Once upon a time, there was an impenetrable jungle coast to coast, between the Atlantic and Pacific shores of Panama. Historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, it covered the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

The idea of the Panama Canal, a water passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, dates back to 1513, when Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador, first crossed the isthmus, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have reached the Pacific from the New World.

Cycling along the canal is the obvious and ideal route to begin the traverse of the isthmus between the two oceans. The traffic is not that heavy, but the road is narrow and has no shoulder. Still, I was glad to be out of the city and on the road again. Cycling light, no bike bags with only a daypack, I hoped for the best.

As the travel restrictions recently eased, after a year spent home, I thought it was time to get back on the road away from home and go cycling across Panama coast to coast.

In between the canal and the road, a railway line, known as the Panama Canal Railway, follows the canal. Its construction preceded the Panama Canal by half a century. The road does not always offer the view of the canal, but when it does, seeing giant container vessels quietly ply the narrow parts of the canal seems surreal.

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There are no villages, only an occasional solitary homestead or a cabin deep in the jungle, where a handful of local farmers grow nutmeg and bananas.

At the tail end of the path where it begins to zig zag downhill to the first settlement, there is a rubber plantation, and past it at km 13, once down from the hills, a paved road (P234) brings you to the village of Betong. Past Betong, P234 becomes P16, which at Tamang Sempurna merges with H6.

From Cycling Malaysia

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