Panama

Panama was a very cool stop.  Panama City is a very large and very modern city with a lot to see and do.  And, of course, there is the canal.  We pushed to give ourselves a couple of flex days before the boat trip to make sure we didn't miss it. With this, we had the opportunity to spend some time in the city.  It was very fascinating and totally worth the time and effort.  

6/16.  Nice to be out of Costa Rica, this plate was less than $6.

6/16.  Unfortunately, our hostel did not have secure parking.  We had to tie the bikes together and tarp them at night.  Fortunately there were no issues.

6/17.  Nothing like a couple of down days to get caught up on errands.  Nobody would wash the bikes for us but this car wash place allowed us to wash the bikes ourselves and then they didn't even charge us.

Dang, that's a shiny bike!

One of the buildings downtown.  I was fascinated by it all day.

6/18.  It's time!

The locks featured a museum about the construction of the canal.  They had some amazing and uniquely engineered pieces of equipment. 

And they did this without anything that resembles the technology we have today!

Ships only head one direction at a time because parts of the canal are not wide enough to accommodate two way traffic. This meant we had some time to kill...

And kill... and then kill some more. 

Eventually the ships started to come.  It really is a marvel of engineering and was amazing to watch.

This is an example of a "panamax" ship. It is the maximum dimension that the canal can handle.  If you look at how close the ship is to the canal walls it's impressive that they could fit it at all.

6/19.  The Stahlratte is finally ready for us!

Don't Skip Central America

Central America has been beautiful!

So glad to have the opportunity to drive through it and meet some of its peoples...and to dispel myths that have lingered in the recesses of my mind. That, really, is the best part of travel: seeing it for one's own eyes and eradicating falsehoods that creep around the periphery of one's paradigm.

It truly is unfortunate how we in the USA view our southern neighbors...and deeply unfortunate how our current president perpetuates these ill-conceived notions. But I don't care to digress into politics in this post.

Nick and I drove from the southern border of the US all the way through Mexico, through Guatemala, the entire length of El Salvador, through a chunk of Honduras, through the civil unrest in Nicaragua, through the surfer's paradise of Costa Rica, and now through Panama.

This section of the trip has easily required the most consideration for personal safety due to human and social concerns (as opposed to the wilderness and wildlife concerns in Alaska and northern Canada). And yet, we've met nothing but good people and excellent vistas throughout this section.

The one exception to the beauty of humanity noted above, of course, was the passage through Nicaragua, which is undergoing some major social upheavals presently. But, even in the midst of all of that, in a town scared of sandinista vengeance, we found safe haven and assistance beyond what we could have possibly hoped for.

As with any travel in a land foreign to one's homeland, there are things to beware. Driving is different in a foreign country than it is in your own back yard. Particularly here in Mexico and Central America, often the roads don't have the same level of upkeep. In some places, domestic critters are encouraged to graze right beside the road.

A herd of road-side cattle and those tending them.

Driving etiquette is different here, though -- as may not be obvious to the uninitiated -- is very much not absent. A honk here often means "hey, I'm over here, hope you see me," as opposed to what honking often means in the US: "WTF, YOU !*&$(^#(*>!!!"

Border crossings are a pain, to be sure, and the rigamarole of different border agents asking for different documentation is only compounded by the "helpers" who roam the borders looking for a quick buck. In truth, some of them likely do help speed up the process, but there are far too many who predate upon travelers.

Fumigation at the Guatemala border.

Do your research and know what you need ahead of time, have everything in order, and take care of your business your own self.

No doubt, there is corruption and there are unique dangers here, but even with all the miles we've chalked up through these areas, we were only pulled over twice (besides normal inspection stations, etc.). The first time, in Guatemala, the police wanted two things: to advise us not to head into the post-volcano evacuation traffic, and a photo with us.

Friendly police folk in Guatemala.

The second time, in Panama, it was an absolutely legitimate stop for speeding, and after a quick joke about American football, he sent me on my way.

