Wizards, Wheels and Waterfights

early/mid Feb – Moving ahead from Dan I pushed on to San Jose to get some much needed items for the bike. It’s a different experience riding at highway speeds with an open-faced helmet.. the wind blasts past your ears, every few minutes a slow-flying bug whacks your face with a sharp prick of pain, the exhaust and smoke catches onto face stubble and turns my face black. On this day a bee became lodged in between my lips, and not pleased with its situation, gave me a sting. But don’t feel sorry for me and my newly plumped lips, feel sorry for the bee that was having a relaxing day, buzzing from flower to flower, probably just thinking about how good the pollen from his last snack was when all of a sudden SHPWACK, it is consumed by two giant red and wet cushions that are carrying him along at 110kmh. If you’ve got only one stinger on your butt, now is the time to use it.

In San Jose, the rules of city driving do not exist. Even if the lane lines were given a fresh coat of paint, they wouldn’t be obeyed anyway. As the guidebook says:”Given the narrow roads, deep gutters and homicidal bus drivers, riding a motorcycle in San Jose is recommended for those not in complete need of all their appendages.” It was actually the funnest city riding of the trip, more like being in a ring of dodgem cars at the fair. I scoured the area, finding bits and pieces and even a hard case for the back of my bike that I really needed. When it came to getting cash out for my tire and helmet, the most costly and important items, I realized I had left my ATM card on the other side of the country in an ATM. Luckily Dan was still here, but when he checked the bank they didn’t have it. He arrived in San Jose a day later and offered to lend me his card until I get a new one. As he gets it out to show me, he discovers that his too was left in the exact same ATM a day later than mine. Perfect.

Needed to get to Panama for Carnivale and still had a couple things to see before that we moved on with a plastic hat and a rapidly disintegrating tyre. The strap broke on the helmet which meant it blew off and bounced down the highway. It was no suprise to see it completely crack in half. Nothing 5 minutes and a roll of duct tape couldn’t fix! We crossed to the east coast of Costa Rica and saw the Atlantic ocean for the first time on the trip. Justin a KTM buddy from Mexico caught up and we chilled and surfed in Puerto Viejo and then Bocas Del Toro in Panama which we needed to take a boat to get to. The islands of Bocas Del Toro are surrounded by clear, warm shallow water and golden sand. We took a day trip snorkelling at a shipwreck and a couple coral reefs.

Feb 12-16 With one day left to Carnivale we road across panama on fast, clean sweeping roads to the centre of Carnivale, Las Tablas. A friend was renting a house with a group of 25 panamanians for the 5 days and offered a place to stay. The basics of carnivale are simple, waterfights during the day, and dancing behind floats and in huge outdoor clubs all night. The town was always packed shoulder to shoulder. Apart from the usual fun, highlights included a day trip to Playa Venao, one of the best surf beaches we had been to so far, catching a guy trying to pickpocket me, and playing Wizards on the last night. The aim of wizards is to dress wizardly and build a staff by taping together each beer you drink. When the staff reaches your head height you have obtained Wizardship. This gained quite a bit of attention from the locals, like any group of foreign people dressed in bright capes, funny hats and beer staffs would.

Coming back to reality at the end of the Carnivale, I no longer had tread on my rear tire, I was down to a film of rubber protecting the tube and 285km to go before Panama City and the next probable shop with my size tyre. Not wanting to be faced with an expensive truck ride in, Justin commendably helped out as we scoured the towns we passed through for a tyre. At 12:30 and still 4 hours riding to Pan City we saw through the window of a bike shop a tyre my size hanging on the wall! We got an ice cream and waited for the shop to open from lunch. By 2:30 I had fresh rubber on the wheel and we beelined to the capital.

Except for a day trip to the Darien, this is basically the end of the road for Central America and from here we are searching for a boat to Columbia where the bikes face precarious boat loadings, relentless saltwater and broken blinkers OR we search for a plane to take our bikes safely with no risk of rust and a quick $150 flight straight to Colombia. As long as we can get this sorted, my next update will be from Columbia, and I will be in what could be considered the second half of this journey. As far as the time line goes, I originally thought I would be finishing the entire trip right about now, but you know what they say: time flies when you’re having fun!

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