Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica to Chirqui Grande, Panama 120 miles
It’s amazing what a beautiful ride through some of the most amazing lush scenery and great roads can do for oneself.
We woke up and Mike didn’t feel he could ride, every hour during the night was the countdown for the feat of leaving the town and hotel room we so desperately wanted to have behind us. We were both extremely disappointed but I talked Mike into taking another 2 hour nap until 10AM in which we could decide then, before our checkout, if we could get back on the bike or not. I still am not feeling the best myself, but far better than Mike at this point. At 10AM we reevaluated the situation, and even though Mike seemed almost glued to the toilet and with bad head pains, when he looked around the room, there was nothing more that we wanted than to leave. We decide to pack up and ride, even if it were for only a mile to another hotel if that’s the only strength we had. We took our time packing up as we knew the near Panama border crossing was closed between 11 and 1pm.
I remembered what it was like to feel alive when we got back on Yoshita and hit the road. Fresh air, sunny skies, a life outside of the dismal room and the road in front of us, taking us to new destinations; wherever they may be. Down a rugged dirt road and then onto decent pavement on and off was the ride up to the border, we handled that well and were glad already that we decided to pack up.
The border crossing into Panama in the North has the infamous ‘2 bridges’ that you must cross and as we had heard are quite scary on a motorcycle. We didn’t know what to expect, but I did know at the very least I will be walking it. The first bridge came up just as we did our exit paperwork for Costa Rica (that was a breeze). It wasn’t too long, but pretty much was an extremely old, primitive railroad bride which they laid some planks of different shapes and sizes down on either side (2 wide…if you’re lucky) so that cars can slowly pass through. It’s much more difficult for the moto though, and if you make a wrong move or stumble, you could easily be risking loosing the bike over the edge and possibly yourself. Mike rode very slowly with his feet dangling down as I walked across. First one down; success! The offices for the Panama importation weren’t too busy, and had plenty of friendly workers, but somehow they work at the most incredibly slow speed you’d ever imagine humanly possible. Literally. To type up one paper took us over an hour in an office with Mike and 4 other people there to help him. I believe it’s the speed at which they type as well as taking their turns on each of their tasks one at a time rather than do multiple things at once… Either way, it still blows my mind that someone hasn’t come into one of these border crossing and blown everyone away with just average speed work! I waited outside by the bike, sitting amongst other truck drivers who were waiting for their paperwork and a bunch of shoe-shiner kids. As I sat there plenty of big ladies, pouring out of their tiny outfits would walk by as the truck drivers gawked. I still am in amazement when I see a woman wearing high heals walking through some of these roads. Poor kids, they sure don’t have an easy life and it makes kids from back home look so lazy when these little fellows are out just trying to a penny off hard work.
After much sweat and waiting, Mike walked out of the importation building smiling and I knew we were ready to hit the road into Panama; always a good feeling.
There were several roads just outside of the border crossing, with no signs, so it took us a few wrong turns before all of the friendly Panamanians were hootin’ and hollering at us and pointing in the direction out to the main road. At first we thought their whistles and shouts should be ignored, but soon realized that the people here, truly want to help. Quite a difference from most of our trip so far!
The first big town we hit probably was the most confusing to navigate through ever. It wasn’t even a big town, but had no signs, and the road never seem to keep one direction, so choosing to follow a particular direction never gives you the best results. Thank god for the friendliness of the people here, we had taxi drivers following us, waving us in the right direction, people running over towards us… At first we still couldn’t believe that they were trying to help as how could they know where we were going??? Yeah, well, I guess that’s pretty easy to figure out! After much honking, waving, pointing, whistling and dead end roads we found the road that leads us to CA-1!
The drive was absolutely beautiful. I would have to say some of the best scenery on this entire trip so far. The people have changed from whites and rastafari’s and back into more native Indians, all so very friendly. The road was in perfect condition and wrapped in and out of thick banana trees and beautiful meadows. On the left hand side you could occasionally see the water and the many islands which line it. All of the people living in the mountains seemed to be doing quite well and were all very self-sufficient with farms, gardens, and houses built on stilts. Speaking of stilts, when there are houses on stilts, you have to believe there is a lot of rain…and shortly into our ascend , the clouds were gathering and becoming thick grey; rain was ahead! I wasn’t able to capture any photos from the gorgeous and breath-taking scenery, or the friendly faces peering out of their windows as we passed by…or the little kids helping their family herd in the cattle…because of the sprinkling and coming rain.
It started pouring on us and I didn’t even know how Mike could even see as it was pounding down so hard and starting to get dark out, with the grey clouds only speeding up the process. Just in time we reached Chirqui Grande which is more than half way to CA-1 in the mountains. The rain didn’t stop and the lightening began to light up the sky. We drove in and at the first Motel sign found a little gem; a clean room with hot water shower and A/C. A savior! Yoshita is parked underneath the motel in the hardware store and we are safe in our rooms from the thunder, lightening and rain after a hot shower; a successful day! Tomorrow we need to make the long stretch into Panama City – about 7 hrs.
