I entered Panama on November 28 without any of the hassle of the other border crossings. In the late afternoon, I pulled the bike off the road and camped in a field. The next day, the rolling hills continued all the way to Conception and then it was downhill into David. I went directly to the Purple House Youth Hostel where everything was purple, even the cutlery. The Hostel was run by an American woman and her Panamanian boyfriend. The first night, I was the only guest but a Canadian from Vancouver was working at the Hostel and he directed me to a Chinese restaurant for take-out supper.

        The next day, I found a Laundromat that would wash, dry and fold my clothes for $1.75 American, the best bargain I had found on the whole trip for doing the laundry. I spent the day relaxing and going to a movie. That night, two German travelers had moved into my room.

        I discovered that it was illegal to drive without a shirt in Panama so I went to a book store to see if I could find any reference to such a law. I found a lot of books with written laws, all in Spanish, but I found nothing about the shirt law so I decided to play the ignorant tourist. More people were arriving at the Hostel, an American and Australian girl travelling together, more Germans, and a British and American guy.

        On December 1, I packed up, bought some groceries and headed back to the Pan American Highway. The rolling hills continued and the heat was oppressive. I was soon stopped at a police check point and asked for my passport. That evening, I rode down a dirt road along a river, had a swim and set up camp.

        In the morning, I was forced out of the tent by the glaring sun. I moved everything under the bridge to be in the shade when the local people started to arrive to do their laundry. The boys carried the bags of laundry to the river, (some threw the bags off the bridge to avoid carrying it down the hill) and the woman found their favorite rock and started scrubbing the clothes. Meanwhile, the boys all went for a swim.

        I bid them farewell and carried on down the roller coaster road through towns which seemed forsaken. The traffic was heavy and the road was bad with no shoulder to ride on and plenty of potholes to swerve around. The road started to climb and, after lunch, I stopped in Tole to stock up on food. The climb continued and the terrain became more rugged. This was obviously the poorer part of Panama that had not profited from the Panama canal. I finally reached the top of the mountain and started a descent into to a river valley. I had hoped to camp by the river so that I could take a swim and get cleaned up but, when I arrived, I discovered that people were living around the river and the usual group of guys were hanging out around the bridge with nothing better to do. I proceeded down the road a way, cooked supper and then when it became dark, I returned to the bridge and set up camp in a field.

        The next day, the mountains, traffic and heat continued. I camped in a grassy field hidden from the road by bamboo trees. Continuing on, the terrain became flatter and I reached Santiago on December 4. I checked my e-mail and found that my father had reached Managua and would probably beat me to Panama City. After having lunch and stocking up on food and water, I headed out and after about 5 kilometers, in the small town of San Antonio, I reached the most southerly part of the journey at 8°7' above the equator. In the afternoon, I crossed a river and stopped to have a bath. That night, I camped in a heavily wooded area isolated from the Highway.

        The road started to head in a more northerly direction and the head-winds off the mountains slowed my progress to a crawl. By mid afternoon, I reached Penonome completely exhausted from fighting the wind. After lunch and a rest, I was back on the road again. The Highway made a U-turn at this point and I started riding south again with the wind at my back and a slow downhill into Rio Hato where I found a hotel for the night.

        On December 6, with only 129 kilometers to Panama City, I could feel myself getting closer and felt that I was actually going to make it, despite the heat, traffic and road conditions. As I progressed along the Pacific Coast, I kept an eye out for my father but I did not know what car he was driving.

        The road was fairly flat and I could see the ocean at times. When I reached Rytam, a gray car pulled up behind me and started honking the horn but I was in no mood to deal with another curiosity seeker so I waved him past. He continued to follow me but, eventually did pass and stopped further up the road. This guy was really persistent! As I approached the car, the driver got out and I realized that it was my father. Apparently, he had already been to Panama City and missed me so he had back tracked to see if he could find me. I unloaded everything from the bike into the car and just carried a bottle of water. I started down the road and he waited 20 minutes to start out as we leaped frogged down the road. In the late afternoon, I started to get hungry so I pulled off in a little town and waited for my dad. I saw him approaching and tried to flag him down but he drove on by. I decided to carry on riding because, although I had my wallet, I was not able to go into a store or restaurant as I was not wearing a shirt! It seemed to take him forever to return and I was completely exhausted by that time. We ate lunch at the side of the Highway and then started a climb to reach La Chorrera where we found a hotel for the night.