Dave, Deb, Elke, Lyel, Eric

Eric, Elke and their son, Lyel are great hosts and we are very thankful for their hospitality. We arrived at their house near Dominical, Costa Rica, just as they were going out for the evening and were told to make ourselves at home and they said they would return in a few hours. This from Eric, who we had met only once over a year before in Mexico at a motorcycle travelers meeting and Elke whom we had met for the first time on the road near their home just a few minutes earlier. During the time we spent with them it was interesting to hear the stories of Elke & Eric buying their property and building the home themselves while living in tents with three boys of 12, 11 and 4 years of age.

View from the patio

The view of the Pacific coast of Southern Costa Rica and a valley below their home is breath-taking, and the longer we stayed, the more we fell in love with the scenery. After a few days we were planning to leave but it rained all night and Deb didn't want to ride down the steep dirt roads in the mud so we thought we would stay just one more day to allow the roads to dry out. Eric suggested that we stay a couple more days to go white water rafting with them. We didn't have to think too long about that. After the rafting trip, it was a few days before Christmas and we started to pack our bikes to leave when Eric came up to and asked us stay for Christmas because they knew what it was like to be stuck at a border crossing on Christmas day. We planned to leave the day after Christmas and we were again packing when Eric talked us in to staying one more day. We felt guilty for being the guests that would never leave but it was so comfortable and they were such great company, we could have stayed forever.

Frog

Toucan

In all, twelve days were spent here with a white water rafting trip, several trips to the beach for boogie boarding, a party at a neighbor's house, and a night out at "Movies in the Jungle". It is a cool movie theater in a building without walls, and everyone brought food to share before the movies while enjoying the view of the sun setting over the Pacific followed by popcorn and soft drinks to enjoy during the movies.

One couple that are neighbors of Eric & Elke have an assortment of animals including 8 or 9 dogs, 3 kinkajous, a pisote and several budgies that we visited with one morning.

Kinkajou

The road to Elke & Eric's home is carved through the hills giving beautiful views, but as the roads are steep and a combination of clay and gravel, four wheel drive vehicles are the norm. During the rainy season I wouldn't want to live there without one. This serves a great benefit in that it only attracts self-sufficient people, not those that need a mall or MacDonalds within a few minute drive. All those that we met all seemed like nice folks. Eric did take us for a drive back to his home via the "alternate road" one day, but as it was just after the rainy season the route did not look like it had been traveled recently. We made it to within thirty feet of the main road when the deep ruts stopped us and we backed down to a place where Eric could turn around and head back home the "usual way".

The day Deb and I left it had rained most of the previous night, so Eric volunteered to ride Deb's bike down the steepest hill as it would be pretty slippery. I was not able to even get down their driveway before coming to an abrupt stop in the wet grass and clay. Deb and Elke seemed a little surprised to find me standing beside my bike trying to figure out how it jumped out from under me. Well, I road it back up to the house so Eric and I could straighten the twisted frame that the bag used to be attached to. Just as we finished adjusting the bike the ground started to jiggle from side to side. I thought it was just a delayed reaction of the earth from the impact of the bike hitting the ground, but Elke said it was a tremor as this area does experience earthquakes. I was relieved to know that I did not cause the ground to move, but it was interesting to hear almost complete silence after the tremor stopped. The only sound was the squeaking of the truck suspension as it continued to rock after the earth had stopped shifting.

Dave on the driveway

Eric and I rode the bikes down the hills to the paved road, where we said our farewells then Deb and I headed to Panama. The road along the coast was beautiful and the in very good condition, a rarity for Costa Rica. When we turned onto the Pan-American Highway and instantly knew we were still in Costa Rica as the roads sucked, more potholes than pavement!

The board crossing into Panama is infamous as a slow process. For us it only took 1 hour, 45 minutes which was better that we where expecting. Exiting Costa Rica was simple, when I had finished and got back to Deb and the motorcycles we then rode another half kilometer to the Panama offices. This is where it got amusing for me. Step one - ignore the "tramitidors" - the people that help get you to the correct office while collecting the highest payment they can from the "rich" tourists. Step two - present passports for inspection at the correct window for inspection with man #1 - after several minutes looking at both passports he writes a note on a scraps of paper and puts one in each passport then hands them back to me while pointing at the wall behind me. Step three - find man # 2 on the other side of the building - he spends even more time studying all the stamps on every page of both of our passports then requested $5 for each tourist permit. Step #3 - two tramitadors, boys about 9 years of age "hire" them selves as my "agents" to get me into their country. They frantically wave for me to follow them to get in line to visit with man #1 again. They run ahead to save me a spot in line, then run back to get me to move faster. While in line, one of these kids runs to get a man to sell me two stickers for our tourist cards at $1 each as an entry tax. Step #4 - At a snails pace I move to the front of the line where again man #1 reviews the passports as if they were the most interesting things he had ever seen. After satisfying himself that they are acceptable he stamps them and tells me I am done. Note: Deb has not come near any of the immigration/customs windows so it appears that it is more important to make sure that only safe passports get into the country, but they don't care which people actually get in. Also, I know that the motorcycles need their approval to enter the country, tougher than getting people in! Step #5 walk back to the other end of the build to the adduana to import the bikes.

