| 7 Cycling Days | 471 km | 8,021 m ascent | 302 km with a boat |
From Panama City to Medellín, Colombia
From Panama City, we couldn’t cycle much further before having to embark on a boat. Although North and South America are connected, we couldn’t reach Colombia by land. There are indeed paths through the jungle, but with illegal drug and human trafficking and criminal gangs, it isn’t really a safe option. Right from the start of our journey, people kept therefore asking: “But what are you going to do about the Darien Gap? How are you going to get to Colombia?”
There are three common options for us traveling by bike. Flying is certainly the cheapest, fastest and easiest options of them. Those who don’t want to take a flight can either book a multi-day sailing trip across the San Blas Islands, or combine several small, local transport boats. A rather unconventional option would be to make the crossing by kayak, which is definitely not for the faint-hearted and certainly not for everyone. As far as we’re aware, however, this has recently (May, June 2026?) been banned by the local Guna Yala tribe, and this should be respected.
From early on we knew that we didn’t want to fly. Before we set off last year, the sailing trip via the San Blas Islands was still an option, as the islands are truly idyllic. However, prices have increased so much in the meantime that our initial preference for the local transport boats ended up being the option we ultimately chose. Other cycle tourists had sent us the contact of someone who regularly offers transport from Puerto Cartí to the border. We were lucky and he actually had a departure date that suited us well and we didn’t have to spend ages asking around for other departures. With this contact, we would get from Cartí in Panama to Sapzurro in Colombia; from there, we would then have to organise further transport to Capurgana and Necoclí.
From Panama City to the Coast
Two days of cycling in the rain still lay between us in Panama City and the little harbour in Cartí. It rained heavily, but at the same time it was still hot. The first day was relatively flat, in striking contrast to the second one! Just under 40 kilometres separated us from the coast that day – with a whopping 1500 metres of elevation gain. The road went up and down like a roller coaster, and was at least just as steep. The gradients ranged from 15 to 35 per cent. If the momentum from the previous hill wasn’t enough to get us all the way to the top of the next one, we had no other choice than to get off and push our bikes. More often than not we were both at our limit; if it had been just a little bit steeper or the bike a bit heavier, we probably wouldn’t even have been able to push anymore… At least the rainforest around us was truly beautiful; lush green and most of the time we could hear toucans in the trees. We arrived in Cartí in the evening, pretty exhausted from the road, and camped between the ticket office and a mini market.
From Cartí (Panama) to Capurgana (Colombia)
We got up early, as our boat was supposed to leave between 7am and 8am. Of course, nothing happened that early, and at some point the port started to fill up with tourists arriving from Panama City who were due to be taken to the San Blas Islands. While we stood on the pier with our bikes and our bags taken off and waited, our boat got fuller and fuller. It didn’t even look as though all the luggage from the other passengers would fit in. In the end, our bikes ended up on a different boat than us, and we weren’t allowed to switch! At least it was being operated by our captain’s brother, but still. By the time we finally set off, it was already past 9 am. Sebi and I were sitting in the very last row, and the engines were deafeningly loud. I wasn’t feeling well at all; I must have caught a cold from the air conditioning at the hostel and had a fever. After about an hour, we had such a pain in our butts from sitting, even though we actually had cushions on our bench – unlike some of the others. Water kept splashing into the boat, which is why large plastic sheets had been provided for each row beforehand.
All in all, we spent around nine hours on the boat. Every now and then we stopped at a small, inhabited island. Often, they were completely built up! At one of them we stopped to “refuel” – at the place of somebody that was selling canisters of a liquid that didn’t look healthy at all. What completely shocked Sebi and me was just how unbothered people were as they threw their rubbish straight into the sea. After all, here of all the places, it’s just going to wash back ashore at some point! The woman next to us even threw a dirty nappy into the water after changing it, without even batting an eyelid… Towards the evening, we arrived in Armila – a small community on the mainland and our captain’s home. We were shown our accommodation, a simple double room in a basic wooden hut. It was actually quite cosy!
