Gary and I went for another ride today that took us to some cool petroglyphs, and nice hot springs. It was a really nice day of riding, it never poured rain while we were on the bikes, but there were a few light showers to keep us cool.

The rain came down pretty hard while we were at the hot springs, but the cool water falling from the sky really made the hot springs more enjoyable. It rains a lot in the Boquete area and we decided that visiting the hot springs on a rainy day is the perfect activity.

I’ve always been a bit interested in ancient people. We spent some time wandering around the large stone with carvings in it making guesses as to what each one might represent. Part of me thinks it may have been just some kids screwing around with a rock and the pictures don’t mean anything.

This is the final installment of the quest to find the hidden path connecting Portorillos to Boquete. I wasn’t at all prepared for the type of riding we ended up getting into on this day. I thought it was going to be a quick easy ride, and I didn’t take any water with me. We ended up muscling our way through the jungle on a small horse trail. My bald tire was giving me a very bad time on the trail. Our path was covered with leaves, that were hiding big exposed roots, and rocks. Once you got through the leaves the ground was a bit damp, so there was some mud to deal with as well. I had a very difficult time making any progress, Gary with is little 2 stroke had a much easier time.

The list of broken motorcycle pieces added up as our day went on. My KLR650 lost a footpeg, mirror, fairing, and the handle next to the seat. Gary’s Yamaha DT lost a mirror, and a rear blinker.

In the end we were dehydrated and exhausted, but we found our way through and had a pretty awesome adventure.

After Gary and I failed to find the path from Boquete to Portorillos we decided to attack the problem from a different angle. So we headed for Portorillos and tried to work out way back to Boquete. We stopped often and asked for directions, and found many helpful people to point us in the right direction.

I ended up with a lot of good footage for this video so once we found the little path we were looking for I decided to break it into 2 parts. The riding portion will be online soon.

Gary and I begin on a clean, twisty road outside of Panama and try to find our way to Portorillos. After asking several locals a long the way and getting both yes’s and no’s, we knew it was up to us to discover the path for ourselves. We had a really nice ride in the mountains around Boquete. I think if I had brought my hammock I would have spent the night up there. It was a beautiful setting.

There is some really bumpy footage in parts of this video. I use 2 helmets and one of them doesn’t have a mount for the Drift HD on it. I’ve used it before on the handle bars and it came out looking much better, but for some reason this time it was really bad. So whaddha want? Your money back? Deal with it!

http://bit.ly/waKPPE
A few weeks ago I rode my motorcycle to the top of Volcan Baru the tallest peak in Panama. I took a serious beating on the ride, and got some great video out of it. I wanted to do a ride from sea level to the top of Panama, so I started at the beach and filmed my ride to the top. It was exhausting, and horrible, and everything an adventure should be.

For this series of videos I wanted to do something special, something different so I have created an iPad book. The book has a bunch of photos, and 7 different videos with a combined length of over 70 minutes. Since it’s a book I was able to fill in the gaps between the videos and give more detail about what’s happening and what I was feeling. I’m really happy with they way it turned out. I’ve been asked a lot about DVD’s of my videos, or a book about my adventures. Well this is both. You get to read about the trip, see the photos, and watch the videos all in one place. Once it’s downloaded you don’t need to wait for video to buffer before watching them it’s all there you just hit play and it goes. Really if you have ever wanted to come along on one of my rides this is the closest you will get without flying to Panama and renting a bike.

I keep calling it a book because I don’t know another name for it. It’s more like a mini adventure and you get to come along for the ride. I’m very excited about it, it looks great on the iPad.

http://bit.ly/waKPPE
For the Volcan Baru Adventure I wanted to do something special, so I turned the adventure into an interactive book. I’m pretty excited about how it turned out, and I think you will really enjoy it.

The book is has a lot of pictures, and video. Over 70 minutes of video that won’t be seen on youtube is embed in the book. Read a little, look at some photos, read a little, watch a video. With the magic of the iPad the book is very cool.

Is there any other picture on this planet that can induce more jealousy than this?

(via mystonerlife)

So this is my YouTube channel. I live in Panama, go on adventures, and film stuff. I ride a KLR650 and sometimes take it to some really amazing/crazy/hard to get to places. If you haven’t already I hope you will subscribe http://bit.ly/nwveuE and check back often. I might be reviewing a new product, or showing you how to install a gadget. And there is always another epic adventure around the corner.

Welcome to HalfThrottle. I hope you’ll enjoy the show.


I’ve been wanting a short video that introduces new viewers to my channel that I could leave on the homepage. I know my way around Adobe After Effects well enough, but can’t take credit for making this. For this video I used a template from http://videohive.net/ Specifically this one: http://bit.ly/ooxMav It’s a very handy site.

The Long Way Round Series

One night while I was working in Iraq, I was cruising motorcycle forum’s planning my motorcycle ride across Central America.  I stumbled across a DVD called “The Long Way Round.”  I quickly jumped on Amazon.com to order it, but found it wasn’t yet available in a DVD format that was readable on North American players.  So I added it to my amazon wishlist, and waited.

When it finally did arrive in the mail, I watched with delight as Charlie and Ewan adventured across the world. I actually remember standing up and cheering during one episode. They inspired and excited me about my upcoming trip.

There are adventure riders who poke fun at the Long Way Round and Long Way Down series.  To them I say; You have no idea how difficult it is to film a motorcycle journey, and walk away with something good enough to put on television.

Sure they had security guards, medics, mechanics.  Free bikes, and all the gadgets they could carry.  I suppose you could even say, they had their hands held across the world.  But what you need to understand about their trip is; it wasn’t purely an adventure.  It was also a business venture.

They had a schedule to keep, people needed to be paid, and promises to sponsors to be kept. You can’t simply strap on a GoPro helmet cam and expect to pull off what they did. For them it was a journey about seeing the world, AND sharing it with the world. Doing that means big production value. So all you hardcore adventure riders out there, who are traveling poor, and sleeping in the dirt complaining about what babies Charlie and Ewan are. Please stop breaking their balls. They did an awesome job, and I can’t wait to stand up and cheer while watching the “Long Way Up.”

I love the classic look of Royal Enfield motorcycles.  I hope one day to travel India on two wheels.  If I arrived in India and a man with a funny accent presented me with a KTM 990 Adventure, a BMW R1200GSA, a Royal Enfield Bullet, and said to me, “Pick.”  I wouldn’t hesitate to go with the Bullet.  It’s simply the way India was meant to been experienced.