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WEEK 17 : 22nd Feb - 28th Feb 2002 |
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| Trip Distance (km) | Quote of the Week | Country | ||
| 16,909 |
"I used to love the smell of pig sty's" - Boxy's childhood revelation, and you can probably guess the smell of his boots
" On your way boys" - Costa Rican traffic police officer |
Costa Rica - Panama San Jose - David (Panama) - Bocas del Toro - Santiago - Panama City  Map |
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Memorable Moment The stifling heat of David greeted us as we prepped the bikes and donned our black jackets, boots, gloves and helmets for the ride north to Bocas del Toro. Feeling like an ice-cream in the summer heat and enduring the locals humorous glares, we rode out of town knowing from past experience the protective gear was a necessary evil. Riding north we stumbled upon a town hosting a calf lassoing competition, the crowd attendance was typical of a local football game at home, acknowledging their heroes with triumphant applause as their lassoes found their target. Ascending further into the mountains revealed views comprising of 50 + miles of astonishing country reaching right to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Within minutes of admiring such landscape we were hit head on by torrential fog, rain and wind that neither of us had ever experienced. The outcome was to be a painstakingly slow and careful ride some 60 miles in order to overcome the sudden, violent climatic changes and reach our destination safely.
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Pictures of the Week |
Competition Making the borderA rain downpour and miscalculation of distance had us racing for the Panama border in order to cross before it closed at 6pm. We arrived at 5:15 and managed to exit Costa Rica and enter Panama in only 35 minutes only to find out the border was a 24 hour operation. |
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Highlight The fantastic beaches and lack of hawkers on the island of Bastimentos, a two dollar taxi ride from Bocas del Toro. |
Risk Activity A mountain crossing provided to be a little more treacherous that expected as the storm whipped up winds so strong that they had the goneriden crew back to 1st gear and at a point almost blew them off the side of the mountain. Risk factor: 8/10 |
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Lowlight Not being able to communicate in more than a basic fashion to the two locals at David who kept on buying us beers. (Even if we did know Spanish, they still probably wouldnt have made sense) |
Road Tally Opening the throttle of the KTM's and rounding a mountain corner at 90 km/h we were suddenly waived down by the police radar gun in hand. A 50 km/h road sign glared at us as we were asked to produce our licences, then.....move on. |
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