We got the computer working again. So I have attached a bunch of photos taken while we rode down the Andes to Peru. The pictures of the good cops and the volkswagen boulders are included.
Fritz
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Pan American Pictures
We got the computer working again. So I have attached a bunch of photos taken while we rode down the Andes to Peru. The pictures of the good cops and the volkswagen boulders are included.
Fritz
Friday, January 23, 2009
PAN AMERICAN TRAIL
Well the last time I checked in we were in Ecuador in the rain. That was last Friday. It got worse. We had decided to travel on Ecuador highway 35, which is the Pan American highway. It should be renamed the Pan Am Trail. For three solid days we clawed our way down the spine of the Andes. The road was washed out in many places, and last Sunday we waited at the hotel for 2 hours before even starting out because a massive landslide had taken out about 200 yards of the road. There were so many landslides that we just got used to dodging the piles of rock in the road. In other places the road was just nothing but a trail of potholes. We did not stop to take pictures because it was a soaking, muddy mess.
We finally made it to the border Sunday night and got the bikes washed off Monday morning before crossing to Peru. The crossing was relatively easy, and we were warned about the police in the towns along the way. Things changed immediately in Peru. We were stopped by police a couple of times the first day, and they treated us well. Got our photo taken with a good group. Also, the stench from the garbage in norhtern Peru was overwhelming. I never want to go back to Sullana Peru again.
We took a rest day, watched the inauguration, and started out again on Wednesday. We got to within 6 km of our target in Barrancas when we were stopped by a cop. Our prior contacts had all been good so we figured no big deal. He took Marty´s licence and then started to accuse us of speeding in a 35km zone. It was one of those places where they drop the 80km limit to 35 in about 10 feet. The short version is that he would not give the license back until he got cash, and gave no ticket or receipt. So that left a bad taste in our mouths. This is the only instance where speaking Spanish did not work in our favor. We think the guy would have given up if he could not do the shakedown in Spanish.
Peru is basically a big pile of rock and sand. We have crossed so much desert here. There is nothing in Peruvian desert. Nothing- just sand and rock. We are high in the Andes now and it is still mostly rock. But Peru has good roads. Compared to Ecuador this is heaven, with one exception. The highway to Cuzco is so bad for about 60 km. They have let the surface degrade to the point there is no surface, just thousands of potholes. The road is so bad that it has shaved hundreds of miles off our tires and broken pieces off the motorcycles by impact, shaking, and vibration.
We are going to try to be in Cuzco tomorrow, do the Machu Pichu thing, and buy tires if we can find them. Sorry we have no pictures. The computer broke and we are trying to recover the photos and figure a new way to transfer our photos to this blog.
Fritz
We finally made it to the border Sunday night and got the bikes washed off Monday morning before crossing to Peru. The crossing was relatively easy, and we were warned about the police in the towns along the way. Things changed immediately in Peru. We were stopped by police a couple of times the first day, and they treated us well. Got our photo taken with a good group. Also, the stench from the garbage in norhtern Peru was overwhelming. I never want to go back to Sullana Peru again.
We took a rest day, watched the inauguration, and started out again on Wednesday. We got to within 6 km of our target in Barrancas when we were stopped by a cop. Our prior contacts had all been good so we figured no big deal. He took Marty´s licence and then started to accuse us of speeding in a 35km zone. It was one of those places where they drop the 80km limit to 35 in about 10 feet. The short version is that he would not give the license back until he got cash, and gave no ticket or receipt. So that left a bad taste in our mouths. This is the only instance where speaking Spanish did not work in our favor. We think the guy would have given up if he could not do the shakedown in Spanish.
Peru is basically a big pile of rock and sand. We have crossed so much desert here. There is nothing in Peruvian desert. Nothing- just sand and rock. We are high in the Andes now and it is still mostly rock. But Peru has good roads. Compared to Ecuador this is heaven, with one exception. The highway to Cuzco is so bad for about 60 km. They have let the surface degrade to the point there is no surface, just thousands of potholes. The road is so bad that it has shaved hundreds of miles off our tires and broken pieces off the motorcycles by impact, shaking, and vibration.
We are going to try to be in Cuzco tomorrow, do the Machu Pichu thing, and buy tires if we can find them. Sorry we have no pictures. The computer broke and we are trying to recover the photos and figure a new way to transfer our photos to this blog.
