Parental Warning
***************************** This post is not suitable for easily offended audiences **************************
I just thought this statue was amusing …
Looks like gay fishermen to me.
In just about every city and sizeable town in Central America (and honestly South East Asia too,) there is a spot where people set up little food stands at night and cook outdoors. It’s like a county fair, but they do it every day. (And the prices aren’t bumped up about 4 times … it’s where you go for CHEAP food.) It’s true in Cartagena too. There’s a spot along the waterfront where there are a dozen little seafood/juice stands.
What I thought was interesting is that right next to those food stands, there is a similar section of bookshops. About 2 dozen little mobile carts that open up and have shelves lined with books. Unfortunately (for me anyway) they are exclusively Spanish titles. No luck finding a lonely planet there.
Here’s a book that cracked me up.
The title is ‘Without Boobs, There Is No Paradise’. It’s funny because it’s true.
One of the passengers on the sailing trip from Panama to Colombia was an adorable German girl with the most amazing green eyes. Seriously, it was hard to talk and look at her at the same time.
Unfortunately for her, she was terribly seasick the entire time. She went below and laid down for the first leg of the trip between the shore and Chicheme island. When we reached the port and anchored, she came back above deck and Sofia (the captain’s girlfriend) told her that she had missed the orcas. Sofia teased her for a bit, and then I got involved and said that she had also missed the mermaids.
Well. Guess what I found walking down the streets of Cartagena.
Given that the sailing to Cartagena thing didn’t quite work out as planned, we spent a night in the harbor of Sapzurro Colombia. There is a town in the next curve of the bay that has an immigration office, a few hotels, and the boat launch for onward travel. That town is called Capurgana. There is no road connecting either town to anything else … a couple of foot paths, but no road.
This is a taxi in Capurgana.
Not joking.
Can someone please explain something to me? The majority of Panamanian restaurants close between 4:30 and 6 PM. Why? Isn’t the exactly the WRONG time to close? Aren’t you better off closing 2 hours earlier or 2 hours later? It’s a mystery.
I visited the Panama Canal today. It’s fascinating. Seriously. But unfortunately it’s one of those amazing sights that take horrible pictures.
Here’s what the Miraflores locks look like.
Pretty, huh? (Ok. That was sarcastic.)
There is a lake (I think it’s manmade) between the previous set of locks and this one. Huge ships get towed through the lake by tugboats. The tugboats line them up and push them into the canal walls, where locomotives are attached to guide the ships through the canal.
Then the lock gates are opened, and the ships move inside. The water is drained (or pumped in, depending on the direction) and the next set of gates are opened. Here’s what the height differential looks like.
It’s 27 (or so) feet different.
Then the gates open and the ships continues to the next gate and is lowered again. It’s really amazing to see.
One thing that I thought was pretty amusing …
There is a visitor’s center with a 4th story overlook to observe the canal in operation. I got there just as a cruise ship was passing through this gate. I was giggling about the people on the overlook taking pictures of the cruise ship with the passengers on the top deck taking pictures of the people in the visitors center. Nice photos!
One more picture from the front of the visitor’s center.
Apparently they just drain the water into the gutter.
I visited what is DEFINITELY the prettiest part of Panama City. It’s called Casco Antiguo.
I have no idea why they put a rooster on top of an obelisk. But it was new, so I took a picture.
I’ve always hated flying. One of my early flights was a short hop to LA. On approach, the plane hit some turbulence and dropped what felt like 800 ft (and was probably actually 20), but my mind wouldn’t stop with the images of the plane skidding on the runway and bursting into flames. I’ve had visions of bolts falling out and wings falling off, and all kinds of ways that a little plane ride could end in disaster. For some reason, my mind is ALWAYS reviewing the worst scenarios.
A similar thing has been happening along this trip. I imagine the worst when riding. Cars crashing into my rear when I have to brake hard, tires slipping on a curve and sending me off into the ocean, getting squished between two semis. Just about everything you could imagine. Well. It happened today. Not the worst. Not NEARLY the worst. Not by a long shot. But nothing happy.
