Rat Race | Panama Coast to Coast

Fitness level

This is a seriously tough adventure. You should have previous experience of multi-day endurance events in challenging environments. You must be able to trek for 12 hours a day carrying a 20-25kg pack and be confidently self-sufficient.

Pace

There are cut-offs on days 1 and 2, although they are very generous and are not there to make you fail. The team wants everyone to finish. If you do end up lagging behind and you really cannot make it in time, you will be picked up in an event 4×4 sweeper vehicle and transported to the overnight locations. You can re-start the next day if you wish. There is none of this ‘if you miss a cut-off you’re out’ stuff on this event. Each of those initial stages will have a published time limit and a designated starting window in the morning, so if you want to use every available hour on the course, just start as early as you can!

For the jungle, there are cut offs. You need to make it to camp and it’ll take as long as it takes. Ideally you would get there in the hours of daylight and the way-marking, jungle guides and safety staff will help.

Accommodation

• Hotels
• Mountain lodge
• Jungle camps
• Beach cabanas

Hotels: For nights 1 and 2 at the Pacific coast, you will stay in a beach-front hotel. This is a good comfortable option with all the trappings of resort-grade comfort and hearty food options included.

Mountain lodge: On nights 3 and 4 of the trip you will stay in a simply sensational mountain lodge, with incredible views across the jungle, surrounded with birdlife. This is a simply stunning spot, with a perfect host and good hearty food. The accommodation will feature showers, electric sockets and other mod-cons. You will be accommodated in a mixture of rooms at the lodge in shared configuration.

Jungle camps: This is the essence of the event experience. String your hammock between two trees, fetch (and treat) water from a nearby stream and kick back with the sounds of the jungle all around you.

Beach cabanas: Upon arrival in Bocas Del Toro at journey’s end, it’s all about the beach. Simple yet comfy water-side accommodation is on the menu here, whilst you sip cocktails and enjoy that hard-earned Caribbean coastal vibe.

Meals

Meals include hot and cold options for breakfast, hot dinner and packed lunches when out on the course. There is a self-sufficient stage where you must plan to take, cook and prepare your own meals in the jungle. 

Kit list

A comprehensive kit list with mandatory and recommended kit for both disciplines (on foot and by raft) is available.

Season

• Jan
• Feb
• Mar
• Apr
• May
• Jun
• Jul
• Aug
• Sep
• Oct
• Nov
• Dec

Meeting point

Albrook Gelabert Airport
Marcos a Gelabert
Panamá
Panama

Itinerary

• Day 1 | Travel

  Depart Albrook International Airport for David on an internal flight in the late afternoon. Upon arrival in David, transfer by road to the Pacific coast hotel right on the beach.

• Day 2 | Registration, safety

  After a hearty breakfast, carry out registration activities, safety briefings and some familiarisation with jungle campcraft and packrafts that you will use later in the trip. Dinner is a hearty sun-down supper before the off.

  

• Day 3 | The adventure begins!

  Panama Coast to Coast begins! Cover approximately 41km and get acclimatized to the heat and humidity as you climb from the Pacific steadily on quiet roads and tracks through coffee and fruit farming scenery towards the continental divide of the Americas. Accommodation in a simply stunning mountain lodge high in the mountains.

• Day 4 | Panama's highest mountains (approx. 45km)

  Today it's 45km on foot, still ascending gradually towards Panama’s highest mountains. You will have been supported by the 4x4s and mobile pit stop crews so far, providing an easier introduction to what lies ahead. The mountain lodge accommodation is unbelievable. You may want a shower too, as where you are going next, there won’t be one of those for a while.

  

• Day 5 | Jungle trekking (approx. 20km)

  The jungle awaits. Depart the comfort of the lodge and enter rugged, upland primary jungle terrain. The route follows a mixture of cattle drovers’ trails, indigenous peoples’ pathways and unbeaten areas. You will forge out with four days' supplies on your back, including your hammocks and jungle camping gear. The going is decidedly tough so you’ll be travelling slow and steady, getting used to the amazing explosion of colour and life teaming all around you.

• Day 6 | Jungle trekking (approx. 20km)

  Another long day on foot through virgin jungle. You will ascend jungle-covered mountains, follow ridge lines and cross many rivers. This is what it’s all about – deep in the jungle of central America on a journey to join the dots between two oceans. Exhilarating stuff.