Fritz
Friday, January 16, 2009
Crossing The Equator
We have come over 8000 miles now. We crossed the equator on January 14, 2009. Only another 54 degrees south latitude and 8000 miles to go. Think of it this way. It is as far to the tip of South America from the equator as it is from the equator to the Canadian border.
We no longer measure distance in kilometers or miles. Time between points is the standard. There is “bus time” and moto time. When we ask how long (far) it is to a destination we usually get “It’s about 5 hours, but on the motos 4” as an answer. We always ask what it takes the bus, because we find that to be more accurate. For those of you living in the USA when you see a map with mileage between points you can pretty well estimate the time of arrival figuring the speed limit. Not here. It does not matter what the speed limit is. The average speed on even the best roads is usually less than 30 miles per hour. So on a good day we can make 250 miles. There are not many good days.
The other thing is top speed. Sure the bikes can go 80 all day long, but we feel fortunate to keep things at 60 for any length of time. It is a constant acceleration and deceleration. But up here in the Andes we are happy to have fuel injection. The machines still have punch at 12000 ft.
So let me bring you up to date. Last Saturday we rode into Cali Colombia. We stayed at the Hostel Casa Blanca operated by Danish national Mikkel Thomsen. Our roommate John was a yacht delivery captain from South Africa. Mike has immigrated to Colombia and runs a very nice hostel. The place is spotless. The rates are very low, and secure parking for the bikes was next door.
Cali was not hopping because it was a national holiday, and the town was quiet because most people had gone to the beach. We both loved Colombia and would like to have spent more time. It is a great place, but I do understand what all the fighting is about. There are really about 6 Colombia’s. Northern Bogotá is very European and wants to impose centralized control. Southern Bogota is like most other large latin cities. Basically the attitude is that the rest of the country exists for the benefit of Bogotá. There are also landless farmers who object to this. Then there are the paramilitaries who are basically private armies for the landed class. Add a little drug money plus a couple of cartels and this creates real problems. So the main towns and highways are controlled by the central government, but things are still unsettled in the countryside, especially down on the Ecuador border. Still, I would return and tour more if I had the chance.
Monday we rode to Pasto Colombia, and Tuesday we crossed the border to Ecuador. The border crossing was not difficult. Just time consuming. We waited in line for hours to clear immigration. Then we waited again to clear customs with the bikes. After 4.5 hrs we were free to go. Then it started to rain. Real rain. We just pushed on and found a good room in Ibarra Ecuador that night.
So now we are getting ready to ride to Peru. We left Quito this morning and the roads were great. Then we hit fog at 10,000 ft and it started to rain again. We gave up at 3 pm and found a hotel because we could not see. We have no itinerary except to visit Machu Pichu and maybe drive the world’s most dangerous road in Bolivia.
I will try to get pictures posted as soon as I can. By the way—Marty and I purchased our Panama hats and we look very studly indeed.
Fritz
We no longer measure distance in kilometers or miles. Time between points is the standard. There is “bus time” and moto time. When we ask how long (far) it is to a destination we usually get “It’s about 5 hours, but on the motos 4” as an answer. We always ask what it takes the bus, because we find that to be more accurate. For those of you living in the USA when you see a map with mileage between points you can pretty well estimate the time of arrival figuring the speed limit. Not here. It does not matter what the speed limit is. The average speed on even the best roads is usually less than 30 miles per hour. So on a good day we can make 250 miles. There are not many good days.
The other thing is top speed. Sure the bikes can go 80 all day long, but we feel fortunate to keep things at 60 for any length of time. It is a constant acceleration and deceleration. But up here in the Andes we are happy to have fuel injection. The machines still have punch at 12000 ft.
So let me bring you up to date. Last Saturday we rode into Cali Colombia. We stayed at the Hostel Casa Blanca operated by Danish national Mikkel Thomsen. Our roommate John was a yacht delivery captain from South Africa. Mike has immigrated to Colombia and runs a very nice hostel. The place is spotless. The rates are very low, and secure parking for the bikes was next door.
Cali was not hopping because it was a national holiday, and the town was quiet because most people had gone to the beach. We both loved Colombia and would like to have spent more time. It is a great place, but I do understand what all the fighting is about. There are really about 6 Colombia’s. Northern Bogotá is very European and wants to impose centralized control. Southern Bogota is like most other large latin cities. Basically the attitude is that the rest of the country exists for the benefit of Bogotá. There are also landless farmers who object to this. Then there are the paramilitaries who are basically private armies for the landed class. Add a little drug money plus a couple of cartels and this creates real problems. So the main towns and highways are controlled by the central government, but things are still unsettled in the countryside, especially down on the Ecuador border. Still, I would return and tour more if I had the chance.
