I have been away for 17days... wow, it feels like so much has happened in such little time.
My first few days/weeks here were always going to be some of the most challenging and they didn't dissapoint. In order to make the trip a reality I needed to find a motorcycle capable of taking me some 9,000km, transfer all of the easy to understand paper work and registration documents into my name, get hold of a certificate from customs to enable me to export the bike into Costa Rica and beyond, buy a surfboard and build a bespoke rack to carry the thing. All of this with just the use of three Spanish words... Si, Que and Gracias!!!!
On my first day in Panama City I landed on my feet. I had been recommended a Hostel owned and run by a friend of a friend of a friend which turned out to be a perfect place to start my trip. Hostel Villa Vento Surf is in the commercial district of P City and is a really nicely converted, clean and friendly hostel in a safe but hectic part of the city. Daniel and Leo Remorini are the brothers with the brains behind this and a second hostel of which I will say more about later. Both are mad keen surfers and most excellent people.
Nice Pool!!!
And a very nice new Cafe / Board Store Courtesy of Colin and Crew...
On my first day I got myself hooked up with a local sim card and called a couple of people with adverts on the local equivilant of EBAY, no messing! There were two Kawasaki KLR 650's advertised and a Suzuki DLR. From my pre trip research I had seen that most bikes were up for $3,500 - $4,500 which was about a $1,000 over my budget!!! By some freakish stroke of luck the first bike I went to test was advertised for $2,800... I could almost afford it?!
Segway... When budgetting for this trip I had allowed myself the delusion that our van would have sold for a much overly priced 3,500GBP! As it happened the van took forever to sell and I ended up leaving the country without having sold the van and consequently a measley 300GBP in me bank account. I had a rather worried feeling that this maybe the most shortlived adventure the world has ever known! As luck would have it whilst sitting in the airport I got a call from a Kiwi living on the Isle of Wight asking if he could see the van... On the second day of being away Thea called to say the van had sold and that I wouldn't need to come home just yet... Unbelieveable relilef! Oh and T got the full 3,5k for it!!! We did 5,000miles and made a 1,300 profit!
So anyway... Saturday morning and full of Jet lag I got up, took a taxi across town to an unknown destination to meet 'David'... I had to call the guy whilst in the cab and he gave the driver some directions to a special meeting place, David was a very interesting American who I will dedicate a whole post to when I get a chance!
After a long conversation about real estate, thieving Panamanians, War, the Canal, the French and Obama I took the bike for a spin. There is a block of three islands linked to the city via a long and scenic causeway, David chose this spot so I could open the bike up and not have to deal with much traffic... it was perfect! The bike was 12yrs old and a bit battered, with a custom paint job and matching helmet but it was real smooth and easy to ride. All was going well until I stopped to take a photo across the bay and when I went to turn it back on there was nothing... No electric no nothing! A little confused and slightly concerned I called David. Long story short the bike had blown a fuse and within half an hour he had been home picked up his truck and fixed the problem... An interesting start and slightly worrying... Unsurprisingly I don't have any AA cover here and the thought of being stuck somewhere out in the jungle with a dead motor bike was not appealing... But despite that and despite trying another newerer KLR that didn't breakdown I decided to offer David $2,500 and risk it for a biscuit!
The first breakdown of the KLR...!
So on my second day of being in Panama I had already found myself a motorbike, I had also found a 2nd hand surfboard and just been told I had the money I needed for the trip! Unbe-freaking-lievable!!! (I figured this was too good to be true and I was definately going to be run over by a bus at any minute!)
On my third day in Panama, feeling somewhat biblical, I decided to do nothing but watch the world cup final with some fellow travel bums in the hostal... On Monday things were going to get real!
Monday morning came around real quick and having spent the past few days discreetly withdrawing $500 at a time from various different cash machines and from all three of my bank cards I rather anxiously got into a cab with $2,500 dollars in cash in my sweaty beige fanny pack stuffed down my trousers!
David had very kindly agreed to help me get all the paperwork sorted for the bike... Whilst I'm sure part of this offer was to ensure nothing came back to bite him in the ass, I cannot begin to explain how grateful I am for his help. David not only drove me around Panama city to the eight different government offices over the five days it took to get the papers sorted but also incredibly generously put me up in his annex for the entire week and got me high! The amount of time and stress we both went through to get everything legitimised is indescribable... Without Davids help I would still be in Panama City. I Thank you so much for making this trip a reality!
The full collection of certificates and receipts required before I could get on my way... What a Mission!
In addition to the above David also enabled me to make a board rack to complete the preperation for the coming four month mission. As luck would have it David happened to have a box section steel frame which he had previously used as a roof rack for one of his trucks... It was surpless to requirements and he very kindly allowed me to use it. It took some thinking about but, in a sligthly stoned haze I noticed two perfect sections that looked as if they would simply bolt onto the bike. David supplied the cutting disc and Grinder and left me to it!
Every evening for three days I chopped, ground, painted and wrapped these two perfectly formed pieces of free steel into my board rack.... In total I spent $25 dollars getting two brackets fabricated for the front support and maybe $10 dollars on a few bolts and some Gaffa tape. The rack came in about $100 bucks under budget.... Super happy!
The bike and all paperwork was finally completed late Friday evening, Exactly one week after arriving in Panama. Not in my wildest dreams did I think I would be setup and ready to go within a week.
I am super grateful to David for all his help. As I said to him late Friday evening, despite the fact that he is a crazy, racist, rednecked, bastard I cannot begin to explain how grateful I am that I met him and had the good fortune to spend a week with him. I have met very few people that would go to the lengths he went to to help another human being. He has been enormously generous and I am unbelieveably grateful.
David is a keen ADV rider and whilst I was aware of the strong bond between bikers I had no idea how far another person would go to help a fellow rider (albeit a rider who's had a license for 3 weeks!). It was incredible to experience the group comoradery 1st hand and I will be sure to return the favor to a fellow rider if I ever get the oppourtunity.
So finally on Saturday morning we hit the road and the trip really got started....
Big Love to all at home... Oh and by the way the waves are pumping!!!!
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