We flew back yesterday from Bocas where we had a wonderfull time. On wednesday we met four young people on a boat trip to Red frog beach and we spent 2 days together swimming and kayaking. 2 australian girls and 2 dutch (wonder)boys. The boys had a real wonderfull story to tell, they are well known in Holland for their unmatched act in Monaco, Dubai and Hongkong were they pretended to be on tour with a famous singer. They showed us the footage on their computer. Beside that, they were very nice guys and the girls were lovely. The second day we rented 3 kayaks and went picknicking on a postcard beach. They left bocas yesterday morning and we took the kayak a last time to do another beach. We flew out of the islands in the evening. We go now for some shopping and take the plane in the afternoon to Miami. We have one day there and will be back in the snow on monday midday. So this is my last posting before I restart the journey in Colombia next year. Thanks for reading.
After 6 days of Panama City : Paradise. We flew in yesterday and even with the afternoon rain it´s fantastic. I will chance our tickets this morning to stay until the end of the week.
After nearly 3 years, 55.000 km and 7 months of traveling the american continent, the bike is packed and ready for shipment to Belgium next wednesday. I will only continu the journey in January 2011, and leaving the bike for one year in Panama was no option. Since the bike had to be shipped anyway out of Panama, I preferred to ship it back to Europe where I will do a complete overhaul. At the end of next year I will ship it back to Cartagena, or I could decide to ship the 1200 instead. After a horrible day yesterday where I had to wait 4 hours for a signature by the police of a stupid document that confirmed my name and chassis number of the bike, I got this morning in 5 minutes the stamp that permits me to leave the country without the bike. In 2 hours I crated with the help of some guys of the transport company the bike. I paid the 1300 dollars and left the bike in the parking lot of the transporter. They are supposed to take it this afternoon to the port of Colon. Weird feeling. I feel a little bit lost now that we have to behave like any other tourist, taking a tour on the Panama Canal, taking a plane to the Bocas del Toro Island, taking a taxi to Panama Viejo, etc. But we will survive.
8500 km - We decided to come one day earlier to Panama city because somebody told us that the Quetzal trail in Boquette had been destroyed by the rains in November. And today was a national holiday - dia das madres. The road to Santiago across Chiriquiti is very beautifull, nice biking. After Santiago the scenery becomes more flat and the road turns into a autopista. Coming out of the city I accelerated to a nice speed without paying to much attention to a policecar parked along the highway. Of course the man jumped out of his vehicle and made me stop. 112 km/h in a 50km/h zone. I had not seen any 50 km sign. He finally let us go because of the passports. I must say that this time I stopped, because 3 days ago in Costa Rica I overtook a truck, fullspeed and over the double lign. I saw the policeman jumping along the route, but I just waved when I passed. I had not seen that he also had a motorbike and I kept going at a good speed without paying to much attention on what happened behind me, untill I saw the police bike, full lights and horns. He was not happy, aksing me why I did not stop. When I told him I came from Mexico and in all these countries you are advised not to stop for any reason, even not for a man with a white shirt and a speedgun in his hand, he was happy with the answer. He noted my name and said he was going to advise the embassy and just turned his bike and rode away. On the road we met Ian, who left Vancouver 6 months ago on his bike. He was so happy we stopped to have a chat. He just had finished a climb of several kilometers and we thought he would be exhausted. Climb, which climb? he said. We chatted for half an hour. He had had no problems what so ever, even no security problem. We talked about the security, because the day before we met our first victim of an armed robbery, an australian woman who lost her computer and bag in Puerto Viego, costa Rica at 7h30 at night when coming out of an internet cafe. At 5h in the afternoon we passed the Puente de las Americas over the canal. Quite an experience. Then the 4 lane road takes you through the slums of Panama city, weird. We are now in the business zone and I will meet tomorrow Sr Luis Carlos, whom my friend Tom found for me, and who works for the shipping company Spli. So hopefully we can decide tomorrow what we will do with the bike.
We changed our plans because of the heavy rains on the Osa Corcovado peninsula and crossed yesterday the border with Panama. Boquete is the place from where you can go for rafting on the river bordering Costa Rica, climb the Barú volcan or do the Quetzal trail. We still did not decide what to do, but we had an excellent panama coffee, took the laundry to the automaticó and are now hanging around in the (small) town. Thursday we will be in Panama City to find out what we will do with the bike.
