Update Day 13, 353 Miles

January 23, 2008

I am not entirely sure of what it was that got me out of bed at 6:15 in the a.m. but I am pretty damn sure it was the rooster that they put directly outside my window.

I was on my way to the Panama border by 6:45 and it was a nice 73 degrees but it would not last long. I was checking out of Costa Rica 7:30 and the temp was already at 85. It was an easy check out of Costa Rica and then on to entering Panama. I hired another helper and he did most of the leg work. All I had to do was stand in line to get my immigration entry stamp. While in line I struck up a conversation with a guy from Whitehorse Canada in the Yukon Territory, a town I passed through on my trip to Alaska. He was taking 6 months to make his way to Argentina by way of a backpack and buses. There were only about 15 people in line but it took 45 minutes to get to the front. When done there I had to make a stop in another line to get a signature only to find out I had to wait in the same line as before to get another stamp. My helper pushes me to the empty window next to the guy doing the paperwork and stamping then tells me to push my paperwork in his face. As soon as he is done processing the other person’s paperwork I stick my hand in the little window and he takes my paperwork and processes it like nothing is out of the ordinary. By the time I get my stuff back there are another three people behind me waiting to do the same. All in all it was a good border crossing.

The next few hours are spent speeding towards The Panama Canal, my final destination. The roads were in good shape and for a good part of the way it was a four lane road. There was nothing interesting as far as scenery and it was well into the upper 90s for most of the trip. As I get closer to the Canal I am starting to get a little excited to be so close to the destination. Finally it is in sight and I cross the bridge. One would think that I would be overwhelmed with joy but it was actually a little bit of a let down. Knowing that I made it all the way there I came to the sudden realization that I am a long, long way from home and this is barely the half way point for me. It was just like when I went to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and jumped into The Arctic Ocean. I got out of the water looked around and said I guess it is time to go home. The thought crossed my mind to just snap a quick picture and turn around and head south. That is right I said south. If you look at the map Panama actually swings back up to the north as you get closer to the Canal. It is kind of bitter sweet knowing you are heading towards home yet getting further away. Anyway I opted to look around a bit.

After about an hour of searching for where the locks are located I find Miraflores Locks which is the first of two locks on the Pacific side. I get there at 4:30 in the afternoon and they close at 5. I run in take a few photos and head out the door as they are pushing me out of it. It turns out they could not care less what it took me to get there, they just want to go home. I head into Panama City to try and find a room. Unfortunately for me it is rush hour. I am stuck in traffic moving about 20 ft per minute going along the waterfront. Out of nowhere comes a man walking up to me. He was a 69 year old man who looked to be in his late 50s who used to ride bikes when he was younger. He saw me there and just wanted to talk and give me directions to the local BMW dealer. I ask him where to find a hotel and he directs me to a nearby hotel in the opposite direction. With his guidance I find the hotel, check in and take a much needed shower. Then it was off to the local internet cafe of which I spoke of earlier. I had hopes of getting up to date that night but it was not in the cards. After that fiasco it was time to eat and then off to bed. Ironically enough, as most of you know my life revolves around motorcycles and beer and not necessarily in that order, there was no beer involved the entire day! Yet it was still another good day.

Update Day 11, 188 Miles

January 21, 2008

Sorry for the long wait but believe it or not my first priority has not been to sit at a computer for two or three hours and get my updates done. There is actually more interesting things to do here.

This is actually take two on this update. I do not want to say where I was because I want to keep everyone in suspense. I spent 45 minutes doing the update at an Internet cafe´ and then the computer shut off. As it turns out at this particular cafe´ the computers are set up for a period of time and then it logs off. 45 minutes of work was lost and I walked out after yelling at the worker and not paying.

