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December 16, 2017
Day 34 [Sat 12/16/17] - Tocumen, Panama, Panama to Panama City, Panama, Panama
Update: I am alive and well and resting peacefully in the Riande Aeropuerto Hotel, Panama.
Starting Odometer: 11,349
Ending Odometer: 11,380
Distance Traveled Today: 31 miles
Distance Traveled This Trip: 6,777 miles [11,380 - 4,603]
Saturday December 16th, 2017
Tigers waiting to be tamed.
This morning, I get up, and head down to the Panabike store in Panama City. On the way there, I manage to snap some photos of the construction that's going on down here. I'm not clear what they're building, but my guess is that they're building a lightrail with glass-domed stations? Yeah...that's what it is. The first light-rail system in Central America. Hard to believe that we're going to get rid of the diesel buses. Horrors.
The traffic down here is just suicidal. I need to get out of this city. I'm just lane-splitting every day for miles, into and out of Panama City. It's every bit as dangerous as Los Angeles, if not more so.
Panabike's website says they open at 8:00 a.m. They told me they opened at 9:00 a.m. But they actually opened up about 9:15 a.m., or 9:30 a.m. maybe.
They were very helpful. They checked my oil. Checked my tire pressure. But they didn't think that anything was wrong with the bike. It starts fine, for them, of course.
I'm thinking that maybe I got some bad gas? I dunno. I'm not a mechanic. But they replaced my broken rear-view mirror for free.
While I'm in the store, I notice that they have Ram Mounts for sale. And I'm like..."yeah...one of my little rubber boots popped off of my Ram mounts....I see you have the little rubber boots for sale with a tube of superglue."
"Yes. You are supposed to super-glue them on there," he explains. Like...far be it from me to read the directions. So, I buy a spare set of RAM mount rubber boots plus superglue. Now I understand why they popped off when they got wet. Because they were never glued on there. Doh.
Now, I can't find my lens cap for my new camera lens. So I go up to the Albrook mall, reportedly the largest mall in Central or South America. But the places I go there don't have a lens cap that fits my new lens.
So I give up, and decide to go back to the hotel.
I go to the room and I manage to find my lens cap in one of the pockets of my riding pants.
I come out wearing just my swimsuit, and then I walk through the lobby to get something off of my bike in the parking lot. One of the attendent monkeys comes out and he's losing his mind because I don't have a shirt on. You can be arrested in this country for walking around without a shirt on, or riding a motorcycle without a shirt on. And I'm like....get over it, monkey. You have a pool, and it's legal to swim in the pool without a shirt. So, what's the difference if I'm in the parking lot you hotel monkey?
Then, I head towards the pool. The current temperature in Portobelo is 89 F, and the temperature in Tocumen is 84 F. But I think that it's generally cooler (and wetter) in Portobelo than it is in Tocumen.
As I'm stepping across the bar seats in the pool, I manage to drop my iphone 6S Plus into the pool. I broke the screen the first week I had it, so this is not a big surprise, to me, anyway.
Now, I've got to go upload my photos onto my laptop.
Posted by Rob Kiser on December 16, 2017 at 10:11 AM
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