Update Day 15, 275 Miles

January 25, 2008

Today was an early start. The night before I had spoke with a few of the guys who were planning on riding to Guatemala and then returning to Panama and I decided to tag along with them. We met for breakfast at 7 am in the local town square where we reintroduced ourselves. The ring leader of the group was Paul on a KLR 650, a resident of Panama for the last 15 years, I think. He is a transplant from the States who at one time was in San Diego and a desert racer. Next up was Norm he is originally from England and has been in Costa Rica and Panama for the last 6 years or so and he is riding a Honda Valkyrie 1500. Norm´s bike will play a neat roll in the days to follow. Then there was David who is on a BMW 1200GS who has been living in Panama for the last year and a half. Last but not least is Ken from Missouri. He has flown down to buy a 92 BMW 100GS from Paul and Paul has agreed to give him a tour of Central America as part of the deal. And now there is me as the fifth wheel.

After getting acquainted for a bit it is time to ride. It is a nice 30 minute ride over the mountains to the ocean. This is the same road that we did last night but it is much better when you can see the surroundings. Once we regroup at the Pacific we break off into three groups because we are going on a dirt road and the dust is bad. First to go is Norm. We gave him a bit of a head start because he is riding a cruiser bike which weights in excess of 800 lbs. Next are Paul and me. We went together because we would be riding at a faster pace and then it was David and Ken. The road was crowded with cars and trucks so there was a lot of passing to do but Paul and I had a good time anyway. At the other end we had planned to meet up at the gas station which we thought everyone knew. As it turns out Ken never got the info. We waited at the gas station for an hour before Paul went to find him. Of course soon after Paul leaves Ken pulls up. He said he had ridden past where we were two other times before he saw us or we saw him. Shortly after Paul arrives and we are all together again.

Now that everyone is refreshed we go on. We make it about 2 miles and we come to a bridge we have to cross. It is small so we have to wait for traffic coming the other way to go first. We cross with no problems and move on. Another mile down the road David is slowing down. As I get close to him I see his rear tire it flat. It turns out he had something puncture his tire when crossing the bridge. Lucky for us, or planned for them, there is a tire repair shop 100 feet from where we stopped. 10 minutes and $2 later we are rolling again. We stop once for lunch and then we make it to the Nicaraguan border with plenty of daylight to make it to our destination for the day, or so one would think. We all get through with ease except for Norm. He is having problems exiting Costa Rica and has to wait until 6 pm for the shift change to get some paperwork filled out. $60 later and at 6:10 he is in Nicaragua and the border is getting ready to shut down for the evening. He makes it thorough at 6:50 with 10 minutes to spare but it is now well after dark, again. When leaving the border area you have to show your paperwork to another person before leaving. Paul has done this many times and has found out that there are many things they charge you for with no authority. He tells us this when we go past the last inspection because they want you to pay a $1 local tax and will be waiving at you to stop but then tells us to keep on going. Sure enough as soon as we cross they are waiving us down and running in the streets trying to block us but we keep on moving and saved ourselves a whole dollar! Another 30 minutes goes by and it is 7:45, we are now at The Hotel California in San Jorge Nicaragua. The hotel is owned by another former US resident by the name of Frank, a nice guy who just got tired of the rat race and is living a nice quiet life running a hotel. We also met two Canadian brothers who have been traveling for a few months named Andy and Darryl.

Update Day 14, 418 Miles

January 24, 2008

Today I decided to sleep in for a little bit, I figured I earned it. After laying in bed and thinking on what to do in Panama City I came to the only logical conclusion that seemed right for me. Go home! I packed up and was on the road by 9:45 Eastern time. There was not much to see on the way down and I was heading back the same route so I knew I would make good time. Halfway out of Panama in the city of Santiago the local law enforcement thought I was making too good of time and pulled me over for speeding, which I was. He clocked me doing 90kph in a 50kph hospital zone but how was I to know that, I don't speak Spanish anymore. Again there were a lot of hand gestures which would only draw an even blanker look from my face. He told me I would have to pay the fine in the city of David which of course got the response of, nice to meet you David my name is Mike. Another few minutes goes by as his frustration sets in and he asked if he was the first police officer that has pulled me over and I replied yes. With that he gave me all of my documents back and sent me on my way.

