Arrived in Colombia…..the land of coke, silicons and coffee.

Quite an adventure to get there. Our last post was in Puerto Viejo Costa Rica. May 4th we left this Caribean village and had a short ride to the border. This was the best border crossing so far. Very quiet and easy.

The bridge tells why, not very tempting for a lot of traffic. That day we drove to Chiriqui Grande just in time to avoid getting wet by this tropical shower.

The ride was absolutely breathtaking. Big green hills with clouds hanging between, no traffic and top quality roads.

The next day began the same with a climb over the mountains giving us the nicest views.

When we reached the Panamerican highway the fun was over. Can´t believe that there are bikers only following the panamerican highway. Booooring. We got stopped along the road by a very heavy rainshower and had to hide under our blue tarp.

After two hours we continued and spent the night in Santiago. Next day we wanted to reach Panama city in order to arrange a flight or boat trip to Colombia. Again the boring panamerican highway (not much of a choice). We reached our hostel via the most dangerous neighborhood (we later saw a map in the hostel warning to stay away 24/7). In the hostel we heard that there was still room on board of Fritz-the-cat, a catamaran. Even for our motorbikes. The boat would depart on saturday (may 8th), so on friday we went to Carti to get on board.

To get there we had to climb real steep hills and do a rivercrossing.

So first we walked the river to find the best route to cross. And after that one by one driving through…..and the others taking pictures…just in case. But everything got dry on the other side.

In Carti we got our bikes in Kuna Indian boats and they brought our bikes to the catamaran.

At Fritz-the-cat they were lifted on board. An adventurous day, for us and the bikes.

We really enjoyed this. So far so good, first part of crossing the Darien gap accomplished. Next day the other passengers came on board and we set sail to the islands. Start of part two….to follow soon