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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09/26 You had go a little out of the way to find a place to spend the night. You weren’t even sure when you left this morning where you’d be sleeping and you’d read that there were no hotels in Chiriqui Grande. That information was a few years old and sure enough there were three of them. Two of them were owned by the same people but they ran both from the same office. Of course you had no way of knowing that, so when they said they wouldn’t have a room available for an hour at the hotel with an office you went to the other hotel. The office at that place was empty and there were no signs saying you should go to the other office. You smiled.

With an hour to kill you went to a bar and drank. Then you went back. Now they had no room available. The only option was a scary hotel by the docks. You smiled again. On your way there, and again when you went to an internet cafe, drunk guys who always seemed to know a smattering of English, came up to you and wanted to shake your hand. You didn’t like touching sweaty drunk people so you offered a terrorist fist bump.

The hotel back at Old Bank had a boat so they drove you over to the main island where you caught a water taxi back to the mainland. While the small, fast-moving boat jumped over the waves you clutched your GPS in case you quickly had to mark the coordinates for a future dive mission to retrieve your bicycle.

Then you rode all day along virtually undeveloped countryside. Jungle lined the quiet highway on both sides and you thought back to Costa Rica and laughed at how the tourist brochures made the country seem like Panama with friendly people, great food, lots of wildlife and jungle everywhere.

Tomorrow you go over the mountain range that splits Panama down the middle. You should be able to make it in one day. If it takes two days you don’t care.

This post dedicated to the craziest writer on CGOAB.

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09/08 Since most of the hard riding was yesterday it was a quick 30 miles into Granada. The place I’m staying is called the Hotel Terrasol. I’ll hang out here tonight and again tomorrow. They have laundry service here which is just awesome because washing in the sink only does so much.

Karin and Marten emailed me and let me know that flights no longer fly from Panama City into Cartagena, Columbia. That kind of sucks. Now I’ll probably have to go right to Medellin. Maybe I’ll take a boat instead of a plane. Not sure what to do now.

I rode right to the central plaza to orient myself but before I could set off again a guy named Fred came up and we starting talking. He used to live in Calgary. While we were talking a kid wanted to guide me over to the hotel. At first I said no since I knew where it was but he said he gets a commission (and a tip from the person he’s guiding) to bring people to the hotels. Not sure why he’d get a commission from the hotel since I was going there anyway but he was nice enough so I followed him over. I’ll go check out the city tomorrow since my clothes are being cleaned and I can’t be walking around in a towel.

I initiated Operation: Spread the Love this morning. Since head nods usually go unacknowledged I started waving at people instead and if I was riding by a ped I said good morning. This seemed to do the trick. Everyone I waved to waved back. I’ll try this out for a while and see how it works. People are going to be nice to me damnit.

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01/03 I can’t believe my first day of class is tomorrow. I hope I manage to stay out of trouble unlike every other time I’ve been in school. Sleep better come quick tonight because I was up until 5am writing back to some guy on reddit.com who annoyed me. People are so narrow-minded sometimes.

Tlaquepaque is a city right next to Guadalajara so it was a short ride today. The first thing I checked for when I woke up was the sun. It was out. So long rain. Guadalajara has lots of sights to see being the 2nd biggest city in Mexico (3 million people). Riding around wasn’t bad at all but I think it being Sunday had a lot to do with it. There were a lot of people walking around the central cathedral district. Can’t say I blame them because it turned out to be a beautiful day and there was so much to see and do.

Turns out I make a good tourist attraction too. 2 police officers on bicycles rode up to where I was taking a picture and started asking all kinds of questions about my gear. They were just curious though–it wasn’t a shakedown or anything. The racks drew the most questions. They didn’t have any and I bet they thought have bags mounted right on the bike was pretty sweet. While they were still standing there more and more people kept coming over to ask questions. Next thing you know there are 20 people standing around me in the plaza. It was pretty cool. The family in the picture below gave me their number and invited me to stay at their place in Mexico City if I get down that way.

Next stop was to track down my Mexican hosts for the next three weeks. It was only a 3 mile ride from Guadalajara so I took my time riding over. Off one of the side streets I saw a bicycle shop so I headed over. Ever since the rain day yesterday one of the gear shift cables has felt really tight. The dad runs the place with his wife/kids so he had them get my bike on a stand and bring him some tools. He spent the next 45 minutes cleaning the cables, the chain and the derailleurs like they’ve never been cleaned before. Then when I went to pay him he wouldn’t take any money! Wow. I’ll stop back over when I find something cool I can bring them.

Next stop was the plaza and market streets in Tlaquepaque. Took lots more pictures and then left. I’ll be spending a lot of time there because it’s only 2 blocks from where I’m staying. Met a gorgeous girl outside one of the stores. I think I’m keeping her.

I’m liking the Olympus camera. It tends to wash out parts of the picture if the lighting is bad but the Pentax did that too. The shutter lag and start up time, things some other people complained about, didn’t bother me at all. I kept the box just in case but its looking good so far. This morning I taxied over to Best Buy and exchanged the SD card. Left my hotel room key in the hotel room and couldn’t remember the name of it so I walked back. Glad it was only a mile (and a $2 cab ride).

The house I’m staying in is very luxurious. It’s not just one house; it’s kind of like a mini compound because there are 2 separate houses sharing the same fenced-in property. The private 3 car underground garage and only entrance, is protected by a wrought iron gate so my bike should be safe and sound outside. I stuck the rain cover on it and it’s out of sight from the street. The mom, Grace and her 2 sons and daughter live here. The daughter lives in the 2nd house. Both places are used to house people going to the Spanish school. The room is the one complaint I have. The bed is short and isn’t up against a wall at the head or foot so parts of me are going to be hanging off the end. The worst part is that it sits on the 2nd floor right over a fairly busy street and the window lets a lot of noise through. There’s either bar or a party a couple doors down too. I can almost see having to move to another place if sleep becomes an issue.

GPX Track

There are now 5 touring riders staying in the hotel here. Byron didn’t leave this morning and might end up staying through Christmas. Tom and Haley, who I met a couple weeks ago in Santa Rosalia in Baja, are here now. James is also here. I ran into him at the town square but he’d already met Bryon who told him about this place.

While wandering around this morning I passed by a dentist office. Figuring it was a good time for a cleaning I walked in prepared to be told it would take a couple weeks and cost way more than I’d want to pay (no insurance). My appointment is tomorrow afternoon and it’ll cost just under US $40. Holy crap. I’m going to learn the phrase “no extractions!” just so there are no misunderstandings.

Went over and exchanged my bike seat for one that fits the brackets I have. I tried it on but I’m not sure I’m going to like it. I’ll keep the Brooks just in case.

Now if I could just track down a supermarket I’d be all set.

Just read this interesting bit about Mazatlan while trying to find the name of the church I saw this morning:

The city of Mazatlan then got the dubious distinction of being the 2nd city in the world after Tripoli, Libya of being one of the first to suffer aerial bombardment. During the revolution of 1910-17 General Venustiano Carranza (later president) intent on taking the city of Mazatlan, ordered a bi-plane to drop a crude bomb of nails and dynamite wrapped in leather to the target of Neveria Hill adjacent to the down town area of Mazatlan. Well the bomb was crude and the art of bombing was cruder. The bomb landed not on target but on the city streets of Mazatlan and in the process killed two citizens and wounded several others.