End of Chapter Three.......On to Chapter Four

The trip from Granada to the Costa Rica border was uneventful passing through some incredible green lush rainforest's. We stayed quiet close to the border that night in a beautiful sea side village of San Juan. A really nice hotel sat behind a deserted beach with beach huts and restaurants dotted around the sea shore. We felt very at home here, even looking at properties in estate agents windows and dreaming of moving one day. We ate in one beach restaurant which was really nice but used exactly the same methods of shooing away dogs and tramps alike. The latter showing his contempt for the whole affair by taking a dump in the sea. All very odd.

I am not even going to mention the border crossing into Costa Rica, but it was the usual nonsense and I had sworn to myself the next crossing into Panama would be under our own steam without help from anyone.

The main landscape in Costa Rica is jungle like and the roads are pretty good, that is until we came across a new bridge construction which took us on a 30Km detour over gravel and mud roads. This detour also took us across some banana bridges. These are old rail bridges which used to move the cargo of the booming banana trade some 60 years back to the rest of the banana hungry world. Now long unused, these bridges haven't seen a train in twenty years but are used to move traffic. The surfaces are wood and steel with bits missing and its fun to ride, if your careful

We had a break after this off roading stint, a coffee in a road side cafe. Just as we where leaving we met an other Brit who turned up on a Honda African twin. Simon had been traveling some 51 weeks and was heading south to north.



A really great character and all round nice chap with a formidable scene of humor. It was good to try out sarcastic humor again for a change, something the north and central Americans fail to see any humor in at all. We chatted for a while then said our goodbyes and set off in opposite directions. After a while the rain started and we got caught in a bit of a downpour so the next town we decided to stop. A very basic hotel, beer, meal and bed.

The next morning was our crossing into Panama. We had promised ourselves to do this unaided and this we duly did. One of the smoothest and cheapest crossing we had. It had taken all them border crossings to get the hang of it all, but we did it eventually. The crossing took us about two hours and the shed needed to be fumagated, I guess due to the fact it had had two sweaty bodies on it for 4 months, then we had reached our last central American country ?. Panama.

It was just one stop before we reached Panama city and that was in Santiago, yes I know its the capital of Chile but this is another one. This one is a dump, with only one good hotel which we took. A bright, and I mean very bright hotel, greens yellows reds and blues all led to a cheerful environment. The usual afternoon rain came in buckets but we were dry and having a meal by 3 o'clock. The next day was to Panama city. What a big surprise this place is. Lots and lots of sky scrapers with lots more being built, busy and clean. It's contrasted by the shanty towns pressed against the multi million dollar constructions giving the city an odd feel. We knew we needed the airport where we had planned to fly the bike to Columbia. We had been given instructions on hotels near to the airport but when we reached the terminal, non of these instructions seem to match up with what we were seeing with our own eyes..... very odd. Anyway time was pressing on and we found a little place where we would stay for the night and decided to find the cargo terminal the next morning. It was only later in the evening and looking at a detailed map we found that Panama City has two airports and Sandra had directed us to the wrong one. Now in her blog she might blame me for this little blunder but be assured blog reader this was all Sandra's fault......... it was.........no really it was

We met a very enthusiastic chap from Venezuela over a few beers. He really was enthralled about our trip so much so he asked for our autographs.... fame at last

The next morning saw us doing the 20Km to the correct airport and the hostel we knew we was there. The backpacker Hostel is basic but cheap. Part time running water, and creatures invading your room. It was a perfect hold up for three nights so we could complete the task of shipping the bike to Columbia. We also met another Canadian biker there John, who was going through the same difficult task with his bike. We had decided to ship our bikes with the globebusters tour who we met back in Granada Nicaragua. Over the next few days we sorted out the tangle of wheres and whens and got the bike on the plane with 17 other BMW's. We bought ourselves some air tickets and off we went too.........South America hear we come.

Now we have all heard the awful stories of Columbia and Bogot?, but our first impressions are that this city is warm and friendly clean and in the right places , safe. A taxi ride from the airport to the downtown hotel had us ogling at a very nice city indeed. It only took a few hours of work with the agent and customs to release the bike (thanks to Kevin, Roddy and their team) we were told we could leave. This was not as straight forward as it seems. The bikes where in the shipping agents compound and the only way out was through the companies front entrance. This meant riding the bike through office corridors and out of the glass main door, down one lot of six steps and a second lot of two steps. Thankfully it all went well.



So this is it. The final chapter.... South America. This is going to be the most interesting part of our journey. As funds dwindle and time marches on who knows if we can reach our goal. We will enjoy trying that's for sure