Driving conditions:

As with Costa Rica, main roads are good. Even off the main roads things tend to be good. We cannot speak for the Darien province or the north of the country.

Recommended roads:

Since we pretty much drove straight through we don’t have much useful info.

Police and military:

There is a very heavy police presence in the country, particularly from David to Panama City. Traffic cops will usually be on smaller bikes and they do have radar guns. They are certainly not beyond trying to get bribes for supposed offences. As one officer so eloquently kept repeating to us, double lane highways have a limit of 80 km/hr and regular roads have a limit of 60 km/hr.

Services:

There is a BMW shop in Panama City. Bavarian Motors is located at Edificio BMW Calle 50 y 65. GPS is N8 59.385 W79 30.715. We heard good things about their head mecanic, Luis.

Border:

Border crossing: Rio Sereno
Cost for bike: free but we had to pay 1$ for fumigation
Cost for us: 10$ per person
Time it took: 1 hour
Comments: The last 10 kilometers of road prior to getting to the border are terrible. Other than that it is a very easy crossing point.