04/15 Had a bit of a frustrating day. A flat tire started things off. While I was fixing that I snapped one of the chains I use to secure my front panniers to the rack. The patch may not have held or I missed one because it went flat again a mile later. At least it was only 106 F out. It was then that I discovered that a) I don’t have any spare tubes left; only ones that have patches on them and b) the extra thing of Bag Balm I brought back from Florida leaked out of the unopened tin and made a nice mess of my trunk bag. The change in air pressure must have caused it.
The guy who owns the place I stayed last night was one of the nicest people I’ve met in a while. He ended up bringing over a pot so I could cook my rice and then came by later with a blanket. It was kind of interesting that he thought I needed them but I suppose the concept of someone having these things while traveling via bicycle probably seems strange to most people down here. I think his son stayed in the house because I had the place to myself (well mostly– see below).
Sleeping in a warehouse on the water brought some night time visitors of the 4 legged variety. Rats. They were cute little brown ones and they just scuried about along the tops of the walls and in the rafters. I’m glad none of them tried to crawl into my sleeping bag with me.
The road from San Jose to Tamborapa wasn’t the easiest to ride. Lot’s and lot’s of very steep hills. None were that big but they sure wore me out. The mountains on both sides gave way to rolling hills and rice fields. The dirt road ended at Tamborapa and it was all paved to Jaen.
Staying at the Hotel Internacional for 2 nights (maybe 3). It’s a fancy place– there’s even a fridge in the room (which I quickly filled with beer). Jaen has a bit of a bad reputation I hear but it didn’t seem too bad riding in. I’m not in the center but I’ll go check that out tomorrow. It’s pretty rough looking so far but I saw some pictures of the central area and it looked nice enough. It was a 5 miles detour out of my way to get here but the road I passed to get where I want to go looks like dirt and I was too tired to finish off the day on that. My foot is back to 100%. Must have just pulled something.
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