Stupid American 2
Police 0

All of the acting really made me hungry so I decided to stop for lunch before pressing on. When done with lunch I figured I could make it to the border and into Costa Rica before the sun went down. It was a nice fast ride to the border and having been to this border before it was much easier. Just a quick stamp in the passport and turn in the bike paperwork, 5 minutes max. Next was to enter Costa Rica. It was a quick stamp in the passport and then I needed to pick up the bike paperwork that I dropped off when I left. This took about 30 minutes and while in line I was talking with a guy from Panama who was with 12 other bikes heading to a rally in San Jose. They were going to stay the night in San Isidro and offered for me to ride with them. I knew we would be riding after dark but if I went with them I would be that much further ahead to start the next day. Since it was a big group I decided to go with them. The guy that I was talking with was named Neil and he was the last one of his group to clear customs after 5 hours at the border. The rest of his group was a mile down the road at the local bar waiting for everyone to regroup. When we arrived some had already gone and Neil needed a few beers before moving on. When I ordered a Coke I got some strange looks but I was planning on arriving alive. By the time we left the bar it was almost dark and we had a long way to go. We started out as 7 riders and when we finally got to San Isidro we were split into two groups but everyone made it. We found the others and now it was time to find a room. It was kind of fun riding around the town late at night like we were some outlaw biker gang. By the time we finally found a room it was 11 pm Central time. It was a long day but fun none the less.

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 12, 378 Miles

January 22, 2008

Today was not very exciting yet still a good day like they all have been so far. I left the hotel in La Cruz Costa Rica and headed south toward San Jose, the capital. The roads were straight and fast with a lot of wind. To take a quote from Seinfeld and to make it fit my situation, "The wind was angry this day my friends. Like an old man sending back soup at a deli". I have a lot of time on my hands so bear with me a little. I get into San Jose and the main highway runs straight through the center of town but on streets not on a freeway. I miss my turn so I pull over to check my map. Before I even get off my bike a car has pulled in behind me and the gentleman is approaching me. He asks in perfect English if I am lost and need help. I tell him I think I missed my turn a few hundred yards back and he confirms that I did. He then proceeds to tell me he will take me to a better route and to follow him. He goes, I assume out of his way, a few miles and then sends me on my way. It was not the best marked way but after asking a few more times I was out of San Jose and heading south again. Once out of San Jose the road starts to climb and climb. I would keep pulling over to take a picture of the altitude on the GPS thinking I was at the top but it kept going up. I was not able to see very far because I was in the cloud forest as I believe they are called. When I finally reached the top I was at 10,973 ft and a cool 43 degrees. At the very top there was some construction which held up traffic. I cruise to the front of the line and when they let us proceed I am the first one and have a clear road all the way to the bottom to have my way with. Needless to say I had fun.

As I am nearing the border of Panama it is close to dark so I decide it is time to find a place to sleep instead of trying to cross the border. I see a sign for The Rain Forest Hotel and it says it is 7km off the road. I follow the dirt road down and go a little bit faster than I should because it is just more fun that way. I finally reach the hotel and ask how much for a room. He tells me $135 and I politely tell him no thank you. I think it turned out for the best anyway. As I was walking back to the bike I hear what an actual rain forest sounds like and there is no way I would have fallen asleep with all that damn racket! Now it is back to the road but now I need to go a little bit faster because it is getting darker. I make it to the next town and find a hotel. I get the room with air conditioning for $18 and it is a nice room. I go back to the bike to unload it and before I even get one bag off a guy walks up and asks if he can give me a beer if I will tell him about my trip. So the next 4 or 5 hours are spent with my new best friend in the world, his wife and a bunch of their beer. They are from Canada and flew in a few days earlier and are touring around for two weeks. It was a nice end to 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.

Text Message Update 2008-01-22

Still in Costa Rica. Will be in Panama City tomorrow.