The rainforest of Soberanía National Park is home to caymans, crocodiles, iguanas, and several hundred bird species. Located next to the Panama Canal, in the 16th century the Las Cruces Trail (Camino de Cruces) lead through this part of the jungle, used by the Spanish to transport gold across the isthmus to Portobelo, the Spanish port on the Caribbean whence they shipped the loot home to motherland.

Built 110 years ago to house employees of the Panama Canal and their dependents, Gamboa today is a quiet outpost, a gateway to the Soberania National Park.

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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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