I'm not saying everyone needs to visit Latin America. The world is a huge place: too huge for any one person to see it all. But if you're skipping it because you think it's fraught with danger, you're cheating yourself. We've been engulfed in beauty -- natural and human -- in every single country we've seen so far.

Muchísimas gracias, amigos, para compartir sus países y hospitalidad con nosotros!

Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Park in David, Panama. Don Quixote is everywhere!

Adventures and Safety and Tragedy

Nick and I are here having a marvelous adventure, but it's worth noting that there are at least two major tragedies through which we have adventured thus far:

• Volcán Fuego exploded just a day or so before we got to Guatemala, and again the day we entered the country. Although this volcano is known to regularly burp and spew, it very rarely does so anywhere near this magnitude. Over 100 people died in pyroclastic flows and mudslides, many are still missing, and over 10,000 are displaced.
• Nicaragua continues is major civil unrest that has claimed the lives of 170 citizens in the past eight weeks.

We saw several of these guys with homemade mortars on our quick ride through Nicaragua. Didn't want to have the camera running, though, in case someone took exception to it.
Photo credit: Reuters

For us, these things were little more than obstacles to overcome on our trek south, but these events continue to have untold impact on thousands of lives...life-changing impact...life-ending impact.

On an adventure motorcycling forum I frequent, ADVRider, one contributor local to Nicaragua posted this:

"i am sad to see that people are still crossing nicaragua for their "adventures." as far as i'm concerned no adventure includes risking your life in a known violent area. this is coming from someone that has 14 years in nicaragua. someone that just this week paid an enormous amount of money to evacuate his family and leave behind home, vehicles and possessions for the sake of their safety. all of my friends either have already or are in the process of leaving the country."

He had a few more things to say, describing some of the local atrocities, and ended with: "DO NOT GO TO OR THROUGH NICARAGUA."

It's a somber thing to pass through these areas. Getting through Nicaragua was just a matter of doing it, though had we known the depth of the rancor perhaps we would've looked more seriously at finding a way around. We did lots of reading ahead of time, and came to the conclusion that the dangers were manageable. Although it turned out that we did, indeed, manage alright, we had an excellent stroke of luck to help us along. Not far from us, there was a shooting the night we were there and further skirmishes during the night.

In Guatemala, I couldn't help but wonder what we could do to be of use to the local population. In the end, though, we were poorly outfitted to do anything but stay out of the way, which is why we ended up electing to head north and avoid the traffic fleeing the volcano.

Here's a way to help Volcan Fuego survivors in Guatemala.

Costa Rica

Let me tell you, getting across the Nicaragua border into Costa Rica was an amazing feeling.  The minute you cross the border the road is beautiful, the scene is tropical and everybody is happy.  It was like you could hear the angels singing.  We did our fair share of celebrating, too.  The fast that we made it through safely was not lost on us. 

As much as I love CR, we were only able to spend two nights because we still have to push to Panama to make sure we had time to sort out odds and ends before the boat ride. 

6/13.  Somehow my bike is the only one that had to sit in the rain.

6/14, fancy bikes.  We said goodbye to Jeremy today.  He has different business to attend to in San Juan.

Fish Tacos.  Good but expensive.  Jaco is now a huge tourist area. 

Caught some more rain but we were happy to get to the AirBnB,

After a significant hike, Ryan and I finally made it to the black sand beaches.  But, it was pretty dark, as you can see.

Selfie at the beach.  Ryan shined a flashlight on me.

6/15, turns out there are horses in our yard!  They were wandering around eating the fallen mangoes.

Our cute little pace.  Goodbye, Costa Rica!  I'll miss you until I move there...

Just a bit more on Nicaragua

I am not going to say Nicaragua was not stressful, but it is important that everybody understands that it was not like what you saw on the news.  

We met several people that made it through headed north as we were about to head south and everything indicated that we were going to be safe.  We knew what to expect and we knew what it was going to be to get around it. We were lucky to meet two more riders headed south and we rode as a group.  We also had an extra day in Honduras just to get everything ready.

