I am currently reading River of Darkness, and one thing that wasn't mentioned was how the first two waves of Spanish explorers even got to Peru to begin with!
The book makes mention of sailing to and resupplying in Panama, but doesn't mention anything about the second leg of the journey from Panama to Peru.
So how would these explorers have completed that second leg? Would they march overland from Panama to Peru? Or was there a river/early canal wide enough for their ships? Or did they march to the Pacific coast of Panama and build new ships there? Or maybe they just sailed around the Southern tip of South America and I didn't realize it? Help me out here!
Early explorers, like Pizarro, sailed from Panama to one of the many rivers that would take them inland, such as the San Juan and the Santa. Panama was a great stopping point because it was a thin land mass, making it easy to march across quickly and continue sailing. I really don't know much about the methods of traversing land with ships, so someone else might be able to help with that. Over time, port cities were established on the West coast that became the primary destinations from Panama.