In the morning we woke up early, and the sunrise above the bay was absolutely stunning. The people there live so close by and with the water, it’s fascinating. Women were standing in the water, washing clothes, kids were playing by and in the water and everywhere were small boats and canoes. Our captain gave us a small tour through the community. They grew a lot of bananas and pineapples and the ground was mainly sand or earth – even inside the houses.
Our bikes were loaded onto a small boat and, together with Hector’s brother and two others, we took off towards Colombia. The border wasn’t far away, and the water and the coastline were absolutely beautiful – the weather was fantastic for a change, too! We stopped at the military checkpoint in Puerto Obaldia so that Sebi and I could officially leave Panama and get our exit stamps. In the end, they brought us all the way to Capurgana, which saved us an extra boat trip from Sapzurro to Capurgana.
Capurgana to Necoclí
Upon arriving in Capurgana, we sorted our entry into Colombia and made our way to a small campsite, where we could stay for about 4.50€ per person. As I wasn’t feeling any better yet and the place was fairly nice, we spontaneously decided to stay two nights instead of one.
Unfortunately, the most beautiful ones of the beaches were quite far away and were more of a day trip, so we really just had a relaxing day. We organized SIM cards and cash and asked the two local ferry companies if they could confirm that we could take out bikes on the boat the next day. One of them actually gave us a confirmation, yes! At the campsite was a mango tree with ripe fruits and it rained a fresh mango every ten minutes or so.
For the boat ride to Necoclí we once again had to remove all the bags from our bikes and apparently even remove both wheels. In the end, fortunately, it was enough to only remove my front wheel. We were incredibly lucky once more and ended up sitting right at the back, right next to the four engines… This time, at least, I was prepared and had my earplugs within reach! About an hour later, we arrived in Necoclí and reassembled our bikes. We cycled just a few kilometres that day to a small campsite in a family’s garden. It was right by the Caribbean Sea and we went for a short swim in the afternoon. The water had almost bathtub temperature!
With the bikes towards Medellín
We can’t even tell you, how much we were looking forward to our Airbnb and our break in Medellín at that time! The constant heat and the never-ending noise, and on top of that the strain of all the boat rides really took their toll on us. Unfortunately, we still had five days of cycling ahead of us. Though “only” 360 kilometres, but not with little elevation gain. On top of that, I was still not feeling well at all – the first two days I barely ate anything, something even I don’t know where my body took the energy from to keep on cycling! And if that wasn’t enough, the focus of my phone camera broke and I could only take blurry photos from there on…
On the first day on Colombia’s roads we immediately noticed, how much the traffic was dominated by motorbikes, scooters and tuktuks. That turned out to be really pleasant, as it left a lot more room on the road for us. Despite relatively high amount of traffic, there wasn’t any stupid and dangerous overtaking with way-too-wide vehicles. The main road towards Medellín was quite densely populated and there were little to no options for wild camping. Instead, every small village had at least one hotel where we got a spacious double room for 10-15€, which even fit our two bikes!
Regarding the landscapes and the views, the five days were truly beautiful – from banana plantations to rainforest vegetation and fresh mountain climate. Two times, we cycled from just above sea level to an elevation of over 2000 metres. The descent in between was one of the most beautiful ones I ever experienced. Not even thanks to the road and the view, but because the traffic was so pleasant! Sharing the road with the countless motorbikes was no problem anyways, but the few cars and trucks were surprisingly respectful, waited before overtaking and nobody used their horn to complain about us. That would have been completely unthinkable at home on a descent like that, especially on a public holiday…
Our last day towards Medellín started with a 23-kilometre climb. After those 23 kilometres, we hadn’t quite reached the top yet, but stood in front of a tunnel with a strict cycling ban. We got really lucky and only had to wait for about 10 minutes, until somebody stopped to give us a lift. He drove a small truck for transporting windows and our bikes were loaded and secured in no time. “Not a problem at all”, said the driver with a laugh, apparently he had already transported motorbikes on there before. On the other side of the tunnel, we got dropped off and said our goodbyes. Sebi and I had about half an hour of downhill cycling into Medellín.
