Author: admin

Day 67 1/1/2022

Odometer   31,280 – 31,340 —-  60 Miles (8640 Miles Total)

San Gil, Colombia

What a lovely night of sleep with no one snoring. I’m learning to appreciate quiet nights in the dorm rooms a lot more now. I went out for breakfast and it was so quiet on the streets at 8:30am after New Years. It was nice to have the streets all to myself. I got some delicious breakfast at a little shop and it was so good that I ordered two of it. I went down to the market and got two fresh cups of OJ. I got back to the hostel and packed up for the day. I was gonna go to a small town about 30 minutes away to go swimming for a few hours. I got the bike out of the parking garage which cost me $1.50 for the night. I love it.

I took the ride on lovely twisty roads to the town and then drove down a dirt path. I parked and got my ass to the river. The water was quite cold which was nice since it’s so hot here and I laid there for a few hours just getting even darker than I already am. I read my kindle for quite a while and took a few naps. This is life, just chilling out, relaxing and napping whenever I want. Life is going to be brutal this summer when I have to get back to work skydiving. Not looking forward to it.

It got a bit cloudy after spending like three hours there and I decided it was time to go check out a town Nick and Danielle recommended. It took me about an hour to get over to that town where there was an incredible viewpoint of the Andes mountains and land nearby. I sat there for a bit enjoying the view and then went into town for food. The town has these beautiful pavers on every single street with white wash walls on every house. It was beautiful. I miss seeing things like that in Mexico! I took some pictures of the bike in the streets and I decided I would head back. On my ride back I remembered I wanted to go bungee jumping in San Gil.

I pulled into the parking lot of the Bungee place about 35 minutes later and signed the paperwork. It only cost 20 bucks, I couldn’t believe it. The jump was 230′ over a river. I waited about 45 minutes in line and it was my turn. I was wondering if it was all anxious about it and jacked up even though I have 500 BASE jumps. The guy asked what I did for work and I told him. He was pretty thrilled about it. I got on the platform, he gave me some instructions and I walked up the edge. He gave me a 3,2,1 countdown and I jumped. Oh I miss that feeling. I had a great exit and body position, I pitched my body at a steep angle right after I left so I wouldn’t get whipped by the force when the bungee hit line stretch.  The pressure at line stretch was pretty strong. I wasn’t expecting it. They lowered me down and I was back on earth. I rode my bike back into town to finish up today’s blog.

I cleaned myself up and went out for dinner, made some friends at the restaurant and hung out with them for a bit. I was invited to play cards at the hostel before I went out to dinner so I went downstairs in the back and there were about 6 people playing. I jumped in to play Rummy 500 the card game. After a round of that we played some other card game which involved some speed. We were all laughing so hard to the point where we were snorting like pigs and the guy that worked at the front desk told us to be quiet about 6 times. We played till 1am.  I was too jacked up from the high speed card game so I took an edible to go to sleep and shared one with one of the girls from the card game. She was sleeping in the same dorm room as me and her whole family was in there too. They are from Bogota. We ended up chatting in the kitchen for the next hour while the edibles slowly kicked in. I almost fell off my chair like 4 times. Comical. We both decided it was time to sleep!

Panoramic view from Barichara of the Andes

A airplane restaurant on the way to Barichara

Barichara

View of San Gil from my hostel

Barichara

Barichara church

More Barichara streets

You can take a guess where this is

Bungee Jumping

Day 65 12/30/2021

Odometer  31,050—— 0  Miles (8350 Miles Total)

Panama City, Panama – Bogota Colombia

Country #39

Country #37 Via Motorcycle

I didn’t get much sleep last night along with half the other people in my dorm room. I’m actually kinda thrilled to see that other people my age are up in the middle of the night on their phone. I thought I was the only one with sleeping issues. I learned a while ago though if I wake up in the middle of the night to absolutely not touch my phone or it will make it way harder to go back to sleep.

Today was my day to fly out to Bogota. My flight was at 6pm. I just needed to kill a few hours this morning and stay out of the heat since it was brutally hot. I went out for breakfast and worked on the blog. I really milked my time there. I took care of some more stuff online bank wise. Worked on lining up some 0% balance transfers on my credit cards to throw the money In the stock market. I’m hoping I can make a 25% return on the money in the next 4 months to help cover some expenses from the trip. Hopefully that will all work out and it would make me pretty happy! Once I was done with that I went back to the hostel to shower and pack all my stuff up. It barely fit in the backpack and I was hoping I wouldn’t get banged for $100 to check my backpack since it was pretty big at this point.

