Panama
Added on Friday, September 12th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
Approaching Panama City
Got the bike out of customs at Tucoman Airport near Panama City. There was a very large lady in a red checked dress that covered her like a tablecloth. She was frightfully nice and very old and was in charge of everything coming into Panama via this cargo bay. She was so slow typing in my details I wanted to weep. I did it for her in the end. Then picked up so more money from Western Union and dashed off once again on the Pan American Highway.
I have a strong cold but its not getting onto my chest. Otherwise feel fine. Bike performing brilliantly and tyres about to hit the 12 000 mile point - 36 000 miles or thereabouts so far I think. Pick more tyres up in Memphis next Monday.
So much could go wrong with a project like this it is extraordinary how the small things can trip you up - a dog, a bad bit of road, a puncture at the wrong time. I’ve pushed the envelope quite far on this project, would have been easy not to have made it. But with a bit of careful navigation and a bit of mechanical management, we might be ok.
The weather here is like an oven. It is baking hot and humid. The traffic benign, people are cool. No bandits. I leave at 5am tomorrow to enter Costa Rica and also Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatamala. I need to be in Mexico within 30 hours to make my flight in Toronto for the 16th Sep. I’m rushing because we have a 300 page book getting close to deadline and I have to be home to sort things out. Also, my children are pining and I would be a poor adventurer and dad if I stayed away a moment more than was necessary. All you dads out there will understand.
But, the journey has not yet ended. We have much to do.
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