Medellín
Our Airbnb was an absolute dream and we couldn’t have found a better one! For our first proper break since… Calgary last August? we definitely needed something, where we felt comfortable and could do all the things that needed to be done. The bikes fit easily, the shower and bathroom were big enough to wash our equipment, the kitchen was equipped well enough to cook our own meals, laundry and drier were freely accessible, there was more than one table to eat and write blog and on top of all of that we still had enough space to walk around… What else could we ask for! We were based in Laureles, a very safe and quiet part of Medellín. We had a supermarket and vegan ice cream close enough to walk to and were amazed by how green this area was, and Medellín in general.
The planned eight days quickly turned into one and a half weeks. But to be fair, our “break” didn’t start at all as relaxed as we had hoped! The first day was full of appointments: I needed to go to the dentist, as a filling had fallen out just a few days before, then we went to a giant supermarket to buy groceries for the week, later to the ear specialist, because I had been almost deaf in one ear the previous few days and wanted to get it checked out. Fortunately, it wasn’t anything serious, but annoyingly I was told to come back for a follow-up a few days later, which meant yet another appointment… Sebi’s front wheel had to be taken to the bike shop and picked up again because the hub dynamo needed replacing. Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out as good as hoped and in the end Sebi had to take it to a different bike shop a second time to get it sorted.
Apart from that, we spent a lot of time with washing clothes, airing out the sleeping bags, cleaning our kit, writing for the blog, writing my diary, sorting and editing pictures… We tried out quite a lot of vegan restaurants and liked one so much, that we ended up eating and ordering there three times. Even now, months later, we are still talking about how fantastic the food was there!
We met the mum and uncle of one of Sebi’s friends. His mum had agreed to receive a few packages for us, and when we stopped by to pick them up, we were greeted with fresh orange juice and went for a bite to eat nearby. His uncle picked us up and showed us the area around our Airbnb. He also took us to Safetti, a local brand specializing in cycling, running and triathlon clothing. We were allowed to have a look around the factory and were given a guided tour of the entire manufacturing process. A small fun fact: I actually needed a new pair cycling shorts anyway, and one of theirs looked promising. So Sebi and I went back later to try them on, but I simply couldn’t fit into any of them! Even the largest size here, XL, was too small for me – and I’m an EU size M… it was quite funny, really.
Comuna 13
After about a week, we decided to pull ourselves together and spend at least one day visiting something worth seeing or of significance in Medellín. We chose Comuna 13: once the most dangerous neighborhood in what was then the most dangerous city in the world, now a vibrant community with plenty of street art, which tourists could explore safely. We’d heard and read a lot about it, but unfortunately, neither of us really liked it there at all. After being completely taken by surprise and overwhelmed by the sheer flood of guides at the metro station – who, as it turned out, were all fully booked anyway – we decided on the spot to explore everything on our own. So far, so good. We took a bus for a few minutes and arrived at the foot of the famous outdoor escalators. We made our way all the way to the top, and although the street art was beautiful, the view impressive, and the whole history behind the place so fascinating, the whole thing felt like one of the worst tourist traps I’ve ever ended up in. From the very bottom to the very top, the path was lined with stalls selling souvenirs of Medellín, Colombia, Comuna 13 and World Cup merchandise. Every few metres, somebody would push something into your hands, offer you a tour or try to chat you up about something else. Sebi and I were absolutely exhausted by the time we finally made it back to the metro station. After that, we went out for a quick bite to eat and had a look at a few of the famous Botero statues before heading back to our Airbnb to enjoy some peace and quiet.
Published on August 22, 2026
Experienced from 06.06.2026 – 02.07.2026