Once I was done packing I went out for an açaí bowl and then decided I would get an uber to the airport at around 1pm. Super early but at least I’d be hanging out in the AC at the airport and I could work on my Spanish lessons on Duolingo. A girl I met in town yesterday was flying out around the same time so we could hang out as well once she showed up.

I got to the airport and did exactly that. My Spanish is getting pretty good with the small basic stuff. I barely get anything wrong during the practice and lessons on Duolingo. It feels good! I’m slowly getting better with understanding people and talking back to them. I’m excited to learn more. At about 3pm I went to check in which took me an hour because I had to fill out an immigration form for Colombia but it wasn’t working on my iPhone or laptop. Luckily I tried to do it on google chrome on my laptop and it worked. Another lesson learned. Have google chrome on my phone as well for situations like this. After that Ana got to the airport and we went through security together. She got through and then they called her back. She said she’s had this issue her whole life. She’s from Panama but lives in Miami. They held her up for about 5 minutes and then they let her go. I was up next. I have anxiety about anything to do with my passport after the last few border crossings. The guy let me through and then he called me back as well. He took my passport and disappeared for about 15 minutes. He came back to show another guy what it said on the computer screen and I read something about the Russian Federation. I said whoa i’m not a Russian guy, I’m Serbian. He yelled at me to not look at the screen and made me get on the other side of the computer. He walked away and I took a few shots of the screen. See for yourself what it said.

They let me through after a while and I was fucking relieved. I don’t need to be missing this flight. I just want to get to Colombia and be on my bike. Ana invited me to the bougie part of the airport at the lodge she had access to. We ate some snacks and drank some wine and chatted for an hour before we both had to catch our flight. I got on the flight without paying the $100 fee they asked for online for a carry on. Thank god.

The flight was only about 75 minutes and we landed in Bogota. I got through immigration pretty quick and off I was to get an Uber to Daniella’s house. Nick, her boyfriend, brought me a care package which I’ve been looking forward to. He dropped it off at her apartment 10 minutes from the airport and they both went to her family’s house in the mountains for New Years. So I got to her place and the doorman gave me the bag, I called another Uber and went to my hostel. As I was checking in two weird shady guys walked in and one of them gave me a pound. There’s something off about them. I had a lot of cash in my backpack with my camera and laptop and I was pretty worried they were going to try something. I kept them in front of me the whole time and when I had to pay for the hostel I pulled out about $600 in Colombian money and the girl at the front desk got weird about it. I think she felt the same vibe about the guys. Good thing I was about 40 pounds heavier than each of them and a foot taller. After I paid I put most of my things in my dorm room locker and came back out to go through what Nick brought.

A new tool bag for all my tools to get them arranged nicely, some tools, the free camping stove the company sent me for free after finding out it was stolen from me on my trip. A speedo, two pairs of shorts, two new Smartwool socks which I was so excited about. $1200 in my 20’s, $500 in Colombian Pesos Daniella exchanged for me, bead breakers so I can remove my tire when I get another flat and a solar lantern for camping.

I haven’t been this happy about any gear since I left on the trip. I was so so so happy to have all these things, especially the wool socks since all of my thin running ones have holes in them. I rearranged all my new toys I got and then I went out for some food. FINALLY!!!!! Finally I can eat cheap delicious food. I’ve been sick of the food since the minute I left Mexico. I got a huge plate of rice and chicken that I couldn’t even finish for $6. My hostel I got tonight was only $7 as well. Beats paying $20 a night like I’ve been paying the last month along with $20 breakfasts and $30 dinners. I’m so excited to be in Colombia. I’m loving the vibe here. It feels so good. Anyway after I got food it was about 9:30 and I decided I would go to bed early since I had a long day ahead of me tomorrow.

Day 63 12/28/2021

Odometer  31,030 – 31,050—— 20  Miles (8350 Miles Total)

Panama City, Panama

Todays the big day I rushed my ass down to Panama City. The bike is getting shipped to Bogota, Colombia.