I was driving through Panama City, heading toward the canal. I turned left at a stoplight, and headed into a left hand curve on a concrete section of the road. And my tires slipped. The bike started sliding out from beneath me. I was tipping left, and my brain recognized that I was gunning the throttle, but my instinct was to hang on because I really didn’t want to fall of. The rear started sliding around and the bike popped back upright … facing directly at the bus that had made the same turn on my left hand side. At that point, I’m not really sure what happened. I definitely hit the bus. I went over the bike to the right, and skidded about 10 feet on the pavement. What I’m really not sure about is whether the bus ran over the bike at that point. I’m pretty sure it did, but I can’t really remember anything that happened after I was thrown until I got up again. But the front end is completely gone.
As you can see, the front tire separated from the fork. The left fork broke in two. The handle bars are now vertical. This was NOT just a little drop.
So. I skidded for maybe 10 feet, and came to a stop alongside the bus (which also stopped.) I got up and checked myself for pain spots. There really weren’t any blazingly painful areas, so I walked over and picked up the bike. (Have I mentioned this is a HEAVY bike? About 550 lbs. It’s not easy!) I got the bike upright, and pushed it over to the side of the road. The driver of the bus I hit, and the driver of another bus who saw the accident and stopped came over, asked me if I was alright, and helped push the bike to the side of the road. We talked for a second about what happened, and when they were satisfied that I wasn’t going to say either of them had run me over, they took off. I was left standing by the bike wondering what in the hell to do next.
A guy came over from a power substation across the street, and another guy walking a dog stopped to see how I was doing. I told them I was fine, and they asked what happened, and I told them that I skidded on the street. They asked what I needed, and I told them that I didn’t know what to do with the bike. The guy walking the dog told me that there was a fire station down the road, and he’d send the paramedics over to check on me. The guy from the substation said he’d find a tow truck, and disappeared inside. So, I walked down the street to see if I could reconstruct what actually happened. I made it about 40 feet to the corner with the stoplight when I heard a crash. I looked up and had to stifle a laugh. Another bike went down at nearly exactly the same spot. Not joking.
I headed back up the street to check and see if the other guy was ok. He was, and we talked about how slippery the road was. His bike was fine (having not been run over by a bus) and he got back on and took off. So I was left alone again trying to figure out what to do next. That’s when the ambulance showed up. They pulled up, saw that I was standing alone, and not bleeding profusely, and asked if I was ok. I told them I was, and they pulled out a form for me to sign. It basically said that they came to the accident and offered medical assistance. I pestered them with a bunch of questions about what to do with the bike … asking if I could leave it where it was for the rest of the day, how to find a tow truck, if they knew of any moto shops or junkyards that I could call, etc. They asked how much I was going to ask. I decided on a nice round figure that was higher than I thought I could actually get … $1,000. They picked up a cell phone and called a guy. It turns out they knew a guy who was in the market for a bike. They told him what was going on, and handed over the phone. I talked to the guy for a bit, and he said he was interested in purchasing the bike, and would drive over in his truck.
To shorten the story (because it’s WAAAAAY too long already,) he came over, looked at the bike, said he wanted to consult with a mechanic, so we loaded the bike in his truck and took it to his friend’s house. The mechanic gave the bike a green light in the shape it was in, so we took it to the buyers house, and made a deal. There was still a ton of paperwork to take care of, but the bike was unloaded within an hour of the accident. Whew. Is the silver lining thing really true for everyone else too?
I was driving along Southern Costa Rica today, admiring how well-kept the road was. The Pan-American highway is very well-maintained, and there was a stretch past Paso Real that wound through a canyon next to a river. Fun ride with lots of curves.
Then I hit Palamar.
The road from Palamar to Neilly is … in a word … horrendous. Without question the WORST section of the Pan-Am. At least so far. Seriously. They’re growing a bumper crop of potholes there. They aren’t nearly as wide as some of the potholed roads in Mexico and Guatemala, but there are plenty of them. And they’re DEEP. I swear I have a gash in my boot from where one of the imps of hell tried to pull me down.
Another photo opportunity that I missed today. I’m in a town called San Isidro. On the drive into town, there was a billboard advertising a hotel (I can’t remember the name any more) and I should have stopped for a photo. The advertising said ‘Welcome to San Isidro. Home of beautiful women.’ Somehow, I wonder if the billboard was advertising some ’special services’.
