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Central America or Bust!!!! H3 -2003

the day was getting longer, and we made it down to the coast, and gassed up, paco, is hard of hearing, mostly with a full face helmet on, and harley straight pipes next to him, and I rolled in behind him at the gas station and said one word to him...."PANAMA" he says "what?" I said " PANAMA" fuck it, lets go! he just smiles this shit eating grin, mirroring the one I got on me, and starts to laugh....you motherfucker.......so we gas up and go over to the coastal road.

My knee is hurting pretty good, but goddam it, I'm going to keep riding. for those that said the harley wouldn't make it....it's at this moment that I realize and know that it is the only bike I want to be on at the moment. this chick took a massive beating, and is still going. pure steel, iron, and 50's technology at it's greatest. simple machinery, that took a hit, and now we're moving forward. reinforce the duct tape as it has blood seeping out, and we move on. the coastal rode is beautiful, and we finally make it to the central hwy. that takes us to panama, and around 5pm, the rains start to come down in full force....rain gear on, we continue....until we reach what appears to be an impass.....there are police out saying that the road is closed....but like much of the world, business must continue, so there has to be a way around.....he finally relents and tells us that traffick is diverting 15 km. to the south around a dirt/mud road. we take it. fuck it, it's already gotten worst, how bad could it be. we get to the mud road, and it's full on raining, we take one photo, and I like how dark the photo turned out, because that's how I felt....dark, tired, cold, wet, and in a hell of a lot of pain. i just tried to keep the left leg on the bike, and not have to bend the knee much.....

2299533-15mile_detour__hurting__2_.jpg
 
the crash happened between San Isidro de El General and the coastal town of Baru, on hwy. 243. once past the detour road, we finally made it to the Panama border at Paso Canoas (Canoe Pass) This border would turn out to be the easiest, and cheapest to get thru.

Paco was on full detail. He worked all the paperwork, and it had now been a few hours since I ate it good. we got to the border and it was dark, when we got to the panamanian side, I started to crash pretty hard, had to sit down, and felt light headed, and my stomach went to shit......pain was pretty nice....if you're into that....sometimes! and I couldn't do opposable thumb stuff with the left hand. had blood blisters on my left hand and had jammed my left thumb. had scrapes on my watch. the little helper, noticed me, and actually went and got me a coke, without saying anything. it helped, as I think my sugar was going low, after burning thru all of the adrenalin......we got thru the border, and they were cool with us. made it 5 km. up the road to the hotel. 10 dollars per single room, or share a double for 25 dollars. hummmmm, you do the math. we got single rooms. paco unloaded my bike. the way it worked, is the motel calls a taxi, you tell him what you want, he goes back to the border, and gets you a hot plate of food, and water/beer, brings it back, and you pay him. we got two plates, and i barely touched it. almost passed out in the shower, trying to clean the wound...but had to get the gravel and stones out......just laid down and slept.

a photo of the family that helped us. had the little one on pacos bike.

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the next day, we got up, and paco loaded up my bike, I rewrapped my knee, and worked the stiffness out of my body, the broken clutch lever is going to prove challenging. we're just going to tag the canal by fuck. no spending time there, though, as we should probably not even be doing this. we ride out, and it's a simple matter of pushing until we get there, I'm tired, and in pain, and the motrin is not cutting it.....

we stopped for a quick breakfast to get some energy in me, seeing as how I didn't eat the night beffore.

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we rode across the entire country by mid-afternoon, not much to it, mostly highways, I now just want to hit the canal, to say I did it.....

finally arrive, and we stop for a second, to get our cameras ready, Paco will take pics. from the bike, since we lost a lot of time after the crash, we need to start making our way back, it's now wednesday, before the big party in San Jose, and we need to be in
San Jose, Costa Rica by thursday midday.

here is a few going over the Bridge of the Americas! Sweet. a little worst for wear, and I love seeing the harley as dirty as it is in these pics, covered in mud, still humping it......
 
a side view. not very good on the focus, these photos were taken by paco on his disposable cameras.

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after riding over the bridge of the americas, we started to make our way back towards costa rica. we road the same roads that we had just ridden hours before, and made it as far as middway thru the country. in essence, it took us all day, to ride from the northern border of panama to the canal and back half way. we stayed the night in a cheap motel, and got an early start the next day. weather being very good.

leg is still sore, but it would do.

we got back to the same border crossing, and needed to get the obligatory photo with the country name...so we stopped.

here we are looking pretty hagard. and yes, I know I shouldn't be wearing the same helmet, but its all I got, and it's what I wore, to get back to the states. and yes, that's duct tape on the helmet too, holding the visor together. you do what you can, with what you got.

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once past the border, we still had to take the same detour as before, the river had washed out the bridge. the only good thing is that it wasn't actively raining, but it was muddy as hell. here was me, trying to take a pic. with the left hand, throttling with the right, and keeping balance on a slick muddy road. probably the smartest thing I did all trip..hahaha, not really.
 
here was a shot of us both, after that road detour, and all the mud caked on the bikes. we're in costa rica again, at this point, and will make our way up to San Jose. it's still early in the morning, so we'll get back on the coastal road, and then make a run along the coast, and then climb over the mtns. to the capital....

edit:
*oops, photo didn't load. I'll load it further down the thread**

link to photo:
http://www.paco2.com/CentralAmerica/Image6.jpg
 
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delays on the panamerican hwys. can throw a chink in a speedy plan. here we are waiting for the road to clear.

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on the way back thru costa rica, we hit the same coastal road, and it was amazing, a fast road, and we weren't holding back too much, even though I probably should have. it was to nice not to. we did pull over for some photos.

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after arriving at our last cut off spot, we talked for a bit, and Paco, was again itching to put the dualsport into the dirt....there was a road marked on the map, that was a dirt road, we talked about it, and I agreed, so off into the 40 mile dirt road we go. he is living the life on the pegs, hauling ass, sliding around corners and shit...me, it's like the tortoise and the hare, I just plug along, at a meandering pace, beautiful countryside, coastal farmlands, and jungles.....I usually catch up to find Paco, sipping on a soda, as I wave, and keep moving, with the occasional photo.

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this was usually the site, me waving, and then moving along as paco waited a bit longer, before flying past me up ahead.

it was funny, but I got the sense that paco was watching out for me, extra special. I'm sure it bothered him a bit to think that something happened whilst he was way ahead, and was wanting to make sure that we weren't apart in riding time for more than 15 min. at a time. i appreciated it, but also didn't want to be a crutch.

he posted his own version to the story here:

http://www.paco2.com/CentralAmerica/CentralAmerica.html

interesting how he writes, I like it.

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pacos setup on his bike. great bike, and handles awesome on the paved road as well.

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