At this point my young tramitidors jog between me and the adduana wanting me to keep up. I can only move at a slow shuffle as my ankle is messed up from this mornings crash on the slippery driveway, but I slow down even more, barely above a crawl just because it is fun to watch the kids try to decide if they should help me walk or just save my place in line. Step #6 get out of line because someone wants the bikes moved 20 feet closer to Panama. This drives the kids nuts, but is fun for me. Deb doesn't like it either as there seems no reason to move them. Step #7 - Deb gets in line at the adduana to handle importing the bikes, which gives me a chance to sit on the curb and watch people. Sign the paperwork for man #3 and we are ready to get the bikes fumigated. Until step #8 - man #4 asks me to step into a private office where he tells me to close the door. He slowly reviews my documents then says that our bags will need to be inspected with the inference that I need to bring them into his office. I remain seated and tell him it is fine for him to inspect everything. The bags are attached to the bikes and he is welcome to go out to look in them. After a 30 second smiling contest I reached over and opened his door politely holding it so I could follow him to the bikes. This is the only time on our trip that I have felt that someone was fishing for a bribe. I waited for him to leave the room, then gathered our documents off his deck a shoved them in my pocket. I open all the cases on our bikes with a theatrical flourish and he barely glanced in half of them before walking away. Step #9 ride the bikes into the fumigation area, which was turned on too soon, so I was fumigated with the bikes. Probably for the best as I was pretty well covered in mud and bugs from my slide down the driveway. My tramitidors reappeared and I paid them $3 for the entertainment value of watching them run between me and where I was suppose to be.

Our stop for the evening was in the town of David, Panama. I don't thi0nk it was named after me, but you never know. We did not explore the town as my ankle had swollen and started to turn purple, so Deb played nurse maid by locked the bikes, getting me a bag of ice and make a fabulous supper. Dominos pizza delivered to our room.

The ride to the next day was hot, though the Central American highway CA-1 was great. Only 2 potholes in 280 miles. We rolled into Panama City was at the peak of rush hour traffic and just as we were crossing the Bridge of the Americas over the Canal it started to rain and boy did it rain! We pulled off into a gas station to seek shelter and wait until the rain subsided before getting back into traffic. As we had no good map of the city our goal was to find an inexpensive looking hotel with parking as soon as possible to get out of the rain and traffic. This took a little over an hour and we felt we had ridden through the Canal rather than over it due to the rain.

Our jobs while we are in Panama City are to lighten the load on the bikes, as I learned how poorly they handle in mud. Fix my rear brake which had been giving me trouble for the past few weeks, but quit working completely as I learned from my spill on the driveway the day before and arrange shipping for our bikes to South America. Some maps show the Pan-American Highway going uninterrupted from North to South America, but there is an area named the Darien Gap, through which there are no navigable roads. This means flying or taking a boat. We did some extra last minute research and called Girag Cargo to check on a flight and was told the next plane with space would be in 8 days. We a little begging space suddenly became available in 4 days, so we will be enjoying New Year's Eve in Panama City.

I called the local BMW dealer and asked if I could bring my motorcycle in to have the brakes worked on. They told me to get there before noon, so off I road into rush hour traffic again. We have been spoiled as big cities are usually by passed in favor of the smaller towns where things are less expensive and life moves at a slower pace. The BMW dealer sells both cars and motorcycles, and I was fortunate to have Hector the only bike mechanic in that day stay and wait for me as he only had a couple of hours work then was suppose to be off by noon. With the bike back in order I toured a small part of the city before heading back to the hotel to tackle our repacking with Deb and to decided how much stuff we can get rid of. It is amazing to learn how little we can get by with, and I always remember that what we have with us is still more that many people ever have. So far this adventure has been a great learning experience as well as a whole lot of fun.

Finally a bike I can ride in the rain

Feliz Año Nuevo!