Cycling The Globe

A Cycle Touring Expedition Around The World

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Day 1659, Cartagena – Colon, Panama: Continent Number 6!

Posted by Thomas Andersen Posted on Apr - 27 - 2015

I love travelling by sea, hence the decision to book a ticket for the last ferry from Cartagena to Colon seamed like the right choice. Travelling by sea, your soul will get the chance to travel with you, something that doesn’t happen when you go by airplane. In this case, my soul had plenty of time to catch up; First 12 hours of waiting in queues in Colombia, then 18 hours at sea.

I went around to have a look at our ship, named SNAV Adriatico. As the name suggests, the ship itself must be Italian and the crew also seemed to be mostly Italians. Then I found photos on the walls from northern Poland and Southern Sweden, leading me to think that the ferry probably has a history sailing on the Baltic Sea. If this is true, the ferry will passed the Danish island of Bornholm many times. Now she is in more exotic waters.

The other passengers seemed to be a 50/50 mix of locals and international backpackers. One of them was Gabriel from Hungary who had also been staying a long time in Colombia. Now we were both excited to see what Central America would be like.

As the sun was setting the ferry arrived in Colon, right at the entrance of the Panama Canal.

After another couple of hours of waiting in queue, first to get off the ferry, and then through immigration, I was finally in Panama! As I cycled through the dark streets of Colon looking for a hotel I was feeling excited. Panama officially lies in North America, and this is continent number 6 in Cycling The Globe history! Well, in Africa I was only in Egypt which is hardly the ‘real’ Africa, but Europe, Asia, Oceania and South America are all continents I have crossed by bike.

From here there is only 10000 km to Canada. I’m looking very much forward to see what Central America and North America has to offer!

Categories: Panama
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7 Responses so far.

  1. Raf VZ says:

    It used to be the Stena Baltica IMO 8416308 on the line Gdynia – Karlskrona so no Danish waters. GL !

  2. Fred Bouwman says:

    Congratulations on starting another continent, I look forward to following along.

  3. Oh, I love sea travel. Even if it’s just a quick trip across the Channel or the Irish Sea. It’s you a chance to relax and slow down a bit. 🙂

  4. Ah, I see Raf… so I was right about my guess 🙂 73 de HP/OZ1AA

  5. Thanks Fred, great to finally be in Central America. The plan is to make it to Newfoundland by the end of September. Hope all is well in Asia!

  6. Judith says:

    Welcome in Central America.
    What happened to the ferry? Does it not go anymore? Does anyone know?

  7. Thanks Judith! I was with the last ferry leaving from Cartagena to Colon. They say it might start up again in October or November, but that’s a big maybe…