Sorry I haven't updated this with the end of the journey. Ridiculous to spend 9 months writing a blog and then stop two weeks from the end. In my defense though, I had a terrible fall 350 km North of Panama City, Panama and had to have stitches, many bandages, and antibiotics and such. We were stuck in a little town with few services (including internet) and our drive to finish the blog disappeared as more pressing matters weighed.
Suffice to say I'm writing now that things are fine. We flew back on our flight as planned, though we took a bus the last 350km. The town we stayed in (I forget the name now, this is terrible of me, really!) had a police station. hospital, and little more. The people were friendly though, and Erin was as supportive as can be while I lay around reading and recovering. Did you know medical care is free in Panama? The one time I thought we would be able to use our health insurance and there were no costs!
In Panama City we had a great time staying for a few days in a couple local hostels, and enjoying all the great... well... what is Panama City great for? We went to a museum with a show about the canal, and the Hard Rock Hotel full of memorabilia, and we went to a huge mall and got our bikes put in boxes.
Our bikes ended up costing us an extra $150 each, and we loaded the boxes FULL of stuff! We discovered that we have a skill for estimating weight as we were able to easily get within about 4 pounds of the 70 pound weight limit. In fact, at the airport we took some extra time to cram extra stuff in the boxes before sealing them up.
Oh, and on the way home, Delta's crews in Atlanta couldn't tell us if we should be picking up our bags and taking them through customs or if they would just go on our own, so we missed our flights. I complained and we got two $50 certificates. Pfffft, ya like that is worth the wasted hours of my life at your incompetent hub, Delta. Rayne, Erin's aunt, picked us up in Winnipeg much later than we'd agreed because of the delay. Sorry Rayne!!
So, in the end, we cycled about 7300km, leaving September 3'rd 2013, and flying back to Canada on May 29th 2014. <3
Friday, May 30, 2014
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Base of Lost and Found trailhead
In the morning at the house I washed our stinky riding clothes and made breakfast. We set out around 10 and quickly realized we stopped at a good point the night before as the hill before us went up and up and up, about 350meters. I walked a lot of it, it was very steep. By 2pm or so we came across a restaurant. But the food was not very good, either overdone or old but we were hungry and needed calories. At the restaurant there were dozens of golden orb spiders hanging about, really creepy. Carrying on uphill it alternated between raining and pleasant weather. We stopped at two roadside waterfalls; Angel 1 and 2. Both were really pretty and Rigel filled his water bottle at the first which happened to be Angel 2.
It was starting to get late around 4-4:30 and we were still pretty far from where we wanted to end up and it was starting to rain and get a little chilly, we were after all at app. 950 meters, so I decided to try and get a ride up to the Lost and Found Lodge. A few tries later a guy pulls over in a truck, but doesn't appear to have much room with all the wooden crates he has stacked in the truck bed. We told him this but he said we'll try. He completely rearranges his load and fits our bikes in nicely and straps them down. We got to ride in the cab this time and got to enjoy some good conversation (well what we could understand that is). We were about a half hour ride away from the hostel so we really wouldn't have made it by bike that night. Young stoped at the hydro dam for us to take pictures and we got to pick up a pineapple ($1) at the little stand before carrying on.
Arriving at the bottom of the hill to the hostel Young gave us the option of riding with him to David or getting off here. We hummed and hawed over the option but decided we wanted the downhill coming up out of the mountains. We unloaded and went over to the office there. We were immediately asked if we wanted to stay with this other company in a cabin for a heck of a lot of money but we declined. The hostel is a 20 minute hike uphill and it wouldn't be easy with bikes so we asked to camp under their office roof/fruit stand. Thomas let us, and over the course of the evening gave us bananas and coffee. We paid $5 for the camping. Thomas noticed Rigel's bike tire pump, asked to use it and soon Rigel turned into the bike mechanic for the night pumping up tires and fixing the holes.
By the time Rigel finished with the kids bikes he was tired (since we hadn't had supper yet) and bonked his face pretty good on a low beam. I fixed him up best I could and Thomas gave us some alcohol to put on it and also realized we hadn't eaten yet. He later came by with a plate of food from his own table. It was very generous of him. We were able to go straight to bed after we ate.
It was starting to get late around 4-4:30 and we were still pretty far from where we wanted to end up and it was starting to rain and get a little chilly, we were after all at app. 950 meters, so I decided to try and get a ride up to the Lost and Found Lodge. A few tries later a guy pulls over in a truck, but doesn't appear to have much room with all the wooden crates he has stacked in the truck bed. We told him this but he said we'll try. He completely rearranges his load and fits our bikes in nicely and straps them down. We got to ride in the cab this time and got to enjoy some good conversation (well what we could understand that is). We were about a half hour ride away from the hostel so we really wouldn't have made it by bike that night. Young stoped at the hydro dam for us to take pictures and we got to pick up a pineapple ($1) at the little stand before carrying on.
Arriving at the bottom of the hill to the hostel Young gave us the option of riding with him to David or getting off here. We hummed and hawed over the option but decided we wanted the downhill coming up out of the mountains. We unloaded and went over to the office there. We were immediately asked if we wanted to stay with this other company in a cabin for a heck of a lot of money but we declined. The hostel is a 20 minute hike uphill and it wouldn't be easy with bikes so we asked to camp under their office roof/fruit stand. Thomas let us, and over the course of the evening gave us bananas and coffee. We paid $5 for the camping. Thomas noticed Rigel's bike tire pump, asked to use it and soon Rigel turned into the bike mechanic for the night pumping up tires and fixing the holes.
By the time Rigel finished with the kids bikes he was tired (since we hadn't had supper yet) and bonked his face pretty good on a low beam. I fixed him up best I could and Thomas gave us some alcohol to put on it and also realized we hadn't eaten yet. He later came by with a plate of food from his own table. It was very generous of him. We were able to go straight to bed after we ate.
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