Monday we rode to Pasto Colombia, and Tuesday we crossed the border to Ecuador. The border crossing was not difficult. Just time consuming. We waited in line for hours to clear immigration. Then we waited again to clear customs with the bikes. After 4.5 hrs we were free to go. Then it started to rain. Real rain. We just pushed on and found a good room in Ibarra Ecuador that night.
So now we are getting ready to ride to Peru. We left Quito this morning and the roads were great. Then we hit fog at 10,000 ft and it started to rain again. We gave up at 3 pm and found a hotel because we could not see. We have no itinerary except to visit Machu Pichu and maybe drive the world’s most dangerous road in Bolivia.
I will try to get pictures posted as soon as I can. By the way—Marty and I purchased our Panama hats and we look very studly indeed.
Fritz
Saturday, January 10, 2009
We Love Platypus
We are in backpacker nirvana. As you might recall from earlier blogs, Panama City is not the easiest place to park a motorcycle, especially a shiny red 650GS with all the gear attached. So we made it out of Panama by way of air freight on the bikes. I will give a separate technical explanation of that latter for the biker dudes.Anyway we needed a hotel in Bogota. So as we sat in the airport waiting to go to Colombia we emailed and called the world famous Platypus Hostel in Bogota. They had no room at the inn originally, but late found us space. This is a great place. But once again, it would have been a little hard to find in the middle of the night on a motorcycle, and impossible to negotiate during the day because we did not have our Colombian motorcycle gear.
We checked in about 10 PM (we are now using the correct time). It is cool (read cold 47 degrees at night) and no heat in the rooms. No big deal. The rooms are rustic. We share bath and shower with the absolutely drop dead gorgeous German and Argentinean girls next door. This is a great imposition, but Marty and I are sensitive sharing types, so we are able to cope with this. And there is a coming and going of people of all ages taking the buses around the world and South America. The Havoc House group in Tucson would love it here. I will say that it is definite plus to be able to speak Spanish and German if one is traveling in the hostel circuit. So if you plan to take the trip, take Spanish so you can enjoy it.
Our bikes did not arrive the next morning. We had been warned that might be the case, so we used the day to get legal in Colombia including the mandatory reflective vest with emblazoned plate numbers, reflective plate numbers on our helmets, and insurance. So we got to see motorcycle Mecca in Bogotá. They have an 8 square block area dedicated to motorcycles, gear, tires and just stuff.
So we got to see Bogotá. Last night when we got back to the hostel there were a bunch of people just hanging. Among them was a mother daughter team from Australia also headed south. Great conversation trading war stories. Geography is everything, and Panama is a funnel. The funnel lets out at Colombia, and every one must pass through Bogotá for all practical purposes. So we finally met up with the great mass of gutsy people traveling on the cheap.
My impression of Bogotá is that it is very safe. However we were warned several times that traveling in the “Red Zone” to Cali and the Ecuadorian border by motorcycle is a dangerous proposition as there is still leftist guerrilla activity in the area. We were instructed to check in with the local military and police at each stage and inform them of our route, travel plans, and when stopped to just get fed, pay up, and leave without any thing more said – especially in English.
So as I write this I am waiting for the bikes to arrive and get underway again. Wish us luck. If you do not see a post after this one, the words of the song apply “Send lawyers, guns and money—the %$%&* has hit the fan.”
Fritz
PS I did not get this posted until we arrived in Cali, the most dangerous city in Colombia. So we are safe, but send money anyway, if you wish.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Great Rides
The bikes are still at the airfreight company in Bogota. So I am putting this blog together for the technical information of my biker dude friends.This is a blog entry about motorcycle stuff. So if you can skip this are not interested in the machine part of the trip. First a list of stuff that works and we could not do without, even if we did not know it when we started:
1. The First Gear riding outfits. They really work. The pants are made as “over pants” but we ride using them as regular armored pants.
2. The Seal Line bags. These are the bags we have strapped to our racks. They are very strudy, absolutely water proof, and hold a lot. In fact they hold too much. That means we put too much weight in them to start and it made the bikes top heavy.
