  Aksenov proved that in a planar graph G with at most one triangle, every
precoloring of a 4-cycle can be extended to a 3-coloring of G. We give an exact
characterization of planar graphs with two triangles in that some precoloring
of a 4-cycle does not extend. We apply this characterization to solve the
precoloring extension problem from two 4-cycles in a triangle-free planar graph
in the case that the precolored 4-cycles are separated by many disjoint
4-cycles. The latter result is used in followup papers to give detailed
information about the structure of 4-critical triangle-free graphs embedded in
a fixed surface.
