First off though, we stopped for another night in Panama at a nice little hill-town called Boquete (You could easily have mistaken it for somewhere in Canada or USA). The temperature up in the hills was far more moderate than the swealtering coast and the little hostel we were in had really nice beds too... That meant we both slept in late and after a lazy start to the day we decided that it was too late to head on, so we decided to stay another night.
To fill the afternoon, I decided to ride back to a big town (50Km) and replace the front wheel bearings on my bike as well as swap out the old front tire. The rear bearings had just been replaced, so the front ones were probably not far off needing it, and the front tire was well and truly bald...
So, the day was put to good use and then I got another good nights sleep :)
Next day we were off again and since Id done the main highway route through this area at least three times, I wanted to do something else this time (as did Greg).
So, we took the northern route to Costa Rica.... The roads stop at a river crossing at the boarder but there is an old (100 years old) railway bridge that has been decommissioned for trains. Its had boards put down over the rail ties and is now a road transport bridge of sorts.
Everything from semi-trailers to pedestrians and baby strollers shares the bridge. Id heard from a couple of other motorbikers that I met in Colombia that it was quite a "sketchy" bridge crossing, but now that Ive done it, I have to say it was very "tame" indeed... But thats really just a measure of changes in me rather than the people I spoke to... I remember when I had just left the "comfort" of riding beautiful highways in USA/Canada and this bridge would have been somewhat exciting for me too. But now, after quite a while on the road in all sorts of places, this bridge seemed very easy and straight-forward.
Anyway, after the bridge we had the fun of getting through immigration and customs...
It wasnt the worst one Ive done but it did take quite a while and there were three or four trips back and forth between official offices and insurance sales and photo-copy places etc. But, after about two and a half hours it was all done and we were on our way again in Costa Rica.
This area is all about growing Bananas (Thats what that old railway bridge was specifically built for) and we drove through quite pleasant farm and plantation country in the late afternoon... I guess this is the region of the world that is the origin of the phrase "Banana Republic" (Honduras and Guatemala particularly)... But it seems stable and pleasant now... Though there is still very clearly a wealthy "plantation owning" class and a far more numerous, barely "scratching a living" "peasant" class... The inequities of social injustice etc !... :)
Anyway, we made only a single overnight stop here at the port of Puerto Limon which is apparently where Columbus landed in the closing years of the fifteenth century (wow,over 500 years ago!). Cant say I thought the town was at all special or attractive though.
Next day we rode on, but decided to head back toward the Pacific coast of Nicaragua to stay at the pleasant little tourist/surf town of San Juan Del Sur.
We made good time (again on a road Id not ridden before), and again in the late afternoon we were confronted with the challenges of a boarder crossing... And this one I was familiar with...Its the slowest one in all my travels so far... There are always big lineups and there is quite a bit of bureaucracy to deal with as well. But, it was a Sunday and thankfully the line ups were less than I was expecting. But the whole process still took us about three hours to get done, and at one stage there I did get quite frustrated!...
We needed to get a particular policeman to sign something; but he was nowhere to be found and no-one was being any help at all. After searching and asking and searching again for about 40 minutes, I took to shouting loudly in public and calling "Police"!
It was probably not a very wise or polite thing to do, but it worked and after some smiling and polite excuses (by me) our papers were signed and we could move forward with the processing of the paper-work for the bikes.
Eventually we got through and then rode for about half an hour along the highway before we turned off to the coast. We got to the little tourist town, found a hostel, and got settled in just as the daily down-pour settled in on the town as well... Its rainy season and it basically rains every day starting sometime between 2pm and 4pm.
So, Greg and I have been sharing company for about a month now, and I have enjoyed his company a lot ... The riding, sailing, and waiting phases :).
But Im clearly getting a little impatient and "upity" as the afore mentioned shouting indicates... No fault of Gregs at all, but Im definitly in need of some solitude again.
So tomorrow we will go our separate ways. Im gonna head back to the Caribbean coast to try to get to the Corn Islands and do a bit of scuba diving, and I think Greg is heading North fairly directly (there is a pretty girl waiting in New Brunswick). So, our ways will part.
Im really glad I met him and I hope our paths cross again, but for this episode, Our time is Up...
Best of luck Greg :))
