Sorry for the long delay in writing. Family time and general procrastination... Here's a quick update and some pictures.
After leaving Ometepe, we headed for Mr. Ford’s house on the beautiful Pacific coast of Nicaragua. Marion and I had first been there ten years ago with 13 of our closest friends for spring break. We were super excited to stay in a familiar place for once and it was a huge luxury to have an entire house after the tiny hotel and hostel rooms we’ve been living out of.
The best part was that Marion’s parents and Lea and Matt all came to visit from Costa Rica. We brought in groceries on the motorbikes, with a huge cooler strapped to my rack and all four pannier bags full of loot. After another trip with the cooler to a local fishing / surfing village, Gigantes, we had 12 enormous fish and 12 large lobster tails to grill.
The family ventured out for several nice beach hikes while Marion and I tended to a list of motorcycle maintenance jobs. A huge bonus from the visit was that Lynn and Jon brought us 2 brand new rear tires as their checked luggage! Also in tow were products to clean our air filters, odd battery sizes that we needed, Deet, Yamaha parts (thanks Matt!) and new brake pads front and rear for the BMW.
We used our old toothbrushes to clean the chains, put a fresh dose of teflon on them and spooned on the new rear tires. The bikes were clean and looking like new.
The family left early Friday morning, with M and I following about an hour behind them towards the Nicaragua - Costa Rica border. Just as we reached the border it started to rain very hard (New Orleans style) so we got pretty wet and the sheep-skin seat pads on our bike got to absorbing all they could for our later enjoyment.
The rain actually helped a lot in expediting the infamous Nicaraguan Aduana (customs) process, as all of the several people you have to track down to sign off on your permit were all clustered under the same roof overhang and nobody had any interest in wading across the flooded parking lot to actually check our bikes or VIN numbers. We got through in record time and together with the Costa Rican border it only took about 2 hours. All of it in pouring rain.
Shortly into Costa Rica the rain stopped and it’s been beautiful ever since. We made great time on the US-style roads and spent the first night in Jaco - a beach town on the Pacific full to the brim with gringos. It looked to me like the panhandle of Florida and I didn’t understand why people would fly from all over the world with this place as their destination. To each their own... We stayed above a sleazy bar with a drug dealer / prostitution vibe and got out of there first thing in the morning, making it to Drake Bay 2 nights earlier than I had figured we would. So that meant we could hang out with Marion’s family another 3 days on the Costa Rica side, as they were staying just up the beach at a posh resort called Aguilla de Osa. They talked their hotel management into allowing us to join them for dinner each night and we had some great family meals at our own huge table.
Towards the end of our time in Costa Rica, I (Davis) got extremely sick and we had to delay our departure by a day while my body figured out how to work itself out. We made it from Drake’s Bay across the several river crossings and into Panama to David in one day. Then on to Penomone, Panama and the next day we arrived in glorious Panama City!
Panama City has been amazing and we really like the neighborhood we are staying in, Ancon Hill. We have had the distinct treat of hanging out with Stephanie Lukowski, our friend from Tulane University, who is down here studying / finding fossils near the Canal. Tomorrow we ship our bikes and ourselves to Bogota on two different planes. And for $32 extra dollars, we’re flying first class!
New Continent !!!!
Here are some pictures -
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| Casa Ford in on the Pacific in Nicaragua - Gratis! |
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| Marion getting used to it |
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| The guest house for Lea and Matt |
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| White Family on the patio |
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| White Family hike on the rocks |
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| Matt took this cool 360 degree panorama with his iPhone |
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| Changing tires is not my number one favorite thing to do... |
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| Everybody helping! Marion revs her engine to power the compressor after we punctured the first tube. |
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| Drake Bay, Costa Rica - View from the White Family's room at Aguila de Osa |
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| This Windstar sailboat / cruise ship was in the bay for a day. 440 ft. |
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| The White Family and Matt chilling out front of their room in Drake's Bay, CR |
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| Sisters! Marion and Lea on a hike in Costa Rica |
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| The White Family before dinner in Drake's Bay |
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| Expert Photog Matt. Davis is deathly ill in this picture. Kept asking, "am I the only one who's freezing here?" Yes. |
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| Panama City from the ferry to Isla Tobago, Panama |
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| On the beach in Tobago, Panama with Stephanie! |
I remember Cali, then the pan-american hway into Ecuador -
ReplyDeleteone-lane cobblestone around precipitous mts- and the first Ecuador town was full of raggedy kids asking for our meals in the restaurant.
So, what's it like in 2012??
Susan,
ReplyDeleteThe road has changed quite a bit from the last time that you were there I imagine. Definitely no more cobblestones and only one lane where there are landslides- either mud falling onto the road or the road falling off of the mountain. The roads are still very exciting, however, with tons of semi trucks and road crews working around blind corners. The area is so mountainous that most of our ride from Bogota to Cali and then Cali to the border was made up of switch back roads. We were very lucky to be on motos and cut to the front of the line...Everything would have been a lot longer and slower otherwise.
Love to you and Bill