked. Wow. Roberto (the boss) says that that is a bit more than other coffee growers pay and Roberto (the picker) spoke very highly of his boss saying that he treated them very well. Instinctively, it´s easy to pass judgment on the boss for paying essentially slave wages, but his farm is small by Panamanian standards (about 60 acres) and he doesn´t have the equipment to process his coffee, so he sells it to Cafe Duran (mentioned above). We didn´t have the gall to ask how much Cafe Duran pays him... Sunset had already come by the time we stopped chatting and Roberto gladly let us camp on his property for the night.

After tackling only a few hills the next day, we stopped at a scenic point to admire Volcan Baru right in front of us (the tallest mountain in Panama, about 12,000 ft). We had been there only a few minutes and Roberto, the boss, pulled over in his truck. He offered us a ride to Volcan, 15 km away, and we accepted (and in so doing changed the entire course of the rest of our trip, through lucky coincidences). He was a great tour guide and stopped at a waterfall, 

showed us the flood damage that had come through just a few weeks prior, and also named all of the rivers and sites within view for us. When we got to Volcan, Roberto wished us well and invited us to his house if we ever returned to the area.

Since we got to Volcan much earlier than expected, we spontaneously decided to take a side trip to Cerro Punta- a little town up higher on Volcan Baru that Roberto recommended. The most remarkable part of the first half of the ride was the wind whipping in our faces, slowing our pace down quite a bit. Really the first significant headwind we´ve encountered. Along the way, we came upon another cyclist, Craig, who is from North Dakota but now lives in the area. He gave us some good pointers on the route, some guidance as to a good place to camp in Cerro Punta for the night, and also an invitation to a New Years eve party the following evening. Maybe we wouldn´t be spending New Years eve dirty and cramped in our tent?... On the climb up to Cerro Punta, we passed numerous stands selling strawberries and cream and also duros. We stopped to ask what a duro was and a customer bought one for us to try, and man was it delicious. A frozen treat like a popsicle with strawberries in it and 

cream on the bottom. While we ate our lunch at a bus stop in Cerro Punta, a few of the workers from the nearby farm pulled up on a tractor to get a closer look at us. And when we moved to another spot which wasn´t so sunny, they moved too. Not so sure if they thought they were being sly, but if they did, they definitely missed the class on stealthiness. Finally, two of them came up and talked to us, Javier and Edwin. They explained that they were both cyclists and race in mountain and road races. I found it interesting that they were passionate about cycling yet live in such a small, relatively remote town. Really cool.

After setting up our tent, we took in the cool mountain air (we were at about 6600 ft.) 

and surrounding mountain and farmland vistas while we explored the outskirts of town close to La Amistad International Park (stretches into Costa Rica and Panama). As soon as the sun went down, the temperature seriously dropped and we put on our beanies and jackets to cook our macaroni and cheese on the porch of the hotel we were camped at. While we were cooking, Javier pulled up on his road bike to chat- he had just come back from a ride after work. He told us that Craig (the American cyclist we met earlier in the day) helps them out and that he and Craig are part of a team of riders all from the close surrounding towns. Javier said that he would also be doing in a group ride on the 11th of January from the city of David to Las Lajas and back and that we were invited to join. We of course jumped at the opportunity to ride with local Panameños and adjusted the rest of our cycling plans in Panama in order to do so.

The next day was New Years eve and we were feeling festive so we called Craig to confirm our invitation to the party. He was on a bike ride nearby so he met us at our camp spot and took us to his house in Paso Ancho (down the mountain a bit and closer to Volcan). Earlier in the day, David went to take a short morning ride and before he could even get started, he rolled his bike backward to get it out of its spot and completely bent and broke his rear derailer. Our first big mechanical failure. Thus, David rode to Paso Ancho on a single speed and we bought a used rear derailer from Javier the following day that he happened to have lying around. Craig and his wife, Dana, kindly invited us to stay at their house for the night and we basked in the comfort of a home, bed, kitchen, and friendly company. The New Years eve party was at Fernando and Claudette´s house, Craig and Dana´s friends that live down the street. We arrived at 8 and spent the next 5 hours chatting with some very interesting and kind folks from all over the place who now live in the area. The assortment included a Columbian businessman, jolly Dutchman, American canal-zoners, birders galore, Obama fans, and retirees exploring their life's passions. Also included were Angel and Carla Rodriguez, two ex-Seattleites who used to own R&E Cycles over in the U-District. Angel is actually the "R" in R&E Cycles and is the founder of Rodriguez Cycles (custom cycles sold at R&E). Small world. Our olfactory glands and taste buds were reinvigorated as we dined on an elaborate meal accompanied by delicious wine and midnight champagne. No PB and J tonight :). The night ended with a bit of dancing and lots of gratitude for a great time. Just the morning prior, I was mourning the fact that we were going to have an uneventful New Years eve and probably be sleeping by 8. So glad I was mistaken.

We set off two days later for our next adventure on Volcan Baru, an overnight hiking trip on the Los Quetzales trail from Cerro Punta to Boquete on the other side of the mountain. We skirted around the mountain (rather than go over it) hoping to see a Quetzal (very beautiful and elusive bird) along the way. The trail was closed secondary to mudslides from the floods a few weeks prior, but we turned a blind eye to the sign and kept on as there were no rangers to shoo us away. About half way to Boquete, there was a little wooden lookout a few hundred meters from the trail that provided an amazing view of the canopy below and surrounding mountains. It became our camp spot for the night and from there were were able to experience a spectacular sunrise over the mountains in the morning. The trail wasn´t washed out too bad, but we did have to contort ourselves a bit to get through some root and rock messes and also get creative to cross a couple of rivers. Unfortunately, no Quetzales decided to grace us with their presence, but we did see quite a few other colorful and chirpy birds. When we exited the trail, there was a ranger at the other side who told us that the Quetzales are up higher on the mountain at this time of year and don´t come down until March, oh well. He was very nice and thankfully didn´t chastise us for hiking the trail illegally. We then hopped on a bus all stinky and muddy and made it back to Paso Ancho where our bikes and stuff were (at Craig and Dana´s house). That night we shared stories with Craig and Dana over a delicious meal and slept well, prepared for another leg of our bike tour to commence the following day.