Went on a nice ride from David to Volcan today with a lot of bikers. Easily the largest group ride I’ve ever been in. Can’t really relax when you’re in a large pack of bikes like this, but it is a lot of fun checking out all the different bikes and rolling somewhere together. I saw a lot of people out in front of their houses waving and cheering us on. Everybody knows motorcycles are cool. Little kids wave, even dogs know bikes are cool that is why they are always chasing them.
It great to ride with so many people on so many different types of motorcycle. Seeing all the BMW’s made me miss my GS back in the U.S. but the KLR is a great bike for the types of adventures I’ve been going on here in Panama.
While I was on my way back to the commarca with a plan to stay overnight I got caught in a rain storm. I pulled over at a little store on the side of the road to try and wait it out. After a while I noticed a man making some wild motions with his hands. I looked over my shoulder to see if he maybe he was signaling someone else. But he wasn’t so I went over and talked with him filming with the Drift Stealth and then showing him on the little screen what I had filmed. He turned out to be a really nice guy and after a while I gathered that he was just trying to tell me that in a few hours the rain would be gone.
I sat at the store for about an hour before putting on my rain gear, saying adios to my new friend, and heading back home. Continuing to the commarca in the rain wouldn’t have been fun, and I wouldn’t have been able to film much anyway.
Boquete is a very popular retirement town for Americans and Canadians. Spend some time googling around to read about all the different incentive Panama offers to retirees that decide to move here. It’s pretty impressive and will probably have you thinking about making the move down.
But whatever you do don’t sell everything and jump on a plane. Keep your place in the states and come rent here for at least a year. Living in Panama full time is very big change, give yourself some time to see if you really will like it here, and an escape plan in case you decide to say, “Hell with this.”
Nice place, lot of rain, lot of conspiracy theorists, but nice place.
In Panama when someone is killed in an accident or a pedestrian is killed while crossing the road they paint a blue heart marking the place where it happened. They are there to remind other people how fragile life is, and to slow down when driving.
There is one spot in the road in Panama City with 18 blue hearts painted in the road. A bus (Diablo Rojo) caught fire and the emergency exit on the back was chained shut so people couldn’t jump on and off with out paying. I’ve heard that mothers had to throw their babies out the window to people trying to help outside. They were trapped inside and it was the only way to save their child.
So the hearts are there to serve as a sober reminder of how important it is to drive safe. Slow down a little and make it home in one piece.
www.raquelsark.com I was invited to come check out Raquels Ark because people have started to notice some of my tourism related videos, so I went to check it out. The most amazing thing I saw there was a 3 toed sloth who had the exact same hair cut as me. If the sloth was rocking a pony tail people would have mistaken us for twins. I don’t know the names of most of the animals I hung out with, but touched and held some creatures I never knew existed before yesterday.
Nearly everything I held seemed to have the capability to rip my face off. Sloths have some pretty mean looking claws, the toucan has that monster beak and sounds like a velociraptor, and the baby owl had razor sharp claws. But I couldn’t get over the eyes on the owl, they were just amazing.
Raquel’s Ark is free to visit but it would be pretty lame to go there and not leave a donation. Your donation to places like this really help out the animals. Hopefully I can return someday and speak with the owner, she was out of the country when I went to visit. I would like to interview her on camera, so she can explain more about the animals and what they do there.
To ride a motorcycle you need to realize that every car on the road is trying to kill you, and you have to be able to enjoy knowing that. So wearing the proper safety gear is important, but getting your head in the right place is also very important. When hit the road I start to sing Roadhouse Blues by the Doors almost every time I get on my bike. I find it really helps me get in the zone before I ride. It’s also a really killer song so even if it doesn’t help you get in the zone you should listen to it anyway.
Long live the lizard king.
This is something I filmed while on the Cerro Banco trip that didn’t really seem to fit into any of the videos I was editing. I like to keep things short, so ended up cutting it out. But it is a handy tip for staying hydrated. When you are on a long trip like this and your water warms up in the luggage it can be difficult to force yourself to suck down warm water. So mixing it with something that has a little flavor can make it go down a bit easier.
Just wanted to post some thoughts about the Cerro Banco trip and explain a few things in greater detail. I wanted to stop after the river once I had made it back to the pavement, but it was just raining to hard, and was pretty dark already. I told myself I would film an ending to the series once I made it home, but didn’t have the motivation once I made it there. I just wanted to shower, warm up and for the first time in nearly the entire day put some dry clothes on.
There’s also a little rant in here about knobbie tire comments. I’m pushing a 500 pound motorcycle up a muddy hill and you think I don’t know I need better tires!?
My day seemed to just keep getting more and more difficult. On the way back to the river it started to pour rain which didn’t help the poor conditions of the road. I managed to use my waterproof case to get a little footage of the way back, but had terrible problems with the lens fogging up. I had to stand there with my hand against the lens for a while to warm it up and get rid of the fog. Then hurry and film a little bit before it fogged over again. But I wouldn’t have gotten any footage of the ride back to the river with out so I guess I shouldn’t complain to much.
I very carefully rode back too the river and by some miracle never dropped the bike. I found the best way to keep the bike from gaining to much speed and getting out of control was to walk it down the steep sections with the engine off and let out the clutch to lock the rear wheel when I got moving to fast. Then I could also feather the front brake. That seemed to work pretty good.
In this video you can see how difficult it is to maintain the roads in this area especially during the rainy season. The water quickly erodes any work done on the roads. With out proper drainage they don’t stand a chance.
Covered in mud from several slip and falls I make it back to the bike and prepare for the ride back. I didn’t film any of the walk back to the bike because of the rain and I really just wanted to get it over with. I also figured you had probably seen enough of me walking for a little while.
I talk a bit about how my helmet wasn’t stolen while I was gone. The people in this area have nothing. No phones, electricity, they barely have roads. In a lot of places people would steal a helmet just because it’s there to be taken. Maybe they don’t have a motorcycle, but they would take it anyway. I did wonder about it while I was gone, and was pleased to see the helmet right where I left it.
I was really impressed with my tripod on the way back. I used it as a cane almost the entire walk back to the bike. I mean I use it a lot for filming, it’s a good tripod. But after this day I can officially say I love it. Plan to make a video review of it soon. http://t.co/Dw6GVDx
