Back in November 3, we went to a farm in the "interior" to do some social service work, according to what we were told, the trip was going to take around 1:30 to the last town where the bus could go, and from there around 45 minutes to the entrance of the trail to the farm in a 4WD car, from the entrance, around 15 minutes by foot. My dad lend us two pickups from the company, together with two drivers, originally the cars were 2 Frontiers, a 2WD and a 4WD, but because the 2WD was useless, they swapped it for a 4WD Hilux 2.8D, both double cabs, and a single cab 4WD Hilux 2.8D owned by the organization we helped.
Friday, November 3
We finally arrived to Altos del Naranjo, after finding that many towns had parades because 11/3 is a national holiday, because of the Independence from Colombia (I think). After we arrived to Altos del Naranjo, the last point where any vehicle can go, we moved all what we still had in the bus to the 3 pickups, and because of space, 5 of us had to stay and wait around 1:30 until the first pickup came back, later, we were joined by a teacher's husband and daughter, who were going to see the farm and then go back, after 45 minutes, the husband was losing his patience, and after listening to him for 10 minutes, we accepted his idea of taking a "Chiva", a bus that does a certain route, in these little towns, instead of buses, they're pickups with seats on the sides of the cargo bed, the car was a 1996 Land Cruiser 70. The driver said he was going to drop us at Tres Quebradas, that's the last point where any 4WD can go, and from there, only the best can go, that's also the place where all vehicles stop and lock the wheel hubs.
After some 20 minutes, we arrive to the point where he was going to drop us, he talked to another driver, who said that he had seen the 3 trucks before, and said that they were only some 15 minutes ahead of us, a man who was boarding that other truck said that he was coming back, and that one of the trucks didn't make it thru a hill, the Nissan. The driver then said that he was taking us until we met the next pickup. We continued, and we found the Frontier and the driver, he said that the Frontier was too low, and because the hill was all mud and rocks, the truck just sank and slipped, the guy from the organization offered to winch the truck, but the driver said no, because the truck could hit something, and it was already smelling like burnt clutch. We transferred everything (well, almost everything, we forgot all the stuff that was in the cab) to the Land Cruiser, because of the conditions of the hill,we refused to ride on the truck, only the teacher's husband and another teacher did it, we went up by foot, and then, a few minutes after, the Land Cruiser made it, we all boarded it and continued our way, the road seemed to be very bad.
Then we found one Hilux, but we were less than 300 metres from the trail, so we continued and the Hilux went back with us, we unloaded and prepared to go downhill to the farm, the first part of the group was already down in the farm.
Here's the Frontier, in the point where it had to be parked, you can see a little part of the Land Cruiser
The Land Cruiser in the entrance of the trail, and part of our stuf in the floor
The double cab Hilux
Saturday, November 4
Our ice supply was melting, and we had the risk of having all the food damaged, so the engineer needed to go down to a town where we could get ice in bars, not in cubes, I had to go down to make a call to see who had the stuff that we forgot in the car, and a friend had to go to call her mom because she wanted to bring ice, water and some other supplies on Monday, and we had no cellphone signal in the farm.
After eating and having a nap, we prepared to go up, 20 minutes uphill plus resting time, we finally arrived, boarded the Hilux and prepared to leave, it took us more than one hour, to arrive to the town, the town was the last big town, we went past the point where the bus dropped us, less than 5km from the town. After we arrived, someone told us that ice in bars was only sold in the town of Chepo, around 25-30 minutes from there, but we decided to try some luck in a store owned by a chinese guy, they had it, we bought the ice and other supplies and headed back.
By the time we passed Altos del Naranjo, it was almost 6 PM, and it was getting dark, my friend was getting scared and asked the engineer if we were going to make it, and he said "with me driving, we are", we kept on going, the road was much better after more than a day of getting dried, except for the "Frontier Hill", because it's all covered by trees, and there's no sunlight to dry it, however, the ride in this Hilux was very smooth, and when my friend asked how far we were, I said that we had not even reached that hill, and the engineer told me that that was the point where he told me he was going to do something to make the ride smoother, by the time we were in the trail, it was dark, we went down and we arrived to the farm.
Monday, November 6
My friend's parents came with the stuff, I was going to go up to help to carry the stuff, but the people from the farm helped us with the horses, so I didn't go up, because it was going to rain, the engineer decided to go with them to Altos, so if they got stuck, he could winch them, when he got back, he told us that on his way back, the road was so bad that he had to winch the car, and that he considered the idea of chaining the tires.
Friday, November 10
The trip was over, we were going to go back to the city, we all had mixed emotions, after a week of being there, we didn't want to leave the farm or the people, but we wanted to go back to see our family and to return to the urban lifestyle.
We went up as we got ready, I was one of the last ones to leave, it took me only 15 minutes to go up, the air was cool and the sun was covered by clouds, so my performance was much better.
At around 8:30 the two pickups came from Panama, they changed the Frontier for another Hilux, we loaded them, we overfilled the cabs so that a single trip was enough, 3-4 people in the front bench and 4 in the rear bench, we arrived without any incidents to Altos del Naranjo, where we bought cold sodas, potato chips and boarded the bus back to Panama. Because 11/10 is a holiday because of something related with the independence, the streets in one town were closed, and some in Panama City too, so after avoiding them, we made it to the parking lot where we were going to be picked up, it was almost 1 so the total travel time was around 4: hours, plus load/unload time, more almost 2 hours more than the estimated.
Here's a map. Not too detailed due to lack of imagery, but basically we went from Panama City to Chepo on the Panamerican Hwy, then crossed the Bayano dam and then turned into an unpaved road that got worse, eventually getting to our destination in the mountains (circled). From the town where the farmers lived, you could see the Pacific Ocean.
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BTW, the dashed line in the lower right corner of the map, close to Maje Arriba is the boundary between the provinces of Panama and Darien.
If the mods believe this should go somewhere else, feel free to move it (not like I have any other choice
). But I thought I should narrate this story, and show how different the offroading is in Central America.Believe it or not, but several people down there carry snow chains... to use in the mud.