I woke up at 6:30, pulled the bike out of the parking garage and loaded her up. I had a 40 minute ride to the airport. I hope I had all the right paperwork and I hope I didn’t leave anything important at the hostel. I pulled into the airport and made my way to the cargo section. I met a woman who gave me paperwork and sent me off to customs. I spoke to a guy who was in charge there and he told me about the last couple guys that came through. I remember their names from a Facebook group where we all share info about shipping bikes and crossing borders. I just missed two of them in a day! Anyway, 20 minutes later I was on my way back to the cargo office. I pulled my bike into the building and put it on a metal platform where 5 guys started to tie it down. Wow they were quick. As I was taking pictures about 8 other guys showed up from Mexico. They were all riding Africa Twins and heading to Argentina too.

I locked my panniers up as best as I could and put all the valuables in the top box which was locked. I was waiting up front and it was time to pay. $1100 and that wasn’t bad since I got a few quotes for $1600. I asked if they took CC and they didn’t. That would have been great info before I showed up there. Luckily I still had a bunch of cash on me and paid. I was waiting outside after that while they finished up paperwork and she told me when I land in Bogota tonight to take a taxi to the Air Pack hangar. I replied that I will be flying in two days. The guy I set it all up with on WhatsApp told me I can fly down whenever and get the bike. She was not happy to hear this. Shit I hope it isn’t an issue. I told her I’m flying down in two days and she stormed off. She came back 10 minutes later and said it was ok but I’ll have to get it on the 31st because they close at 5pm on the 30th and I land at 8pm. That’s fine with me. She called me a taxi and $25 later I was back at the Hostel. The whole process took under an hour. I couldn’t believe it. I got there at 8 and I was in the taxi a few minutes before 9. These guys got their shit together for sure!

I went out for some breakfast and worked on the blog. This city is too damn expensive for me. $21 for breakfast and I barely even got any food. I’m gonna have a hard time getting back to real life in NYC after all of this. The food is so cheap everywhere. $1 watermelons on the side of the road, a huge bag of fresh organic figs on the side of the road for $1, organic pineapple for $1 on the side of the road. The prices everywhere are fucked. I hate New York and how overpriced everything is in America and none of it is even organic. Disgusting.

I went for a walk around Old Panama and decided I was pretty tired and hot so I’m going to go do what I rarely do. I went back to my hostel, took a shower,  popped open my laptop and watched a few movies while napping like a child. That all felt so good. I did that for about 4 hours. I decided to go to a Crossfit class at 5-6pm. I had to walk about 45 minutes to get there or take an Uber. I hate Ubers so it looked like I was gonna take a long walk. So weird to not have a bike and figure out transportation. That was quite a shock for me. I decided to spy on my bike so I opened up the SPOT app to see where my bike was and I couldn’t believe it. It had a ping on the satellites in Bogota. It landed at 12:51. Wild! Somehow my bike has been to more countries than me officially!

I had to get out of bed at about 4pm and start walking. I got to the gym and asked what classes they had lined up. A bit different than most gyms. They had a cardio class at 5PM, 6PM was a Crossfit class with heavy lifting and 7PM was a bodybuilding class. 5pm seemed more my type and I needed some cardio in my life right now. Fuck these guys are brutal.

5 Rounds 25 Min time Cap

50 Sumo Squats with a 35lb KB

200 Single Unders

5 Wall walks

200M run

Jesus my legs were fried. I almost finished the fifth round but collapsed at 25 minutes right after all the squats. So close.I stayed after class for about an hour and did some more muscle ups, weighted pull ups, more muscle ups, ab workouts and I was smoked. I called an Uber for $2.75 and took the ride back to the hostel. I can’t believe how cheap that was. I showered up, dressed up in my new fancy linen shirt and went out to an Italian place the owners of the hostel knew. I had some incredible homemade pasta and a pizza. The owner was from a small town near Bologna and she was a sweetheart. I told her about my trip and she loved it. We chatted for a while and I decided to go for a long walk back to my hostel, put on some movies and call it a night.

 

 

I didn’t sleep much at all last night. I had so much anxiety about this border crossing I’m about to do. I’m cutting it so close with time to make it to Panama. I read last night that this border crossing is the busiest one in Central America due to all the shipping in and out of Panama. I hope I don’t get stuck here for 12 hours. I slept maybe one hour or two hours last night worrying that I’ll miss my alarm clock and not make it to the border at 6am.

