to Canazas: to a church camp

May 26, 2017

We have decided to change our route a bit. Instead of taking route 5 via Sona we will stay on the Pan American route 1. Route five is what most cyclists take, but it would take us three days to get to Las Lajas, by staying on route 1 we can do it in two. We need to keep moving to arrive home on our schedule. This is how a bike trip changes when no longer open ended.

We get an early start again, trying to beat the heat. About 27km past Santiago is a church camp run by two Swiss missionaries who open up their camp to overland travelers and cyclists. We found them on warmshowers.org.

Not much to see again today. There are some nice looking green covered mountains to our east, and we pass through an area with lots of wind turbines. We pass through Santiago rather quickly, much to Patrick's surprise who had been planning another Egg McMuffin stop, Rachel didn't get the memo to stop. Oh well.

Very few opportunities to stop after Santiago. We also seem to have lost most of the traffic. The road seems new, with a nice shoulder and smooth surface. But no cold drinks. We were expecting an isolated place, so we carried food for lunch or dinner, but we had expected to be able to pick up something to drink. No such luck.

The Buena Esperansa camp is about 500 meters off the Pan America. We are greeted by Erika and Heinze Notter, the Swiss missionaries who have lived in Panama for 40 years. We elect to get a bunk bed in one of their bunk rooms and settle in. Erika kindly gives us a pitcher with ice and a bottle of softdrink, since there is no shop nearby. Later in the afternoon a Swiss campervan pulls in, they have been roaming all over North America for the last four years and are getting ready to head south of the Darien Gap.

We eat our provisions of tuna fish and crackers, and salsa and corn chips for lunch and plan to have one of our freeze-dried emergency meals for dinner. That does not quite work out, after carrying these emergency meals for over a year, the spaghetti bolognese meal is so salty to be almost inedible. Just before dark a Mexican cyclist pulls in, he came from Las Lajas today and confirms Erika's statement that it's a tough ride from here to there in one day. He pitches his tent. She gives us a small bag with "druiven suiker" a energy sugar candy. We'll need it tomorrow.

In the evening, a thunderstorm and downpour makes us happy to be inside rather than having a wet tent to pack up in the morning.

The divided highway has turn-around places. Some are nicely landscaped with painted tires.

Patrick finds his Panama souvenir; a license plate for the garage.

The warmshowers hosts near Canazas run the Evangelical Church camp "La Buena Esperanza". You can camp in a covered shelter for free or take a bed in one of their bunkhouses for $4 each. We go for the latter.

Later in the afternoon a Mexican cyclist headed south pulls in. He rode here from his home in Guadalajara. He has had a tough day riding here from Las Lajas. That's our ride tomorrow.

Today's ride: 84 km (52 miles)
Total: 32,103 km (19,936 miles)

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