3. The AutoCom system. This is the electronic system that lets us listen to our ipods and communicate between the bikes. We run a Motorola walkie talkie with a 25 km range. The push to talk switch automatically cuts out the music when we need to talk. When we were in Guatemala City the BMW dealer cleaned the bikes with a power washer. It shorted out the push to talk switch, but I was able to take it apart, dry it out and 2 weeks later it works just fine. In the meantime we crossed 4 borders without the system. So it is not a necessity, but it sure comes in handy to coordinate passing and discuss plans on the go.
Stuff that does not work so well:
1. The BMW panniers are nice because they come off at night and go in the room. But it is not durable. If I had to do it again I would not buy any BMW panniers or bags. I think the Pelican and Caribou stuff is much better, stronger, more water resistant, and still lets you take it off the bike at night.
2. The Kolpin auxillary gas tanks. They leak. Kolpin supplied a cap and nozzle that they did not manufacture and which really does not fit. In fact, the fit is so poor that it is necessary to put a plastic baggy inbteween the cap and the can to ensure a tight seal. I would not buy Kolpin again. There is another manufacture making ATV tanks and nozzles that fit the Kolpin bracket. So I will replace the cans when I am finished.
3. The Kildala rack. It is not sturdy enough for Latin American travel. They worked well until we got to Baja, then cracks started to appear. For a while I was spending every Saturday morning in a welding shop reinforcing the racks and re-installing them. I finally found a great welding in San Cristobal de las Casas Mexico with a TIG type welder and we added another layer of aluminium to both sides of the rack. That has solved the problem. So the Kildala rack needs to be build of steel at least 5/16 in thick, or the aluminum needs to be 3/8 in thick. Also the hardware needs to be beefed up. The retainer screws need to be stainless steel with a Torx type head (T20) and the aluminium supports need a shock absorbing seal to ensure the screws do not vibrate out, which does happen. I added duct tape gaskets to the supports , and that has solved the problem so far.
4. Cee-Bailey windshield. They break because they are too thin. Almost any impact will cause the windshield to start to crack at the holes where it screws onto the front couling. I have looked at all the other BMW GS type windscreen systems, and I think BMW just cheaped out on the design for the F650GS. So even their tall windscreen is kind of lame. But they are half again thicker that Cee Bailey’s. I will say that Cee Bailey’s does a better job of deflecting wind and bugs. But at $180 a pop for the windshields it is kind of expensive for womething with a useful life of about 3000 miles.
Great Rides and Experiences:
So far my top 3 rides for the trip are:
1. San Juan Del Cabo to Durango. This ride starts in San Juan Del Cabo in Baja. Total curves. Then you pull into the ferry terminal 10 km ( more or less ) south east of La Paz and take the ferry to Mazatlan. Be sure to book a cabin. It costs $70, sleeps 4, and is a first class passage. You will get off the ship about 7 am and get breakfast. Then take the libre to Durango via El Salto. This is the famed “ Espina del Diablo” or devil’s spine. It starts about 45 minutes outside of Mazatlan. You will be heading south and will turn left. There is a choice of roads. One is the “via corte” which is the short way on the Cuota. The Cuota is a toll road. The other road is the “Libre”. Take the libre. Make sure you gas up before you start. We only made it as far as El Salto from Mazatlan. But if you did not dilly dally in Mazatlan and did the ride in with a little more daylight you could make Durango. This road is not for the faint of heart. It is 6 straight hours of hair pin curves and shear drop offs. Oh did I tell you about the trucks! Yeah, there is constant truck traffic on this too. So never figure the inside lane is yours. Or you will met by a guy in a Kenworth hauling fuel over the Sierra Madre. I would not recommend using a heavy motorcycle. The lighter the bike the faster it handles, and you will need that on this road.
2. Villa Hermosa to San Cristobal de las Casas Mexico. This is a Chaipas ride. It starts in Villa Hermosa and takes about an hour and a half to hit the mountains. Take the libre again to San Cristobal. Do not take the Cuota. Leave Villa Hermosa by 9 am or you run the chance of loosing daylight by the time you get to San Cristobal. It will be blazing hot when you start and change to crisp and cold when you finish because you go from sea level to 7200 ft through breathtaking country. This ride does not have the shear drop offs of the Devils Spine, but the curves are every bit as challenging. Also be ready for a little off road work. We had one water crossing on this road ( means NO Bridge – drive through the stream) and the road turned to dirt in at least 4 spots. Not a ride for a low clearance machine. Stay at least 2 days in San Cristobal because there is plenty to see and do. It is kind of like a 450 yr old Boulder Colorado with every brand of Tequila. Great Hotels, great prices, great scenery.
