We walked along the the Royal Road of Crosses (Camino Real de Cruces, in Spanish), one of the historical routes of the isthmus of Panama that connected the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean during the colonial era.

We walked in the morning, very early in the morning (the difference in kilos of sun and heat), leaving from Papaya and heading towards an impossible entrance, muddy and locked. Bikes don’t pass through there, but neither do people sometimes. But in the end we passed. We headed down a path, a little path surrounded by vegetation. The Road of Crosses.

We found animals for the first time. We jumped over streams without falling (just barely). They told me that sometimes it was better to fall than to lean on the trees, for what there might be. Panels explaining the origin of that path. Path of the first explorers between Colon (Caribbean) and Panama (Pacific)

We arrived and turned along the antenna path, used for bikes. And we continued along the forest road. A highway abandoned to the jungle, which they clean from time to time, but without being able to open its sidewalks.

The last stretch also between vegetation, a little more open, but not easy due to the recent rains. Someone tells me that bikes pass by there…

And we arrived at that corner that I pass every day. I already know what’s on the other side, I’ll know, not just frogs. Also snakes, toucans, sleepers, bicycles and modern explorers.