I packed my bags and loaded up my bike at 5:40. I went downstairs and asked the hotel receptionist if he could make 3 copies of my passport and other paperwork since I know I’ll need it to cross today but he said his printer was broken. The last thing I need is to get screwed out of my place in line since I have to run off and get copies made. I headed down to the border which opens at 6AM. I asked a few cops where I could get copies made and they pointed me to two places, both of which were closed when I got there. I gave up on that idea since it was so early and just went straight to immigration and customs on the CR side. I got through the process on the CR side in about 20 minutes. I couldn’t believe how fast it was. I was maybe the 5th person in line for immigration and the first in line to get my bike out of the country. 

I drove to the border now and parked my bike. A man came over to help me which I thought was a fixer but no he worked for Panama im pretty sure. He walked me right over to a window where I got some paperwork, then another window to make copies which cost me a dollar. Then he took me to a window to buy insurance for my bike for $25. We walked over to immigration where they did my paperwork to let me in the country. A few minutes later he walked me over to customs to deal with my bike paperwork, he paid for my disinfectant for my bike to get across the border. 8AM and I was in Panama. I looked back and there was a line of 50 people from tour buses waiting to get into the country now. I would have been screwed if I showed up a little bit later. 

New rule from now on is if I’m doing a border crossing I have to get there right when it opens. It will surely save me hours of waiting in line. 

I got on the road right after getting gas a minute away from the border and GPS said 6.5 hours. Time to get my ass there. The roads were pretty boring as I was on a highway most of the time. There were tons of cops everywhere after about 2 hours on the road. They were everywhere on the side of the road with radar guns. I don’t know how the hell I got away so lucky. I was doing 50-60 km/h over the speed limit the last two hours. I slowed down and started to use Waze and got to see where the cops were. I got really lucky. I stopped for a watermelon since I haven’t eaten a single thing yet about halfway through the drive. It counted as my hydration for the day as well I figured. My body isn’t too sore from the crash I was thinking about on the ride. My back hurts a bit from the initial impact but other than that not a scratch or bruise anywhere. I looked up at one point and saw dark clouds. I’m not pulling the same shit as yesterday so I pulled over to put my pants and boots on and as soon as I did it started to downpour but luckily I parked under a tree. I changed and started riding but as soon as I got back on the road the rain stopped. It was 96 degrees and fuck was I hot! Better to be dry and hot than wet like I was last night.

I rode for about 2-3 hours with full gear on going through small cities stuck in traffic and sweating profusely inside my gear. I couldn’t wait to get out of my gear. I eventually got to my hostel at about 2:45PM. I stripped down to my underwear in the lobby as people were just laughing at me. I dropped my gear off and got back on the bike to go to BMW. I had to get this ABS situation fixed ASAP. I got on the bike wearing shorts and a t-shirt. So much more comfortable. I blew through a toll booth since ei took the wrong turn and blew through another one. God I feel like I’m back in NYC blasting through tolls not paying them! I got to BMW and talked to the manager of the shop. He loved the trip and sent me to the service department 10 minutes away. They moved the shop from the dealer when Covid started. He called up and spoke to the mechanics and told them to scan my bike for free instead of charging me $130 to scan it.  I got to the shop, they scanned it. I bought $90 worth of oil and coolant since I needed to flush the water out I put in when I was in Lake Atitlan. The mechanics came back with very bad news. It’s neither of the ABS cables that is causing the ABS to not work. It’s the ABS pressure regulator. It costs $1600 and it doesn’t even matter that they don’t have it in stock because I’m not spending that money anyway. Looks like i’ll be finishing my trip without ABS.

BMW is a bike that’s made to travel around the world.  You need head steering bearings every 20,000 miles which costs $600 to get done and you have to rip apart the whole front end. And now the ABS pump breaks. I don’t get it. I left Ducati because the odometer stops at 99,999 and a new one costs $2500. Not a bike that’s made for long distance and now I’m questioning why I bought a BMW. BMW, if you’re reading this I’m not looking forward to ripping my bike apart in the middle of Central America or Africa to change head steering bearings. Get your shit together people!

I rode back to my hostel. I took a shower and changed. I went out for a walk to get food and I walked past a store that said linenwear and bathing suits. Shit. Here, take my credit card and take all my money. Ever since I left Tulum with that white linen button up I’ve been in love with linen. The shirt in Tulum was $200 and after poking around in this store I found out the shirts are only $80 each which is wild. I looked up this same company and the same shirts are selling in NY for $180. A few minutes later I walked out with a blue long sleeve and short sleeve linen button up. My icebreaker wool shirts are starting to fall apart on me along with the socks and underwear. My shirts all have holes in them at this point. My blue one didn’t have any but after the crash I have a large hole on the back. My smartwool socks all have huge holes in them and my underwear as well. I’m really starting to look like a homeless person. Good, maybe people will stop trying to sell me shit on the streets. Looks like I’ll be wearing linen full time on this trip and it’s just as good as wool since it doesn’t smell and it dries quickly. 

