Hell ya! Get off the PanAm. I highly recommend heading over to the north/eastern shore of Costa Rica heading south through Puerto Limon along the coast. Highway 36 if memory serves me. Puerto Viejo, CR (far eastern edge of CR nearing the border of Panama) is a lovely place with nice beaches and great surfing. At the dead end, a little further down from Puerto Viejo, is Manzanillo, a really small beach front town thats great to hang out in.

From there take the "Banana" Bridges into Panama. These are old train trestles once used to transport Chaqita(sp?) bananas via trains to the port and now converted for into single lane bridges for automobiles. Essentially, two rows of end to end 2x8's laid on the railroad ties along the outer edges of the old train tracks. They weren't the scariest bridges I crossed during my run to Tierra del Fuego, but they were enough to make me grip the handle bars a little tighter. The border crossing, which consists of the first Banana Bridge, is small and extremely easy to get through with your bike. It was one of the easiest border crossings I had in Central America. The ride south, back to the PanAm is wonderful, twisty, beautiful and well paved. Some maps don't show this road going all the way back down to the PanAm(just east of David), but it does. You can also make a side trip to Bocas del Toro, I didn't do this, but others have said they are some really nice islands to relax on. Don't think you can take your bike to the islands though.

This side trip was one of my favorites of Central America. Give it some serious thought. You won't regret it.