3. Panajachel to Antigua Guatemala. Panajachel is a resort town on Lago Atitlan. It is filled with hotels and resturants. Either getting there from Antigua or going back to Antigua go through Finca San Isidro on CA1 about 25km west of Chimaltenango.That means if you are headed West from Chimaltenango you need to turn left at San Isidro. The road is full of switch backs and vistas, including photo ops of Lake Atitlan and its volcanoes. This road is not nearly as long as the prior two rides, but it has some obstacles. The occasional earthquake or just water causes land slides. So do not assume the road is just fine around the next curve. There are sections covered in slides every day.
For all of these rides bikers will share the road with all other traffic, including lots of bicycles, pedestrians, and the occasional cow. So practice your emergency swerve and quick stops bofore you leave home.
Fritz
1. The First Gear riding outfits. They really work. The pants are made as “over pants” but we ride using them as regular armored pants.
2. The Seal Line bags. These are the bags we have strapped to our racks. They are very strudy, absolutely water proof, and hold a lot. In fact they hold too much. That means we put too much weight in them to start and it made the bikes top heavy.
3. The AutoCom system. This is the electronic system that lets us listen to our ipods and communicate between the bikes. We run a Motorola walkie talkie with a 25 km range. The push to talk switch automatically cuts out the music when we need to talk. When we were in Guatemala City the BMW dealer cleaned the bikes with a power washer. It shorted out the push to talk switch, but I was able to take it apart, dry it out and 2 weeks later it works just fine. In the meantime we crossed 4 borders without the system. So it is not a necessity, but it sure comes in handy to coordinate passing and discuss plans on the go.
Stuff that does not work so well:
1. The BMW panniers are nice because they come off at night and go in the room. But it is not durable. If I had to do it again I would not buy any BMW panniers or bags. I think the Pelican and Caribou stuff is much better, stronger, more water resistant, and still lets you take it off the bike at night.
2. The Kolpin auxillary gas tanks. They leak. Kolpin supplied a cap and nozzle that they did not manufacture and which really does not fit. In fact, the fit is so poor that it is necessary to put a plastic baggy inbteween the cap and the can to ensure a tight seal. I would not buy Kolpin again. There is another manufacture making ATV tanks and nozzles that fit the Kolpin bracket. So I will replace the cans when I am finished.
3. The Kildala rack. It is not sturdy enough for Latin American travel. They worked well until we got to Baja, then cracks started to appear. For a while I was spending every Saturday morning in a welding shop reinforcing the racks and re-installing them. I finally found a great welding in San Cristobal de las Casas Mexico with a TIG type welder and we added another layer of aluminium to both sides of the rack. That has solved the problem. So the Kildala rack needs to be build of steel at least 5/16 in thick, or the aluminum needs to be 3/8 in thick. Also the hardware needs to be beefed up. The retainer screws need to be stainless steel with a Torx type head (T20) and the aluminium supports need a shock absorbing seal to ensure the screws do not vibrate out, which does happen. I added duct tape gaskets to the supports , and that has solved the problem so far.
4. Cee-Bailey windshield. They break because they are too thin. Almost any impact will cause the windshield to start to crack at the holes where it screws onto the front couling. I have looked at all the other BMW GS type windscreen systems, and I think BMW just cheaped out on the design for the F650GS. So even their tall windscreen is kind of lame. But they are half again thicker that Cee Bailey’s. I will say that Cee Bailey’s does a better job of deflecting wind and bugs. But at $180 a pop for the windshields it is kind of expensive for womething with a useful life of about 3000 miles.