We woke up and Mike didn’t feel he could ride, every hour during the night was the countdown for the feat of leaving the town and hotel room we so desperately wanted to have behind us. We were both extremely disappointed but I talked Mike into taking another 2 hour nap until 10AM in which we could decide then, before our checkout, if we could get back on the bike or not. I still am not feeling the best myself, but far better than Mike at this point. At 10AM we reevaluated the situation, and even though Mike seemed almost glued to the toilet and with bad head pains, when he looked around the room, there was nothing more that we wanted than to leave. We decide to pack up and ride, even if it were for only a mile to another hotel if that’s the only strength we had. We took our time packing up as we knew the near Panama border crossing was closed between 11 and 1pm.
I remembered what it was like to feel alive when we got back on Yoshita and hit the road. Fresh air, sunny skies, a life outside of the dismal room and the road in front of us, taking us to new destinations; wherever they may be. Down a rugged dirt road and then onto decent pavement on and off was the ride up to the border, we handled that well and were glad already that we decided to pack up.
The border crossing into Panama in the North has the infamous ‘2 bridges’ that you must cross and as we had heard are quite scary on a motorcycle. We didn’t know what to expect, but I did know at the very least I will be walking it. The first bridge came up just as we did our exit paperwork for Costa Rica (that was a breeze). It wasn’t too long, but pretty much was an extremely old, primitive railroad bride which they laid some planks of different shapes and sizes down on either side (2 wide…if you’re lucky) so that cars can slowly pass through. It’s much more difficult for the moto though, and if you make a wrong move or stumble, you could easily be risking loosing the bike over the edge and possibly yourself. Mike rode very slowly with his feet dangling down as I walked across. First one down; success! The offices for the Panama importation weren’t too busy, and had plenty of friendly workers, but somehow they work at the most incredibly slow speed you’d ever imagine humanly possible. Literally. To type up one paper took us over an hour in an office with Mike and 4 other people there to help him. I believe it’s the speed at which they type as well as taking their turns on each of their tasks one at a time rather than do multiple things at once… Either way, it still blows my mind that someone hasn’t come into one of these border crossing and blown everyone away with just average speed work! I waited outside by the bike, sitting amongst other truck drivers who were waiting for their paperwork and a bunch of shoe-shiner kids. As I sat there plenty of big ladies, pouring out of their tiny outfits would walk by as the truck drivers gawked. I still am in amazement when I see a woman wearing high heals walking through some of these roads. Poor kids, they sure don’t have an easy life and it makes kids from back home look so lazy when these little fellows are out just trying to a penny off hard work.
After much sweat and waiting, Mike walked out of the importation building smiling and I knew we were ready to hit the road into Panama; always a good feeling.
There were several roads just outside of the border crossing, with no signs, so it took us a few wrong turns before all of the friendly Panamanians were hootin’ and hollering at us and pointing in the direction out to the main road. At first we thought their whistles and shouts should be ignored, but soon realized that the people here, truly want to help. Quite a difference from most of our trip so far!
The first big town we hit probably was the most confusing to navigate through ever. It wasn’t even a big town, but had no signs, and the road never seem to keep one direction, so choosing to follow a particular direction never gives you the best results. Thank god for the friendliness of the people here, we had taxi drivers following us, waving us in the right direction, people running over towards us… At first we still couldn’t believe that they were trying to help as how could they know where we were going??? Yeah, well, I guess that’s pretty easy to figure out! After much honking, waving, pointing, whistling and dead end roads we found the road that leads us to CA-1!
The drive was absolutely beautiful. I would have to say some of the best scenery on this entire trip so far. The people have changed from whites and rastafari’s and back into more native Indians, all so very friendly. The road was in perfect condition and wrapped in and out of thick banana trees and beautiful meadows. On the left hand side you could occasionally see the water and the many islands which line it. All of the people living in the mountains seemed to be doing quite well and were all very self-sufficient with farms, gardens, and houses built on stilts. Speaking of stilts, when there are houses on stilts, you have to believe there is a lot of rain…and shortly into our ascend , the clouds were gathering and becoming thick grey; rain was ahead! I wasn’t able to capture any photos from the gorgeous and breath-taking scenery, or the friendly faces peering out of their windows as we passed by…or the little kids helping their family herd in the cattle…because of the sprinkling and coming rain.
It started pouring on us and I didn’t even know how Mike could even see as it was pounding down so hard and starting to get dark out, with the grey clouds only speeding up the process. Just in time we reached Chirqui Grande which is more than half way to CA-1 in the mountains. The rain didn’t stop and the lightening began to light up the sky. We drove in and at the first Motel sign found a little gem; a clean room with hot water shower and A/C. A savior! Yoshita is parked underneath the motel in the hardware store and we are safe in our rooms from the thunder, lightening and rain after a hot shower; a successful day! Tomorrow we need to make the long stretch into Panama City – about 7 hrs.
The nice side of Puerto Viejo
Getting advice on how to cross the bridge of terror
Not so bad...
Second one is worse
posted by Pedro and Maria at 3:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home