It was another early day for me. It started out by getting up at 6:30 a.m. and leaving the house at 7:00 a.m. with Felix and Gerardo. It was a half hour trip to a tour of their family coffee farm. Felix says that their farm is approximately 3,000 acres but it appears to be much larger than that. They employ about 150 people year round and during the height of the harvest season there can be as many as 900 people working there. It starts at about 3,500 ft where the rain forest starts and continues up to about 4,500 ft. The beginning of the tour was where they process the coffee beans after they are harvested and then a tour of a house that the family uses for special occasions and parties. After that it was on to a tour of the property. The scenery was simply amazing. It is all on mountain sides with very little flat land and all I kept telling them is I could make a great off-road motorcycle track. It is really pretty sad when all I can think about is using their land for motorcycle riding instead of growing coffee and employing a small city. After driving around for about an hour or so it was time for breakfast. Before leaving the house Felix grabbed some eggs and when we arrived at the farm Gerardo dropped them off at the kitchen that cooks three meals a day for the workers that live and work on the property. There are about ten men and women that work in the kitchen that took some time out of their schedule to cook our breakfast of rice, beans, cheese, eggs and homemade tortillas made on the huge comal that is heated by wood grown on the property. I even had my first cup of coffee in I don't know how many years. They said it was great coffee and I am sure they were right but I have no perspective to speak from so I will just say it was good and I enjoyed it thoroughly. After everything was said and done, I could see myself spending some nice quality quiet time there but it was time to move on. We headed back to the house, packed up the bike and I hit the road at 11:30.

I took a different route out of the mountains than I took in and the views were beautiful but the moment was tainted by the potholed road and a lot of traffic. It was about a 45 minute ride to the town of Matagalpa on tight twisty roads and then it opened up a little bit until I hit the valley floor in Sebaco where the temperature was hovering around 92 degrees. I started out at 65 degrees in Jinotega 1:15 minutes earlier. The road from Sebaco to The border of Costa Rica was hot, fast and straight with not much top mention of interest.

I did happen to have an encounter with the local police department that is worth mentioning. As I approached the town of Masaya the road came to a "T". The right lane was forced to turn right by ways of a median which directed it to the right and the left lane did the same to the left. As I pulled up to the stop sign to make my left turn I saw there were about six or seven police officers with people pulled over. I made sure I came to a complete stop, looked both ways and began my turn when it was clear. Before I had even rolled 10 feet they were waiving me over to the side. I pulled over and started practicing my acting lessons that I never took. They were telling me that I did not use my turn signal which they were correct but I could not let them know that. I had the Stupid American act in full affect. They were pointing at my turn signal and asking for my license which I gave them. Once again they did not like the international driver’s license. After a few minutes of them pointing, waiving my license and telling me I am going to get a ticket they finally just got frustrated because I apparently could not comprehend what they were saying and gave me my license back and sent me on my way. I think the best part of it all was in the end one of them asked me where I was going. I told him to Costa Rica, which he then gave me directions for in Spanish. I thanked him and continued along my merry way.

Stupid American 1
Cops 0

As I mentioned before the rest of the trip to the border was uneventful. I arrived at the border to Costa Rica at 3:13 and figured I would have plenty of time to get through and find a hotel before dark. As I pull up to the border I see that it is by far the busiest border I have seen yet. I end up hiring a helper to get me through. It cost me $10 to employ him and to bribe the workers to get me to the front of the lines which easily saved me an hour or so exiting Nicaragua. Past that hurdle I figure I am in the clear but as it turns out there are just as long of lines entering Costa Rica. I acquire another helper and pay him and the officials $20 to put me on the fast track through. After a bunch of back and forth I am waiting in my last line with my helper long gone and the sun going down pretty fast. I have about five people in front of me and the person processing the papers calls the next person in line. That guy tells him to take me first because I am on a motorcycle and he also notices the sun going down. It took another five minutes and I was on my way. Now it is almost dark and I need to find shelter for the night ASAP. I turn up the speed a little bit and make my way to the first town about 10 miles inside Costa Rica, La Cruz. I locate a hostel type hotel right on the beach and inquire about a room for the night. He tells me that they are booked up. I ask him out of curiosity how much the room is and he replies $10. It turns out that I missed the deal of the century because it is all of about a 30 second walk to the Pacific. As I throw a leg over the bike to continue the search he comes out and tells me he has one room left. Once again luck is on my side for no apparent reason. I check in, do a few days updates, find something to eat and turn in for the evening.

The Journey Begins

As some of you already know I am planning a motorcycle trip to Panama. I am going to be leaving sometime in the next week or so and returning in 5 or 6 weeks after departure. My old (2005 BMW R1200GS) has been having transmission and final drive issues so I have decided to leave it at home and get a new bike. I am going to be picking up my new 2007 BMW R1200GS Adveture today. Once I get it home I have a lot of work to get it ready for the trip.