The skyline out of our host's 15th floor apartment window tonight in Medellin, Colombia...pretty....yes....but how are we going to get out of here?!In CR, we ran into some hurricane strength gusty winds...at least that's what it felt like when it pushed us off the road, into the ditch twice, in less than 1 mile. We finally had to seek shelter at a nearby church for an entire day and a half because...well (the truth)...I was in tears because I was so scared. Darn wind. Our other weather challenge was the heat. Being less than 10 degrees from the equator at about sea level makes things pretty steamy...about 100 degrees that is. Sure doesn't feel like January.
In Costa Rica, we got to meet Gary (57 year old Wisconsinite and has the body and stamina of a 30 year old) who has been pedaling from California south, then had to fly back home because his sister had a massive heart attack...would like to finish his trip to the tip of Argentina some day. Also met Matt, who has dual citizenship in England and Canada and is biking super speed from Montreal to Chile before he goes back to bush piloting in May. He started the end of November (YES Canada in NOV), through MN and followed the Mississippi, straight down Mexico and zipped through Central America in 2 months...amazing. Fun to travel the road with them for a couple days. We also hit our 6,000 mile mark in CR at a great lookout of the Pacific. The last time we saw the beaches was in Mazatlan, Mexico 4 months ago, so it was fun to camp and enjoy the sound of the waves again...although, we could have done without the biting ants EVERYWHERE and the salt on the bike is tough on ol' JoJo. Our only other pesky animal encounter were the crocodiles, about 20 of them, we noticed as we crossed a bridge...nothing close enough to get excited about though.
We crossed into Panama, got a little more mountainous than CR and hotter yet. Eric was on a pedaling spree of 10 days in a row and finally I (literally) put my foot down and said I needed off the bike. We ended up staying in one of the nicest hotels for our money yet, poolside, and we soaked in that pool all day. On the road again, after realizing BOB was without a Panamanian flag, a nice lady ripped one off of her windshield and gave it to us...a fun encounter. We were also greeted by a kind gentleman who was doing some maintenance work at a restaurant in a big city just before Panama City. After going to 3 different hotels and finding out one was full and the other 2 over our budget, we went back to him and asked if we could tent in his restaurant (that wasn't open that day)....(I know it would have been a better story if it had been open)...he asked his 89 year old mother for her okay, and the restaurant floor became our resting spot for the night. Carlos then took us in his car to meet his sister, who served in the US Army for 20 years. The whole family has dual citizenship because their father (now out of the picture) was a US soldier in Panama. They had wonderful things to say about all the Army had done for their family, including providing university educated children who are engineers now in Panama. Additionally, Carlos thought it was pretty great that he got a Pension check every month.
The day we layed eyes on the Panama Canal was one never to forget (it was a good picture, believe me....get over it Christie...I know). Before crossing, we took a few minutes to take it all in....6500 miles, across the US, Baja, Mexico, Central America, and now at the end of the road (well...almost). It took 25 minutes to walk across the bridge, and it wasn't very glamorous....it was incredibly noisy with traffic, the side walk was narrow and garbage everywhere....not just old wrappers, we're talking entire car bumpers, old tires, and metal scraps. I had to walk in front of Eric, who was pushing JoJo, so I could clear a path for him...not really what we were expecting. We did have some nice views of the locks in the canal and the huge container ships loading at the dock. Our host, Harvey, was a friend of a friend of Eric's dad. Harvey is a retired gentleman from Mankato and has lived with a Colombian family in Panama City for over a year. They were wonderful hosts the 3 days we were with them, spoiling us with field trips of the city, homemade Colombian food, and my spa makeover including a massage, pedicure, manicure, and haircut! There was no way we could say thank you enough, but tried by treating the 7 of them to tatertot hot dish (this is a new word in Spanish). Eric spent a day and a half disassembling the bike and boxing it up....what a darn process that was! We ended up piecing 3 boxes together, taping and taping and taping it more, then saran wrapping it (that REALLY was a good picture).
Some of you may be wondering why we had to fly to Colombia. There IS land that connects Panama to Colombia, the kicker....there is no road. The Pan American highway completely dead-ends about 100 miles after Panama City, so the options are to trek across the drug infested gorilla war zone of the Darian Gap, take a cargo ship that has an unknown timeline, take motorboats from island to island on the Caribbean side, hope that a sailboat in the Panama City harbor is leaving for Colombia and wants a bike and cyclists on their boat, or fly. We considered checking out the motorboat option, but seemed too risky with the damage the waves and salt could cause on the bike...so we flew. We took the cheapest flight available on an airline called Aires and were seated in row 8 of 9 on the mighty Dash 8.
Our first look at Colombia high in the sky was exhilarating...there is something to be said about going from 1,000 feet to 5,000 feet in a matter of hours and never sweating. Medellin is a gorgeous city of 2.5 million people set along a valley of 2 huge, rugged mountain chains. We loaded our 2 boxes, we had been fighting all day, into our last obstacle...the taxi, strapped them into the trunk, and arrived at our host's apartment. Maricello, is a friend of a friend at Eric's former employer, Dotson....(these friend of a friend deals are working out quite well!) He and his lovely wife Doris, have showered us with generosity from the moment we unloaded our heap at their 15th floor apartment door. We ate an amazing roast chicken, veggies, and potatoes for dinner on their deck, then took a stroll around their hip, young neighborhood...the skyline is breathtaking, we keep taking ¨one more look." Today Eric spent 6 hours reassembling JoJo...it's like putting Humpty Dumpty back together again....oh my....I reorganized all our other stuff and also put my handy bike mechanic skills to work by screwing on two water bottle cages. I must admit here, as I was repacking our gear, I realized I am getting really tired of my same two outfits everyday. When we were in Panama, we were out for a walk and I asked Eric what he was going to wear on the plane (I don't know why I asked that)....he turned and looked at me and said "Ta da." I guess it does make wardrobe decisions pretty easy. Tomorrow, Eric is psyched because Maricello is going to give us a tour of the foundry he works at (I just hope there in a candy dish like at Dotson). They talked foundry all night tonight at dinner...it's good he can have a conversation about metallurgy that goes beyond the question "Is that English your speaking?" from me. Then we will hit the mountains on Saturday and right out of Medellin, we have a 4,000 foot climb over 18 miles, and at an average climbing speed of 5 miles per hour, it should be....fun.
Panama City to Medellin...all accounted for (notice the blue saran wrap:)
Bare bones: What first?....hummmm....
2 comments:
hello Eric ! how are you ! I saw your picture during your travel are wonderful. Say hello also for your Christie. i hope see you soon: I think that in the next few weeks I will go in Mankato
hello Eric ! how are you ! I saw your picture during your travel are wonderful. Say hello also for your Christie. i hope see you soon: I think that in the next few weeks I will go in Mankato
DOMENICO FROM ITALY
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