Friday, Oct 26

Reg from the UK on hi R1200GSA

Tim from the UK taking a break from sitting down The guys in the shop at MPH where I got my tire.

The last couple of days have been rather routine, get up, load up, ride to a point agreed upon earlier and stop for a hotel and dinner. Today we arrived in Panama City entering the city on the Bridge of the Americas, over the Panama Canal. Quite impressive. Last night we stayed at Hotel la Hacienda in Santiago, Panama. It was kind of like a Days Inn with a Mexican theme.
We came into Panama City on a toll road and needed to exit just before the toll booth. The toll attendant was kind enough to tell us just to roll back out of the toll booth and move over to the proper lane. After we forced a few cars out of the way, we found our way to the exit and down to the next toll booth. Since I was in front I pulled up to the booth and told them I would be paying for the five motorcycles. She responded in Spanish, saying something about police and motorcycle, and I thought she thought we were police. Just then, I glanced over my shoulder and there was a Panamanian motorcycle cop right in the middle of our “pack”. I quickly paid the toll for the group and pulled through the gate and over to the shoulder to wait for the others. The officer followed me to the shoulder, and I figured we were in for some kind of trouble for our little detour but he instantly started asking questions about where we were from and where we were headed and my opinions of Panama. Just as he started to pull away, I asked him how far it would be to next turn, he responded by asking where in town we were going. I told him the name of the hotel and out of the blue we ended up getting a police escort to a hotel we had found earlier. Unfortunately, the hotel had no vacancies, so we decided to head for the BMW dealer to see about a tire for my bike. They didn’t have my size but told me of a motorcycle accessory shop down the street that could fix me up. I went there with Tim while the others went to look for a hotel that was suggested by a customer at the BMW store. The moto shop had a tire, but didn’t offer mounting or balancing. I asked if I could change it at the rear of the store and they agreed. As we worked on the tire, Tim kind of took control, and after 20 minutes or so it was ready to go. We cleaned up and headed for the hotel in rush hour traffic. We are staying at the Hotel Montreal Panama near downtown Panama City. Tomorrow we will talk to a freight company about options on shipping to Colombia.

Coasting in Costa Rica

The detour from the PanAmerican Highway Countryside
Tourists blocking traffic
The Brits coming through the palm plantation
Arrival at Brunka Lodge

After a weekend off the bikes we traveled to the BMW dealer in San Jose to pick up some spare parts and get Sean's tire fixed. Lou discussed his battery troubles with the service manager and decided to return first thing Tuesday morning and start with a fresh battery. The dealer was kind enough to find us a cheap hotel for the night near the dealership, so we ended the day after a whopping 6.5 miles.

Tuesday we left the dealership with one of the managers leading us to the city limits. We headed off after he kindly paid our toll and went back to the store. Those guys surely went above and beyond! As we started to climb into the mountains on the Pan American Highway we were told that a section of the road no longer existed and it would be 3 or 4 days until it would reopen. Just then, another officer drove up and told the other he would take us to a detour we could take and continue on. What a ride! The 45 minute detour had exhilarating vistas, white knuckle turns, rock strewn incline and impatient Costa Rican drivers thrown in for good measure. After we got back to the PanAm we made our way to the top of the "Mountain of Death" (Costa Rica's name, not ours) to 48 degree(f) temps and rain. As we approached the Pacific, the temperatures went up to the 90's and the clouds parted. We took a little side road looking for a hotel, wound up driving through a palm plantation and banana farm and ended up in the Brunka Lodge in Palmar Norte for the night. Tomorrow we head for Panama.

Proper Tools

UOn Saturday we waited for the rain to lighten up in Liberia before we started loading up the bikes for the trip to San Jose. Earlier, we had gone to an ATM for gas money and spoke with a security guard about the rain. He told us there was a tropical depression in the Pacific and the area was forecast for another three days of rain. Just as we pulled into the gas station another strong downpour started, but we took our time getting fuel and it lightened up as we left. There were showers off and on all the way towards San Jose, and just when we getting close to town, the main highway was closed, forcing a detour towards Puntarenas and near the Pacific Ocean. When we started into San Jose it looked like we would make it to the hotel dry, but mother nature had another idea. The last 3 or 4 miles were in a really strong rain, and just after we exited, Sean started pointing toward his front tire. I thought he meant he was having brake issues, but soon noticed he had a flat. All five of us pulled over on what little there was of a shoulder and started to work like an Indy pit crew in the rain. As we worked people would roll by, staring, taking pictures and one even asking if we were with the Discovery channel. When we were done, we headed to the Best Western and pulled under the canopy to check in. We got quite a few interesting looks, but I guess paying customers can look however they want. We decided to splurge and spend 2 nights here, doing laundry, drying out and visiting the BMW dealer on Monday. It is somewhat of a slice of the US here, with all the English speaking tourists around and even a Denny’s next door. Not quite the “adventure” I had in mind.
Reminds me a little of Mikey's
Our battery finding friends in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras
In Costa Rica?
Waiting it out at the gas station
Up close on the Pacific Ocean

San Jose, Costa Rica

There is a warning on the bottle of our daily malaria medication about taking it and exposure to direct sunlight. Well we haven't had any problems with that for a while. We got a little direct sunlight this morning, but it's raining again and we are safe from any possible side effects.

Do you know the way to San Jose? We thought we did when we took off from Liberia yesterday, but all the rain had washed out the Pan American Highway. The alternate route took us down to the Pacific where we saw some big waves. The road was narrow, punctuated with one lane bridges and hairpin curves. The traffic was impressive. The scenery must have been beautiful, but we were riding in the clouds most of the way over the mountains, so we missed it.

We're in San Jose, Costa Rica, and staying in a nice hotel with a swimming pool and hot tub. It's like being at a conference in Minneapolis. We arrived in the city during a rainstorm. Sean had a flat on the front tire while we were exiting the freeway. We all stopped in a bunch at the end of the busy entrance ramp to another limited access road. Landon went into response mode, and within 10 minutes the puncture had a temporary fix, the tire was inflated, and we were off like a pack of dogs. It was a triumph.

There are five of us now including two guys from the UK. Tomorrow we'll go to the BMW dealer here to pick up a few parts and get a little advice. Then we're off toward the border with Panama.

We're kinda anxious to get to South America, so there hasn't been a lot of smelling of roses along the way. I look forward to shifting gears once we are there. I don't have much else to add to Landon's entry. Sean's blog (listed at the top of ours) will also give details of the trip. I'm sorry that we can't post pictures from this internet station. We'll do that in the next couple of days.