Pedal-car Anyone?

Although there are those adventurous souls who dismiss all warnings of drug running cartels, fields of cocaine and rebel kidnappings, and head straight into the Darien Gap enroute to Columbia via bus as the cheapest mode of transport; we on the other hand like to consider ourselves educated risk takers - and our years of wisdom say - regardless of price buy a plane ticket and avoid the DG. Aires Airline provides a direct route from Panama City to Cartagena, Colombia and we book tickets for the 23rd.  So we had one more day in Panama City and we decided to head to the Amador Causeway for a little tourist-like exercise. I had hoped to find a place to rent rollerblades but no luck. And the bikes - well I'm surprised they actually roll they look so badly beaten up. So we go full on tourist style and rent a lovely bright yellow pedal-car for 2. Almost immediately I  am confused, why are there 2 steering wheels and why does my spin freely like a pinwheel with no effect to the steering of this machine whatsoever?

The Amador Causeway is a 2 kilometer palm-lined calzada (causeway or path) that starts at the entrance to the Panama Canal and connects 4 small islands to the mainland. The dark clouds are looming but we have about an hour of sunny peddling with views of the city to one side and the Bridge of the Americas on the other at the entrance of the Canal. But we knew it would not be long before the storm caught up to us and as we are heading back to return the bike the rain starts.

Since it doesn't look like it will letting up we seek a little shelter at the Smithsonian Research Center and Marine museum which has a nice little aquarium, touching pool, turtles, all along a path to a mirador (lookout). There is also a short walk through a section of dry forest where we continue our failed mission of spotting a sloth which we started in Costa Rica - unfortunately we see raccoons, iguanas and monkeys but no sloth. After a little lunch and just in time for a major downpour we decide to head back to the hostal. We flag a cab but he wants $10 (only $4 to get here) so we start the walk back to entrance of causeway - 2 km. Like drenched cats hiding under a porch, we duck under a awning in hopes of a break in the storm. With no end in site we venture out and decide to catch the first cab regardless of price. Finally one arrives and its only $4.

Our last night in Panama we share dinner at the local outdoor place near our hostal with a couple from Irvine, CA - Todd and Linda. Turns out Linda worked with Amcal a company I knew well from my old job - small world phenomenon hits again. Then as we head off for the airport in the morning we meet Matt who had driven his Roadtrek van down to Panama from California but was now having trouble getting it to Colombia. We have run into a few people along our way who have made this journey. Originally we had hoped to take our campervan all the way down from SoCal to Patagonia but it had seemed too complicated, border crossings, security road stops, bribery and theft, and without being fluent in the language - it just seemed like to big of a hassle. Just the same it sure sounds like a great adventure - maybe next time! For now we are off to South America via chicken buses, antique locomotives, the occasional cattle truck and maybe a plane ride here and there for good measure.