I got some food, walked around for hours and made some phone calls. I got back to my hostel and unloaded all my luggage and rearranged everything for the big shipment tomorrow. I pulled out a few things I’ll keep here until I get to Colombia and I’m reunited with my bike. I went out and walked around some more, seeing all the sights around the old city. I was getting super tired so I called it a night at 9pm and watched a few episodes of a tv show on Netflix while laying in bed. I set my alarm clock for 6:30 and clocked out around 11pm. What a successful day!

Day 61 12/26/2021

I didn’t get much sleep last night with the party at the hostel and all the loud music. I went to bed about 1:30 and got up at 6:30. By the time I packed up and ate breakfast I was on the road a bit before 7:50am. I knew I was messing up by getting a late start but it is what it is.

So last night I got in contact with the shipping company for my bike. They had two upcoming dates to ship my bike to Bogota. The first one was for December 28th. I had to have my bike at the airport on the 28th at 8am and they would be shipping it on the 29th. Last night I booked a flight from Panama to Colombia on the 30th at 6Pm. So now I’m in a rush to get my ass and bike down to Panama in two days. I have 15-16 hours of riding to  do and two border crossings. I just went from paradise to absolute hell for the next two days. These border crossings surely will take the life out of me and drain me and on top of that I have to ride 8 hours a day minimum. I’m definitely going to have two long nights of riding which I’m not looking forward to.

I made it to the border at about 8:30am. The process was quite easy to get through immigration and then I had to head over to customs to deal with the bike. I waited in line for about 1:15 and then when I got to the booth the guy told me I had to have my bike inspected first. FUCK! I went back outside and got my bike inspected which was them just looking at it. They were supposed to search it and everything inside my bags but they didn’t. I went back inside and luckily they let me skip the line but I had to wait maybe another 30 minutes for the guy in front of me to finish up. I don’t get how they have one person working this line when there were about 30 people in line. Once I was done with that they let me fun off to the Costa Rica side. I got one line for immigration and fucking christ it was about 100 people long. Maybe 5 minutes after I got on the line about 200 people lined up behind me from tour buses. I can’t believe how lucky I got. If I had to wait behind all those people I would be screwed. I waited in line for maybe 2 hours I don’t even know. I got to the front and they checked my passport and stamped me in. I got to the border at 8:30 and now it’s 12:45. They sent me over to customs to deal with the bike now. I did some paperwork and just when I thought I was done she sent me over to another building. 

I walked in and she checked my papers, printed some stuff out for me and charged me $35 USD. She told me to sit down for the next booth. There’s a guy sitting down here with his papers stuffed into the window for the next person to take to do his paperwork. I feel like these guys have been sitting here a while. It’s now 1PM and I’m still sitting here second in line at least. My day is absolutely fucked at this point and ill be riding until midnight tonight. I only ate some breakfast this morning and I have an 8 hour ride to the Panama border. I’m ready to break down and cry here. Oh and as I’m typing this a woman just walked into the building. I think she works the counter I’m waiting at and I’m assuming she just got back from lunch. I’m praying I’m right and I’m out of here in 30 minutes. I got a long damn day ahead of me. I’m already burnt out from today and its not even half over. 

Yeah no i’m wrong. There’s a sign above her booth on the computer that I’m assuming says “I will return at 1:30”. Great another 30 minutes burned. If I get out of here at 2pm I’ll get to the Panama border at 10pm the earliest if I don’t stop for food. And then I think another 2 hours to the city named David I want to stay in Panama. I really miss my easy life I had in Brooklyn right now along with my bed and friends. Life is so easy back there why the hell did I do this? Oh that’s right I was getting bored and wanted an adventure. Im rethinking my life decisions right now. I would love to be back home for a few days and have a nice break but I have to keep on chugging along here. I need some positive motivation and hopefully I’ll get some  when I get on the bike and ride to Panama. These border crossings suck the life out of me and I hate it. I’m praying this last portion of paperwork goes smoothly or else I might just break down and give up for a little bit. Or I might just feel how I felt in Nicaragua for a few hours and want to cry. 

