29-Nov-2009

Wow. Over 5000 miles on this trip today. It was a long and awesome day. But first of all, see the snorkel on that van. All those vans, trucks, buses, etc that haul people around Central America have them. I really hope we don't have to find out why.

We got up early, as normal on border crossing days, and got into Panama. This was an ordeal, about 4 hours. Nick and I have been trading off on who takes care of the paperwork and bs. This time it was Nick's turn, so I just hang out and watch the bikes. I actually think he is doing this today cause he wants me to deal with Colombia. We have been exchanging one money for another at the borders and really have lost track of what is worth how much or even what the money is called. Nick named them all Gazoobies, so we just exchange one countries gazoobies for anothers. It gets wierd when it takes 3000 gazoobies to buy a cup of coffee, but its all relative, right?

Anyway, we are in Panama. The roads get wider and better and I'm thinking, wow, this could be the best roads we've been on all trip. They are for a while, then they just go to hell, then they get good again, then wham, potholes everywhere. The pics are of the good parts. I'm too busy when we get to the bad parts to take pics. The scenery changes a bit, still in the mountains but not intensly. Just rolling and slightly winding roads. It is beautiful and we catch glimpses of the ocean as we travel along. I had no intention of getting this far but we actually made it to Panama City, mostly cause we couldn't find a hotel sooner. It got dark on us and we were just still going, kind of looking for a place to stay. Stopped at one place but decided to keep on going. We took a wrong turn close to Panama City, but I knew we were still going east and hadn't crossed the Panama Canal yet, but we were kind of lost. So we do what we do, continue to fly along through the dark in a strange country, lost. Brillant, eh? We are winding through the jungle and suddenly, really suddenly, we are on huge bridge. Looking south I can see ships and locks and we are on the Panama Canal. Very cool. I figure out later that we are at the Miraflores locks on the Canal. I cannot tell you the feeling this was to be over 500o miles on this journey and to be here in this amazing part of the world. I am overwhelmed. Anyway, we cruise down a road that parallels the canal for a while and find a hotel, Holiday Inn, of all things. Oh well, after the last few days, I think we are both ready for a little bit of a homogenized hotel.

We have a lot of planning to do now. We arenow through Central America, that is huge but is really only the jumping off place for the real journey. We have a drink to celebrate and talk about the trip and what is to come. We are going to do things a little differently than orginally planned but adaptation is a big part of what we must do to deal with a trip like this. No pics yet of the Canal, will try to do that tomorrow.