09/27 2 records broken today. The mountains running down the middle of the country provided a healthy dose of never ending hills once I made the initial climb. 6124 feet is my new number to beat for elevation gained in one day. My Dad won’t like this but I broke my top speed record at 44.4 mph. Panama is only about 40 miles across in this area. I was within 12 miles of riding from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean in one day.

The climb up into the mountains wasn’t bad but the hills after that were relentless. Fortunately traffic was light and there were a couple places to grab some water. I didn’t even stop for lunch so I’m looking forward to dinner tonight. A sign indicating the continental divide (3,600 feet) was at the top of the first big hill and the views back to the Caribbean Sea were amazing.

At about the halfway mark I arrived at Lake Fortuna. Not sure how much of it was natural since a massive dam held the water back but it was pretty nice looking. There were a few touristy shops selling all kinds of food/drink so I bought some candy. The surprise of the day was at a checkpoint. The guard actually asked to see my passport. It ended up being kind of a pain because my stupid Pacsafe money belt broke (both zippers) so now it’s kind of buried in my front pannier.

The weather cooperated all day except when I started the big descent. Rain came down in buckets right up until I found a cheap, little motel to stay at ($10). My detour into Chiriqui Grande for a hotel could have ben avoided. Not too far after the turn toward the mountains was a little motel. Oh well.

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08/27 Decided not to stay in Gracias even though I’m going to miss that shower at Hotel Guancascos. I met the owner when I was leaving (the motel; not the shower). I forget her name but she was from the Netherlands and was really nice. Lonely Planet kind of ripped the service at the restaurant and the management a little but I didn’t see anything wrong with either.

After an uneventful ride yesterday I spent the night in the village of San Juan. The motel was recommended by Karen and Martin who are a few days ahead of me riding the same route I’ll be taking. Each night Karen emails a summary of the days ride so I know what to expect. I never would have found the place in San Juan without the email. It’s called La Posada de Rosario. There’s no sign and nothing in front to indicate it’s a motel. It’s about 300m south of the Texaco to the left of a white building with the word “agroveterinatio” or something like that.

This rain is driving me nuts. Every day at 1pm it starts and usually doesn’t stop completely until well after I’m in bed for the night. It’s nice in the morning though. Usually the sun is out and it’s nice and hot. I grossed out some guy when I wrung out my sweat-soaked shirt at a rest stop. That was at the top of a hill that I’d been riding up for about half an hour.

I’m going to start a rating system for stares. Level 3 is when someone stares at me so hard I have to look down to make sure I remembered to wear my bike shorts. I’ve been getting quite a bit of that and it’s making me paranoid.

Staying at newer place in La Esperanza called the Hotel Margarita (or close to it). It’s not too bad but there’s no mirror in the bathroom. Kind of weird. At 5600 feet, this is the highest town in Honduras. The climb to get here was kind of brutal just because it was basically riding up a mountain for 20 miles. There were no steep sections which was nice because the last 10 miles was on dirt. Lots of muddy spots. In one place I was riding really slow down a hill to avoid a mud-filled pothole when my bike started sliding sideways. That was kind of exciting.

Walked around town for a while checking out the sites. Up on the side of a hill is an old cave called La Gruta which has been turned into a chapel. There is a noticeable lack of stray dogs here which has me wondering if some sort of “program” is in place.

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