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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03/18 Salina Cruz is so not a beach resort town. After out flanking a massive political rally I headed into town to see the ocean and find a motel on the beach where I could relax in a hammock and down a cerveza or two. The closer I got to the ocean the more decrepit the condition of the buildings became. I quickly realized staying on the beach wasn’t going to happen.

A huge wall runs almost the entire length of the town so I had to ride up a small hill just to see the ocean. The water looked clean enough but damn was the beach ever a mess. It was completely deserted which didn’t surprise me. There was garbage and an amazing amount of broken glass in the sand for as far as people could throw it. The city is known more for its the huge oil refinery so maybe people avoid the water because its not as clean as it looks? The only public buildings open that overlook the garbage beach were 2 rundown restaurants, both of which were empty. What a shame letting a resource like the ocean go to waste. If they cleaned the beach up someone could make a killing by opening a nice bar/motel.

The wind wasn’t bad at all and its supposed to weaken a little tomorrow. It picked up a lot once I got here. There’s no way I’d be riding in it now. I know of 3 riders now that had to hitchhike in the last couple days to avoid the wind because its been so strong.

I was eating in a cafe when I saw K/M ride by so I ran out to get them (and probably scared my waitress). They are staying here at the hotel now too.

The political rally I mentioned was in full swing when I rode up to the tail end of it. There must have been 5000 people walking up the street while a guy with a microphone led them up the road while he yelled out whatever it was had them marching in the first place. The amazing thing to me was the complete lack of police. I didn’t see any; not even in front blocking cross traffic. That was pretty cool. The mood of the crowd was very calm which was good because if it was an anti-American gathering I was severely outnumbered.

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