Great Rides and Experiences:
So far my top 3 rides for the trip are:
1. San Juan Del Cabo to Durango. This ride starts in San Juan Del Cabo in Baja. Total curves. Then you pull into the ferry terminal 10 km ( more or less ) south east of La Paz and take the ferry to Mazatlan. Be sure to book a cabin. It costs $70, sleeps 4, and is a first class passage. You will get off the ship about 7 am and get breakfast. Then take the libre to Durango via El Salto. This is the famed “ Espina del Diablo” or devil’s spine. It starts about 45 minutes outside of Mazatlan. You will be heading south and will turn left. There is a choice of roads. One is the “via corte” which is the short way on the Cuota. The Cuota is a toll road. The other road is the “Libre”. Take the libre. Make sure you gas up before you start. We only made it as far as El Salto from Mazatlan. But if you did not dilly dally in Mazatlan and did the ride in with a little more daylight you could make Durango. This road is not for the faint of heart. It is 6 straight hours of hair pin curves and shear drop offs. Oh did I tell you about the trucks! Yeah, there is constant truck traffic on this too. So never figure the inside lane is yours. Or you will met by a guy in a Kenworth hauling fuel over the Sierra Madre. I would not recommend using a heavy motorcycle. The lighter the bike the faster it handles, and you will need that on this road.
2. Villa Hermosa to San Cristobal de las Casas Mexico. This is a Chaipas ride. It starts in Villa Hermosa and takes about an hour and a half to hit the mountains. Take the libre again to San Cristobal. Do not take the Cuota. Leave Villa Hermosa by 9 am or you run the chance of loosing daylight by the time you get to San Cristobal. It will be blazing hot when you start and change to crisp and cold when you finish because you go from sea level to 7200 ft through breathtaking country. This ride does not have the shear drop offs of the Devils Spine, but the curves are every bit as challenging. Also be ready for a little off road work. We had one water crossing on this road ( means NO Bridge – drive through the stream) and the road turned to dirt in at least 4 spots. Not a ride for a low clearance machine. Stay at least 2 days in San Cristobal because there is plenty to see and do. It is kind of like a 450 yr old Boulder Colorado with every brand of Tequila. Great Hotels, great prices, great scenery.
3. Panajachel to Antigua Guatemala. Panajachel is a resort town on Lago Atitlan. It is filled with hotels and resturants. Either getting there from Antigua or going back to Antigua go through Finca San Isidro on CA1 about 25km west of Chimaltenango.That means if you are headed West from Chimaltenango you need to turn left at San Isidro. The road is full of switch backs and vistas, including photo ops of Lake Atitlan and its volcanoes. This road is not nearly as long as the prior two rides, but it has some obstacles. The occasional earthquake or just water causes land slides. So do not assume the road is just fine around the next curve. There are sections covered in slides every day.
For all of these rides bikers will share the road with all other traffic, including lots of bicycles, pedestrians, and the occasional cow. So practice your emergency swerve and quick stops bofore you leave home.
Fritz
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
"If I could read, I could lead" - Fritz Sampson
Well I know it's been a while since I've posted a blog but a lot has happened since I think Mexico. In fact dad and I are not really sure how much time has gone by or what day it is. Yesterday we just found out after three days of being in Panama that we crossed into eastern time zone at the Costa Rica/Panama border. And a few days before in Costa Rica we where surprized to learn that is was Saturday and not Sunday. Some were we either lost or gained a day, I'm still not quite sure. But the hard facts are that we have arrived in Panama City after about two months of being on the road. I have to admit I hadn't planned on making it this far and don't really know what to do from here on out. Central American has been a great run and coming into Panama City was as just as colorful as I could have imagined. For those who have never experienced a Latin American election cycle now is your chance in Panama. Elections for president and all the other offices are in May. This means that posters with bleached pictures of guys with gold chains and bad mustaches are up all over town. This year Panama even has a Sarah Palin lookalike running for president. And it didn't take long for dad and I to figure out that most of the politcians here are really looking for that old grey white guy Fritz Sampson look this year. If dad just had a moustache he would be a very successful politician in Panama. Once we got into Panama City we headed for the biggest shit hole hotel in town. And considering we were one hour ahead than what we thought it was good that we found what we did. I will say that the barrio of Casco Viejo does indeed provide that old world charm, I just wish it didn't also provide the feeling that my bike is going to get stolen if I turn my head for one second. Needless to say Casco Viejo and Panama City are very "interesting", enough so that after one night in town dad and I moved out to the airport hotel to hang with the other business travelers. We are about five minutes from the cargo airport where tommorow we will drop our bikes off to be shipped to Bogota, Columbia. We had orginally wanted to go to Cali, Columbia, but apparently COPA Airlines doesn't ship to Columbia but once a month, at the end of the month. For a few minutes today I thought the trip may have been over with no way to get to Columbia, but all is good. Well I guess we have made it this far so I have begun to plan to make it the rest of the way. Those wondering about the quote, dad has some problems leading because he can't read the map without his reading glasses. For a while everytime he led we had to stop and put on glasses to figure out where we were. Now I lead most of the time.
