Dec 12 th, Ometepe , Nicaragua to Liberia , Costa Rica – 300km on Ca1

The bikes were still dirty in the morning

Yesterday Isaac realized that one of his main weight bearing fasteners on his luggage rack had vibrated lose while the other one had sheared off. In the AM we found a mechanic to extract the broken bolt and replace the both of them. After that we made it to the 12:30 PM ferry back to San Jorge.

This ferry was really packed, not as fun as the ride there

Of course it was gorgeous when we left. This really was a banana boat

We rode to the Nicaragua/Costa Rican border. The border crossing was easy. We used no tramitadores. All and all it was an uneventful but really long day with the boat ride, the border and some miles afterwards until we reached Liberia, Panama after dark and had to scramble to find a place to sleep for the night.

Skinned beef skulls, uhhhh a truckload of them? Why?

I had no idea Liberia was such a backpacker hub. There were tons of hostels there and they were all booked.

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Dec 13 th, Liberia to Only God knows where, Costa Rica – 500km on Ca 1

We were up around 10,000 feet by late morning. We were riding very slow do to the twisty roads and the rain we were riding through. It got really cold up there.

We had to ride through San Jose , Costa Rica . There didn’t seem to be any way around the city. The mapped looked like you could ride straight through, easy. Wrong, the major rode we entered the city with disappeared. At which point you need to guess (GPS) the right direction, head that way and pray that it doesn’t take you through a slum.

In this case I guessed wrong like eight times and put us right in the middle of the somewhat notorious San Jose slums. We got out after awhile when four separate roads combined forming the original highway we were on. It wasted some time and it was a bit of an anxious tour of the city for sure.

We stopped for the night just short of the Costa Rica/Panama border at some hole of a town. I forgot the name or chose not to remember.

December 14 th, Hole , Costa Rica to Santiago , Panama - 600km on Ca 1

Not much happened today, except that we stayed at the Hong Kong Inn. It was shitty, go figure, live and learn.

December 15 th, Santiago , Panama to Panama City , Panama – 400km on Ca 1

Once we were inside Panama City it took us 3 hours to find the hostel we needed. They drive like absolute animals here. There are big slow animals, small quick ones, and everything in between. All of these animals are in one crazy herd battling for position. The driving is so aggressive. You are expected to drive similarly. The problem with our situation was that we had no idea where this hostel was and we couldn’t get separated. I mean we could have gotten separated but it would have sucked. We had a map and an address. Usually that is enough to find whatever you are looking for. Not here. None of the streets are marked and there are a ton of one way streets. The locals don’t know the streets names either they change every year. We ended up parking the bikes when we thought we were close and trying to find the hostel on foot. That is how dangerous driving was while looking for non existent street signs. I nearly threw my helmet through a plate glass window when I took it off I was so frustrated, “What the fuck do they make maps for if they aren’t going to label the streets!” I walked around for an hour and a half looking for the hostel asking people the whole way. No one had heard of the hostel or the street it was supposedly on. Beaten, I went back and tagged Isaac into the ring. He found it in about an hour. We parked the bikes under the hostel and that was that.

December 16 th to December 23 rd Panama City

We stayed at Voyager Hostel. We needed some boat information from the bulletin board. That was the one and only reason we were there. It was a cool place. Not the friendliest staff I have ever encountered but they warmed up after awhile.

I ran into the Austrian couple that I met in Guatemala City . They had a tough time finding tickets to Ecuador from Panama City . Because of the holidays air travel was very scarce. Shipping the bikes would be no problem, just personal airfare would be difficult to find. They ended up paying $2,400 for the two of them and both their bikes. I was horrified.

My original plan was to fly. Not anymore. I’ll get a boat to Colombia with Isaac. Let the boat adventure begin. To float out of Panama you need to leave from the Caribbean side, usually Colon or somewhere near there.

Downtown Colon

Colon is the ugliest most dangerous place I have ever been to. We went back and forth between Colon and Panama City (opposite ends of the canal) five separate times. We talked to people at the Yacht Club; they said to check Coco Loco. We came back the next day and happened to be introduced to the Harbormaster of Colon within ten minutes of getting off the bus. That turned into a meeting with him and three other guys at a strip club /brothel in the middle of the afternoon. It was safe but would not have been my first choice of a meeting place. We felt like we were in the Sopranos.

A long story short. We met up with two other bikers that were travelling together, Guillermo and Christian. They both spoke fluent Spanish. This really saved our ass. After we found out the Harbormaster had no problem whatsoever putting on smuggling vessels we respectfully said no. When we returned to the hostel, down but not out we fell ass backwards into the clutches of the dreaded Leonardo! Leonardo is a notorious Italian sail boater that has been banned from most of the hostels in Panama and Colombia . We were kind of stuck so after speaking with him we shrugged our shoulders and said sure. It would cost $400 US dollars for each of us and the bikes. Isaac and I, our two bikes and 6 pretty cool English dudes from the hostel would sail to Cartegena , Colombia together.

Dec 23 rd, Panama City , Panama to Portobello , Panama – 100km

Due to the holidays Isaac and I ran around Colon like idiots trying to get ourselves and our bikes checked out of Panama . No luck. Every immigration office was closed. We headed off to Portobello to meet Leonardo, his daughter Paula (she will crew the boat with her Dad) and the boat.

This picture was of a public bus taken from the window of a cab. Yes it was honking its horn.

The Old Spanish fort of Portobello