Road to San Blas/Panama
 

Does anyone has experience with the road from Panama City to San Blas? How is it in shape? paved or not. (Muddy when raining??) We need to ride this road in about 2 weeks to catch the Sailboat to colombia.

Hi
My partner and i tried to ride this dirt track come road road back in 2004 in the rainy season it was thick mud and had lots of ruts and standing water, there are many small hills and it was like trying to ride up the side of a bar of soap, i think we managed about 7 or 8 kms in two days before we turned back. I think to be fair we were there at the wrong time of the year. In the dry season i think it would be a very good dirt road, with some very nice jungle on both sides. About 5kms in is an old indio woman who has goats and some pigs, she speaks no English but will love it if you take her some AA battery's for her old radio, i would hope she is still alive, If you take this route please put some photos up on the HU site as we never made it to the end and so many locals told us how nice it was, we ended up taking a sail boat from Porto Bella. A word of warning don't sail with an American guy named Captain Denis he "is not safe" Good luck. Hope this is of some help Skip

This road is nuts! Well it's fine and paved (concrete slab type pavement) for the ride between Panama City and Chepo, and a bit beyond Chepo to where the turnoff to the islands is. After that it's about 40km unpaved to the coast. It ends at a river actually, not at the coast. I bicycled it in 1.5 days in Sept. 2007 (see here: A few years in North, Central & South America: Sept. 22, 2007: Chepo to near Llano-Cartí:) and there were signs along the way indicating that the road had recently been improved. It wasn't muddy for me, but I think it could get that way in the wet season. At the very end where you meet the river, the mud is knee-deep or something, and you might have to plow through it somehow to get your bike to a canoe in the river to take you to one of the islands. There might be local guys around to help you carry the bike over the mud. Anyway you can read my story at the above link. Have fun!

Adventure!!
 

Now that sounds like an adventure! Go for it (in the dry season)!

Hi jkruys
I just looked at your photos on your web page there great, yes the road has defintly been improved since i was there, i was told that the river at the end of the road can flood high enough to get a small boat up it, which ferryed locals to the Islands, i don't know if this is true or not. Skip

I was there in mid feb.

It had rained a bit before we got there and it was pretty nasty. Lots of slips on the extremely slippery surface.

A not to heavely loaded 650 is ok, but two up is a NO-GO and I would not take a heavy 900-1200cc bike. If you can go there with a jeep, then maybe you can get them to take the baggage.

If you are not an experienced mud/clay rider then prepare for meeting the surface! I did some 7 times, and broke my sidestand among other things...

http://www.peterkongsbak.dk/album/Ni...a/p2140024.jpg

Simon Ds brother Paul
http://www.peterkongsbak.dk/album/Ni...a/p2140026.jpg

Getting the bikes into the cano was fun as well.
http://www.peterkongsbak.dk/album/Ni...a/p2140029.jpg

Have fun!!!

You guys are talking about the road from El Llano to Carti.

I did the road in a Landrover Defender in early Feb 2008. Most of it was fairly dry, but there were a few places where it was wet, or slick, or very steep and very rutted. I had to use the low gear range a few times- and if you know anything about the landrover defender, you know that if you need to shift to low, then it's for-real.

I could not do it, even dry, with my 1100GS. I would not even try. A friend did it a few weeks later on a lightly loaded KTM 650 with no real problems.

The real issue is if the road is wet or dry. Either way, you're going to want good knobby tires.

We were able to drive across the river at the end, but it was too deep for any bike.

http://bananaman.smugmug.com/photos/251706520-L.jpg

http://bananaman.smugmug.com/photos/251708260-L.jpg

http://bananaman.smugmug.com/photos/251710178-L.jpg

I crossed that exact river on my bike, and with the same debth of water. No worries! Just make sure you dont stall (-:

Dec to mid March
 

I was 1 week later than my bro and Peter (Denmark) and thought that on my way back from Yaviza i would just make a `quick` detour to Carti to see if any boats were about to leave. And it had been raining for 3 days since they went and still was while i was on that road. At about the 40km i was struggling to get up the hills with my undersize worn out rear tyre, and so wondered that if there were no boats in Carti and i had to go back, would i even be able to get back up some of the hills i had just `half slid/half rode` down!? So i turned around. I also rode quite a bit in the Darien area to remote Wounaan villages, and the majority of it is fine when dry but after say 24hrs of rain within a week, can be hard enough just to walk! Dry season is usually from the start of December to mid-March, but it can rain heavy enough as early as the start of Feb to make trails tough so you`ve really only got the Dec and Jan months for a reliable timeframe. Hence the Wounaan and Embera love their boats and canoes.

Thank you guys!
the road seems to be fun, but maybe not now in the rainy season (thanks for the pictures!)
We think it is maybe better to put the bikes on a boat from Miramar to San Blas. Think, that is cheaper than buying and waiting for a new clutch...

After haggling, the cost of that lancha from Miramar worked out at $120 for 2 bikes, 2 years ago.

I live in Panama. A friend of mine, a VERY experienced dirtbiker, tried it last week in his 4x4. This guy will basically do anything on a bike that even looks like a dirt track. He told me that the first 10km or so after the Los Llantos turnoff were fine, but then it turned to a complete mud bog. He finally turned around. He was in a car, but said there was no way that he would even attempt it this time of year on any kind of bike.. FWIW, they are doing a lot of work on the road and hopefully the answer next year will be different

This is the rainy season and we have had some very heavy downpours lately. Would suggest you find an alternative.

incredible how the conditions change!! I did that road on a loaded Dakar in June 2007 (took a sailboat from Carti). Road was dry but lots of ruts. ( btw went into the ditch once going a bit too fast in a curve in the longest slope, worst was to get the bike out of it alone). Crossed that same river, a bit high because it had rained the previous night. But I remember well that they were working on the road, machinery, graders etc... one rainy season and all that work lost...
In the end just like here in Venezuela.
Claude

Hi from Cartagena! we finally took a boat with food on board from Miramar(they loaded the boat for 3 days and it sank deeper and deeper...but ok!). Took 20U$ for 1person+bike and needed 5 hours....good deal! From that boat the bike came directly on board of the "Steelrat"(perfect boat, we can highly recomend it!) at El Porvenir. Never needed to fear about the bikes.

I drove to Carti yesterday, and drove back today.

The first 12 miles from the Panamerican the road is good gravel. Parts of it are almost ready to be paved.

The last 13 miles is very bad mud.

I drove in the low range for 13 miles. I have never driven so far in low range before. It was impossible to go up the hills in high range. Going down was even more dangerous.

It took us 2.5 hours yesterday to go the 25 miles from El Llano to Carti. Today coming back it took 2 hours.

Twice I did not think I would make it up the hills. The ruts were so deep that the defender was bottoming out. The mud was up to the hubs.

We had a winch and two machetes. If the mud had gotten any worse, we could have chopped palm fronds and grasses to provide traction.

The vehicle was a 1997 Landrover Defender with oversized tires and a winch. We did not have to use the winch but twice I thought we would need it.

We saw other trucks with chains on their rear tires.

We saw other trucks with their winch cables looped around the front end- which means they were using them and it was too much hastle to have to keep putting the cable back on the winch.

The river was 1 meter deep and running fast.

I could not do this on any mororcycle.