Wandering with Tedder and Tamara

Tuesday, 5/22:

Ted is sick with a cold. We are still trying to find a boat to Cartagena for ourselves and the bike, so I headed over to Hostel Mamallena's to talk to the owner about a potential boat. He had a couple backpackers take the trip with this captain and run into a few problems. According to the captain's side of the story, things should be ok, but we thought it would be a good idea to meet with him and get a feel for it ourselves.

We got on our way to Portobelo, where the captain & boat were, and didn't make it far before the rain started. We had gotten a lot of hard hits with the potholes and generally rough road, but I still wasn't sure if we were stopping because of the rain or because the bike had a problem.

Unfortunately it was for the latter. Ted's 'metapost' has the details, so I'll continue the story from after the tire repair.

5/23: Boat, bike problems, etc.

After the wheel was repaired we were back on the road. After a little confusion about what road to take from Sabanita, we wound along the scenic coastline to Portobelo. We found the boat captain, Steve, in a little restaurant and spent about an hour talking with him and making the arrangements to set sail for Cartagena on Saturday morning. The bike will be loaded onto the boat with a sling, then wrapped up and put on deck. We will spend a couple days in the San Blas Islands on our way to Colombia, so the voyage will take 5 days.

When we were done in Portobelo it was starting to get dark. The ride back to Panama City was dark, wet, and altogether rather unpleasant. We made it though, and Ted was able to lie down and rest after the strenuous day while sick. (Ted's post covers the newest problem with the bike discovered at that point) I went out to find him some medicine, get us dinner and stuff for breakfast, which ended up taking over 2.5 hours because of the late hour and the closest pharmacy and grocery store were closed. I was really tired when I got back, and because I had been gone so long Ted had been looking for me, so we were both miserable from being sick and tired.

5/24: Bike repairs

Ted wasn't feeling up to riding the bike to the local bike shop, so we stripped off the luggage and I rode it over there. I was worried about the crazy traffic and finding the store, but the GPS helped, and I made it without any problems. The store owner, Fabio, was very helpful and they set to work right away to try and get the bolt out to get the links out to be reproduced. The bolt was mashed enough that they couldn't get it out, but were able to get things moved around enough that the bike was high enough to be able to use the sidestand again. Their recommendation was to take the bike as is to Cartagena, where we could find a good machine stop to make the replacement parts. According to them, Colombia has the best machine shops.

I went to an internet cafe and discussed things with Ted, while the shop changed the bike's oil. Luckily, when I got back I met Josh, a fellow motorcycle adventurer who gave me the name of a great machine shop up by the main airport. So, I rode the bike back to get Ted and have lunch, and I called the boat captain to explain our circumstances. He has no other passengers at the moment, so he said he was willing to wait for us to get the bike repaired. That is a big relief. Next, we headed out to the machine shop, and Ted's post has the details on that.