Somewhere on the road to Puerto Jimenez - Costa Rica
We arrived yesterday afternoon, absolutely wet up to the bones, in a place called Cabinas Mirador de Ossa. They had one cabina available and we had no alternative but to stop. While we were sitting under the roof of the terrace the lightning hit the pavement at 10 meters from the building. The rain only stopped 5 hours later. The room was very well equiped, but the whole settup and the "personages" were hallicunant : the owner, a Tico nice looking wowan in her forties, surrounded by 4 muchachos and a daughter in their twenties, an american doctor in his sixties living in one of the bigger canbinas, a bar filled with 3 whores and some 10 drunken ticos from which one stared at Annemie since we arrived and whom she did dare to look at, afraid that he would not be able to retain himself. And to complete it all, a tico family of about ten with 3 little children. You put it all together in a large open building, feed it beer and fish, put on a very loud karaoke set and have the son of the house screaming Mexican songs over the jungle. Meanwhile the american run around with a towel to clean continuosly the bar and serve the beers. He briefly explained us that he lived there for nearly 3 years and that he paid for the bar, build between his cabin and the main building. The most plausible explanation was that he had something with the lady of the house, but there was absolutely no visible sign of that scenario. It is now 9 in the morning, they gave me their laptop and we are sitting in front of a magnificient view of the bay. We have been waiting for 1 hour for the breakfast and hope to have something in some 30 minutes. Meanwhile I have taken the bike out of the souvenirshop where it stayed for the night. I forgot to take the pentax out of the wet bag and it´s now drying in the sun. Today we will try to ride to Puerto Jimenez, but it seems the road is not paved, and with the certainty of rain in the afternoon, I´m not sure we will make it. In 2 days we will enter Panama.
7000 km - We left the coast and will go tomorrow on what is believed the best hike of the country : the 1910m volcan Rincón. Full day. Next day we ride south along the Pacific coast. Still no answer from the company that could eventually arrange for the shipment of the bike. This morning I realized I had STRESS, I was worried because of the shipment of the bike and that I was spoiling the sense of this journey, namely riding the continent worryless and with no deathlines. So, with Annemie we changed the plans again completely : we will ride to Panama City as planned and leave the bike there, unless I find an easy shipment. Next February I will return and ride from Colombia to Chili and leave the bike for 6 months in Santiago. I suppose the Colombia-Chili ride should take me no more then 4 weeks. 2010 will be a travel year. Meanwhile we stay in a wonderfull hotel, but the internet is too slow to upload pictures. ( Klaas you can see the pictures on : picasaweb.google.com/michelbuyckx)
2 days of lazy beach. Very beautifull bay and not to many tourists. We stay at the surfcamp of Marjan, sister of my friend Diederik. I went on friday night on a drinking trip with Wim and his friend : 2h o´clock in the morning and a lot of very good live music. Today Marjan will contact her "despechante" to try to organize the shipment of the bike at the end of this trip. Tomorrow we leave for the south along the coast.
Probably our last night in Nicaragua. Also first rains of the journey. We spent some time on the beach and on Isla Ometepe. Tomorrow probably Tamarindo - Costa rica. Have uploaded some pictures.
Riding through Managua was again easy, thanks to the same strategy : while riding you just ask directions to the car next to you in the traffic. One driver guided me for the last kilometers to the gate of the hotel Barceló. Annemie arrived as planned, we had a swim in the pool of the hotel and rode to Granada. The bike is packed like a mule and we have a full bag in excess items. We thought shipping them back with DHL but since we will not ride that much (in pure riding time we are 4 or 5 days away from Panama City) we leave it like it is. I will probably leave the black topcase behind and redistribute the luggage. Granada is a very fine stop, relaxing, with a lot of backpackers and amazingly, german tourists. Yesterday we did the Masaya volcan, impressive and some mercado artisanal. At night we met a couple of young french surfers who had spent 2 weeks at a new surfer lodge. They said it was isolated but fantastic. So I have mailed the french owner and he will pick us up in Rivas this afternoon. Annemie and part of the luggage go in the car and I ride the bike (it seems to be 1h30 of nearly off road to get to the beach). We will probably stay 3 days and then come back and go to the islands of Ometepe.
After nearly 3 years, 55.000 km and 7 months of traveling the american continent, the bike is packed and ready for shipment to Belgium next wednesday. I will only continu the journey in January 2011, and leaving the bike for one year in Panama was no option. Since the bike had to be shipped anyway out of Panama, I preferred to ship it back to Europe where I will do a complete overhaul. At the end of next year I will ship it back to Cartagena, or I could decide to ship the 1200 instead. 
