From Montezuma to Panama city in less than a week.
Funny place this Costa Rica, feels just like the states, a bit warmer. I left William to rush down. I don’t remember exactly why, I think it was because I didn’t want to rush on the way to meet our boat ride.
On the way to Panama I met my good friend Primoz, with whom I shared many good adventures and I feel eternally in debt for fixing me the job at AMT. I knew he was there and we were planning to meet. I just didn’t know I’ll meet him at the border crossing. With his entire group (Primoz is a fellow tour guide and he was on tour at the time). It was a funny moment and we were traveling to the same place. Us, a group of Slovenians. I learned that I’m less of a Slovenian than I thought to be, maybe because solo traveling forces you to tone down a little bit, blend in so to speak. However, nooone can deny us Slovenians like to drink and party. Loud.
Next day I had perhaps an even more pleasant encounter. Late in the morning I was looking for a nice place to have breakfast and when I found it, Florencia the owner, welcomed me with a warm hug and kiss on my cheek. Immediately I felt like a son coming home after a long weekend. I wish there would be more people like that around here.
After the festival I rolled south to Panama city where I met two distinct characters. Dave and Ed. The first one traveling on a f800GS, the second on a… I think the original bike was a Honda Cub90, but with time and miles changed into a thing, that by his own words is priceless, and I agree. Once you put so many miles, time, money, work and love into a machine, it becomes much more. The Japanese would call it Wabi Sabi I guess.
Spending a few days in Panama city was fun. Met interesting people and visited historic sites, including the Panama channel. What an engineering feat that was. The first ad the second, bigger channel as well.
William arrived and shortly after we went to find us a ride to Colombia. The first boat, the La Poste, clearly screwed us and we’ll never get to hear from the Nigeran Princess ever again… The other boats that might take us felt equally dodgy and the only viable option was flying our bikes to Bogota. For the same price of the boat, with o salt, Nigerian princesses to deal with and all the trip would take less than a day. It took 2 days in the end, but hey, we are in COLOMBIA!