Out of respect for the situation, we kept all of the cameras put away and there is not as much to show. 

Even though everything was as we expected, it definitely elevates your blood pressure to see it in person.  At no time did I feel threatened or unsafe, but the locals certainly did.  The issues centered around the places where the protesters and the police were in the same place.  That is when the violence really sprung up and you could tell people were scared.  Otherwise, it was mostly a traffic flow issue.

Scared or not, the number of tranques throughout the country kept growing.  They are serious about their plight.  The beef, fortunately, was between the people and the government.  Once they knew we were just travelers passing through they were very good about letting us through.  

The first few were really intense.  Guys wore masks and carried home made guns.  They searched us and our bags for weapons, but then they gave us directions and sent us on our way.  Later on, the tranques become less formal.  At one, about two dozen people came over to check out our bikes and the main guy just fist bumped each of us and barely slowed us down.  

As it got late in the day we ran into a nasty one.  The tranque itself was easy to get around but the route they made you take was a mud pit.  I dropped my bike several time.  Many locals were just hanging out watching the parade of people and when I dropped my bike they would run to help me get it back up. 

The last tranque we hit was difficult to get around.  Word on the street was that there was a lot of violence in the neighboring towns, which meant our travel day was over and we had to find a hotel before it started to get dark.  The first place we found was an absolute nightmare so we went back into the town.  The next place, obviously empty, refused to take us.  Apparently the hotels were afraid to take people in.  The next place we checked was closed too.  We met a guy on the street who suggested another place and they finally let us in.

Not only did they let us in, they were amazing to us.  Wonderful hospitality, wonderful food.  The experience was an amazing juxtaposition to the rest of the day. What turned out to be the best part, Ryan, of course, was chatting it up with the people in the lobby and managed to find us an escort for the next day.  

The escorts were amazing.  One guy met us at the hotel in a truck and he took us through two towns and we managed to avoid all road blocks and take just one unpaved road.  He left us to get to the next city on our own where a guy an a motorcycle met us.  He took us around Rivas, a real hotspot, and left us basically on the road to the border.  The route we took this day was so free and clear of dangers that you would never know what was happening.  It was amazing, easy and stress free.  

It was beautiful.

6/12, our bikes, ready to roll!

6/12, getting Nicaraguan burritos.  (They were empenadas...) Super delicious.

6/12.  Jeremey's bike died... at a tranque.  We stopped at the first bike shop we could find in a reasonable looking town.  Turned into a couple of hour delay but its better than his bike not starting at a tranque again.

2

6/12, the working bikes hanging out across the street.

6/12, might as well get Ryan's bike worked on while they worked on Jeremy's.  Free of charge, no less.  I cannot stress enough how good to us the Nicaraguans were.

Apparently these guys were just killing time in La Trinidad until 3 when it was time to build a tranque. 

The place we stayed was an enormous compound.  They had rooms, a pool, more rooms, a bar, a restaurant, a stage, and farms!

Honduras

 Honduras, of course, was beautiful.  It was our plan to pass right through and spend just one night but we got turned away from the Nicaragua border because we didn't have all of the right permission forms.

While checking back into Honduras to wait for our approval another guy reached out to us on the internet to see if we would be interested in doing Nicaragua as a trio. (Safety in numbers, after all...) We decided to wait for him and he also picked up a fouth on the way.

We spent three more nights in Honduras between waiting for the guys and then prepping. Then we went as a group into Nicaragua.

6/9, San Marcos de Colon

This sucker was every bit of three feet long.

Small town but they had everything we needed.

My hair was getting a little crazy and I was tired of dealing with it.

"After"

6/10, meet Steve and Jeremy.  On separate trips but both from LA.

Trying to demonstrate some juggling skill.

Wasn't easy finding beers to bring back.  But we found a bar that would sell them.

The internet went out, Steve had to restart the router.

6/11, last minute prep.

6/12, exiting Honduras again.

And finally in Nicaragua!