  

• Day 7 | Jungle trekking, 

• river zipwire (approx. 15km)

  The penultimate day of hard jungle trekking will include an exciting zipwire crossing of a raging river and a serious uphill ascent too. These distances may not look heavy, but do not underestimate the relentless nature of this route; average speed will be slow and the going is tough.

• Day 8 | Jungle trekking (approx. 15km)

  The final jungle day follows a well-defined ridgeline and then starts to descend from the mountains to the banks of the Changuinola River.

• Day 9 | Packrafting (approx. 30km)

  Today is the start of a new chapter of the journey and a really unique one at that. The hard yards have been done on foot and you can rest those weary blistered feet as you turn your attention to the nifty packrafts and paddles. Don your buoyancy aid, jump aboard your raft and float/paddle your way down the jungle river. The first 10km will whizz by in a blink of an eye as the river is fast-flowing, with some exciting rapids (grades 1 and 2) but nothing that resembles a raging torrent. It then gets slower and you will be working those paddles to cover the kilometres.

  

• Day 10 | Party time

  This should be a really beautiful and very surreal conclusion to a fantastic journey. The final 10km brings us to the Caribbean coast and when you do arrive there, a quick wiggle back to a nearby port will bring you to our fast boats, which will transport you to Bocas Del Toro island. Let the party begin…Kick off those shoes and feel the sand between your manky feet! A leisurely afternoon in Bocas will feel a world away from the toils of the jungle. Enjoy beers, kayaking, fishing or simply swinging in a hammock. Stay overnight here and enjoy a slap-up meal and drinks to celebrate a job well done.

  

• Day 11 | Travel

  Journey’s end. For those who wish to hang around and chill, you’re in the right place. You can choose to stay put and extend your stay at Bocas (at your own expense). Or come back to Panama City. Depart with return air travel back to Panama City Albrook airport from Bocas Del Toro airport. The itinerary ends here but you are welcome to stay in Panama and find your own adventures or take one of the exciting bolt-on options, carefully curated by local partners. There are options for you in Bocas, Panama City and elsewhere in the country, (including the incredible San Blas Islands).

Included

• Accommodation

  10 nights in hotels, guest houses, jungle camps and cabanas.

• Meals

  Most meals included.

• Transfers

  Includes airport transfers and internal flights.

• Guides and support

  Professional 4x4 support vehicles, safety staff, jungle guides, medical and welfare.

• Safety

  Professional local and UK safety staff, medics, drivers, route safety staff and experts on hand throughout. Audited and accredited to BS8848 expedition safety standard.

• Equipment

  Includes packrafts and all associated equipment rental.

• Transfer policy

  Flexible event transfer policy up to 12 weeks before your departure.

• Extras

  High quality medal, rat rag and premium t-shirt for all participants.

Trip leader

Abbi is your leader for this adventure. She's a highly experienced Expeditions Manager with more than 10 years of exploring under her belt.

Environmental pledge

This adventure has made a firm commitment to really elevate its approach to a sustainable and environmentally aware way of working. Each activity has been assessed to improve its environmental impact, including:

• race t-shirts to be collected at the event and not shipped across the world
• wooden medals instead of metal
• phasing out single-use plastics
• local event catering
• tighter recycling activities

This event is on track to achieve carbon-neutral in its day-to-day business activities and is making progress with carbon off-setting for worldwide travel, including ground-breaking ways to make a difference in some of the host locations.

Age

16 and 17 year olds will be considered on an individual basis, if taking part with a responsible adult.

Instalment plan

eg. Pay £395 in 10 instalments.

Choose how many months you want to spread the cost over, totally interest free. There is no credit check required to use this facility. When you sign up to the instalment plan a recurring payment will be set up and your card will be debited on the same date each month.

Refund protect

Add Refund Protect to your booking during purchase and receive a full refund of your entry fee if you are unable to attend the event due to a qualifying unforeseen circumstance.

Costs

Far tougher than the Marathon Des Sables. Conor, 2022

This is where we grow, when you're scraping the barrel, running on fumes yet somehow find the strength to keep moving onwards, not that we had a choice and forwards was the only way out. Darren, 2022

It was an unforgettable experience and doable if you are prepared to put in the hours for pre trip admin and training. Vicky, 2023

I would say this has been one of the highlights of my life. Mike, 2023