Flying Solo

Sun 20th & Mon 21st July

Feliz cumpleaños / Happy Hippy Birthday Syko x

Left Playa Grogs at 8am heading for Playa Venao.  After 3hrs riding I started to feel a little special so pulled into a Fonda and grabbed some chicken and rice... yum!

Refuelled with both food and gas I
left the InterAmericana and headed south of Route Nacional #2. The tarmac was super smooth and the roads wound through pretty little villages all the way down to the beach at the end of the peninsula, I love motorbikes :) :) :)

After 5hrs of riding I got to Playa Venao and pulled up at the beach - 3ft and clean!!!! (It really was!)

I quickly found a hostal with camping and strung up my hammock. When i said camping the manager looked at me like I was crazy, I wondered why but carried on regardless. The ground was rocky and covered in goat shit but the trees were perfectly spaced and my setup looked awesome. It wasn't till later that night when I realised why he thought I was crazy... Man did it rain! It rained so hard that a river formed under my tarp and hammock, the rain even bounced 3ft off the ground to soak my boots and helmet that were hanging from the tree! Despite the rain, thunder and lightening I stayed completely dry... my Hammock rocks!

The only downside of the day, and a common theme in my life, was that by the time I had faffed around setting up camp the wind had swung on shore and the surf was shit... I still got wet but it was barely worth it.

The next day I was awake at 6am and on the beach by 8... I mean 6:15! The waves were super fun, light offshores and just overhead I caught loads of rights! Nothing too heavy but a lot of fun.

When I got back to camp I could see someone had gone through all my stuff but fortunately they found nothing of interest. I had put anything valuable in my rucksack and using the steel mesh pacsafe locked it all to a tree! 

Playa Venao was probably a real nice place 2-3yrs ago before it was bought up by an Isreali couple who have been busy turning the site into resort. When I was there a lot of construction work was going on to build a load of condo's and roads and the tranquil jungle beach was not as chilled and natural as it once was... the cost of man's enternal desire for growth, a reoccurring theme in much of Panama.

The hostel was called Chola's and had a nice laid back vibe with outdoor kitchen and was occupied by a ton of Isreali's of which two were really nice.

I should have stayed at Eco Venao, a really nice hostel set back off the beach with jungle cabins, an organic restaurant and lots of trails through the jungle. I took a walk to find some waterfalls where I was greeted by two noisey howler monkey's! they followes me around in the tree tops barking & grunting like pigs, I spent a good half hour trying to learn the language with little success.

Wildlife here is abundant and whilst out on the bike I came across my first snake! Unfortunately it had seen better days and was very much dead... a pack of vultures sat in the road picking at the flesh and politely scattered to allow me to take a photo.

After another fun surf followed by a cheeky burrito I got in the hammock and read. Another huge storm rolled in and I eventually drifted off to sleep to the sound of thunder and raindrops.