Next Stop Bogota.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Como Se Dice "Imodium"?
I do not know what you did last week, but Marty and I crossed five borders in seven days. We are in Panama now, having covered El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and a good part of Panama as I write this.
The border crossings were time consuming, and we did use helpers at most of them. People always ask about Honduras because it has a poor reputation. What we found is that if we cross on weekends and holidays it is best. Early morning is best. And the secondary border crossings are better than the main ones.
Crossing into Honduras was actually one of the more efficient crossings. We used a helper and arrived before the customs agent went to lunch. What is interesting is that even after you cross the border, get all your documents, and think you are on your way, you meet the next check point about 300 meters down the road. They check your passport and bike documents again, and might pick up one of documents attesting to the fact that you paid some fee.
About 50 km into Honduras we were stopped again at a police road block. The guy who questioned Marty was just visiting. Apparently he had been living in Maryland but had been deported and now was a cop in Honduras! But the guy working me wanted a bribe. He said that a $25 tax was yet to be paid. After I insisted that all items were paid at the border and started grabbing more receipts he gave up. I had not even read my entry documents. So later when I looked at the documents I saw in plain Spanish “Salto Pagado” or amount paid, right after amount due. The guy was plain and simple trying to shake me down.
Nicaragua is in a class by itself. If you want to experience Central America as it all was not too long ago, go to Nicaragua. It is the first place we encountered ox carts. Real ox carts with wooden wheels, heavy yokes, and lumbering oxen just traveling down the highway with the rest of the traffic. Also, lots of horse and donkey drawn vehicles. We stayed in Grenada. It has lots of good hotels and is the colonial capital of Nicaragua.
The crossing to Costa Rica was the worst. It took about an hour to get out of Nicaragua. Then it took another 3.5 hrs to get the Costa Rican documents. We did not use a helper in Costa Rica because there were none. I don’t think it would have helped. It just took forever. When we left the border we hit our first significant rain of the entire trip. When we left Omaha on Nov 6 it was spitting rain all the way to Kansas. But since then we have had blue sky, except when it snowed on us in New Mexico – but that was a rest day!
So on Dec 30 we got rained on. There has been a sprinkle now and then since. But this is the dry season and we are enjoying clear weather.
Costa Rica is a great place and very developed. They actually have road signs that give repeat directions. The roads are in good repair. And the Costa Ricans are arguably the worst drivers I have ever seen. The top speed on any road is 90 kph or about 55 mph. That’s OK. But the Costa Ricans think that 20 or 25 mph is better. From time to time we would come upon a car or truck just putzing down the road at 20 mph. Going through mountains is agonizing because some guy in a vehicle that will do more than 15 mph will be crawling along stacking everyone else behind him. Then there are the people who just pull out as they feel figuring everyone else will avoid them – which they do. But it is as if there are no traffic rules, except the speed limit which is vigorously enforced. I don’t know why. No one goes fast enough to violate it.
We spent New Years Eve in Playa del Coco Costa Rica. We barely got a room. The place is 4 hrs from the capital and was packed. It is a very nice and very warm beach town with a lot of Americans and Canadians living there, mostly in retirement. But our hotel was owned by a working Canadian.
After leaving Playa Coco we visited a friend in the Jaco/Herreteria area. The nest day –Friday – we hit our first stretch of dirt in a long time. The road was 40 miles of dust and rock. But when we pulled in for lunch the Pacific was right there, and so was good asphalt. It took us all of 4 days to cross Costa Rica.
When we hit the Panama border there were no significant problems. Just the beauracracy. But as we pulled out of the border we got on the best roads since Mexico. There is a great 4 land divided highway all the way to David, and new asphalt with full shoulders south of there, Then we turned right onto the dirt and headed for the beach.
So now I am sitting on the beach in Panama writing this. We have found some wonderful places and met very interesting people. But what amazes me is that the story is usually the same, They were on vacation or backpacking, came upon this particular place, and decided to stay. So they started a business, or bought a place, or sell time shares, and are making a new life.
Next week Columbia.
Fritz
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