So here I am updating the blog after a long day. I ended up getting out of customs at 2PM and that really fucked me. I can’t believe it took almost 6 hours for that border crossing. I heard it was supposed to be quick. Once I hit the road I blasted my music and was having a great time. I got some new music the last few days and it really boosted my energy levels. The drive through Costa Rica is nice. The people in central America drive like shit though. It’s the worst driving I’ve ever seen in my life. 

I made the decision today to ride 8 hours to the Panama border, deal with the crossing and then get my ass to a city called David about an hour into Panama. It will set me up for an easy day tomorrow. Its going to be a long long brutal day but it is what it is, this border crossing really really fucked me. So at this point I don’t have time to stop for food or water. Only thing I can stop for is fuel which I can get once and I’m good for the rest of the day. As I was riding about halfway through the drive I saw the clouds got dark and it looked like it was going to rain. I waited till the last second to change but once I decided to change it already started to downpour. Now I know Costa Rica is a tropical place so the storms must pass through often and quickly because all the locals are on bikes too in the rain and it seems like they don’t care. I’m sure the rain will stop shortly here. I watched the sunset as the ocean was clear while the mountains to my left were covered with dark low clouds pouring rain out of them. I wanted to pull over to take a picture but this was for me. I finally understand what it’s like to not wish someone else was with me to enjoy something. I’ve always wanted someone to share nice moments with. But now for the first time I’m happy just seeing lovely views or enjoying good food by myself. I’m not alone, I’m with me. I finally got what Yak was talking about. It felt good.

90 minutes later and the rain is so strong I literally have to use my GPS to make sure I’m on the road. I can’t see more than 10 feet in front of me. This is insane. I remember Yak telling me the same thing happened to him in Central America and now here I am! I realized one thing in this rain. I left at 8am and now it’s about 6pm in the dark. It’s raining so hard I’m actually contemplating peeing in my jeans right now because it will get washed away in two minutes with how strong the rain is. I’m a little bit cold, tired, hungry, I’m soaking wet and somehow here I am singing along to my music with a smile on my face with another 7 hours left to go in the day. One thing I noticed about myself which I really appreciate now is when people are at their absolute breaking point, I just somehow find a way to be happy and laugh all my problems away.  This is one of my most favorite things about myself for sure and right now it’s saving my ass from being miserable and wet in Costa Rica.  

It reminds me of my last Ex. We were in Europe on my motorcycle doing a two month trip. We were in the dolomites of Italy. It was August, we just got done with a 2 month car trip around the US and now we’re in Europe for another 2-3 months on my bike. Like every other day she was just miserable. I remember saying to her. Were literally off of work for 5 months, were wealthy, healthy, beautiful and have life by the balls so why the fuck are you pissed off and miserable about anything. I couldn’t ever understand it nor will I ever understand it. I’m very thankful for my mindset all the time and how I can make the best out of the worst. I’d much rather be here right now riding for 16 hours wet in Costa Rica at night time instead of being home working my regular job and having a normal life. This is what makes me stronger as a person. 

The rain stopped and I was happier. I was trying to dry my pants and shoes off the heat of the engine and it was working. My pants were dry from the knees down except my ass was soaked still and my shoes had water floating around inside of them. Another hour later it started to rain again. I don’t care. I’m going to get to the border , pass through and sleep like a baby tonight and tomorrow will be easy! HAHAHAHAHAH this is where it all goes bad.

I ride in the torrential rain for another hour and I’m passing cars riding like a maniac in the rain without a care in the world.  The rain lets off at one point and I’m 40 minutes away from the border. So close. I’m taking a few turns passing people and suddenly I look up and there’s a sharp turn right in front of me with a concrete barrier on the edge of the road. I was startled. I locked up the back wheel while getting on the front brakes as hard as I could without locking the front wheel up. The back wheel starts to skid. I left off and applied pressure again. I look at my surroundings for a quick second as 100 thoughts fly through my head. 

This is it. 18 years of riding and I finally fucked up. I fucked up real bad. This was the moment I’ve been imagining what it would feel like for a very long time. I made a split second decision looking at my surroundings and realized I have to lock up the back wheel, kick the back end out and lowside the bike. I can’t believe this shit is about to happen. Ok this is gonna go just like the movies I said to myself. I remind myself to relax and let go when the bike drops so I don’t get hurt from being stiff.

I slam my right foot down on the brake and turn the bars so the bike starts to slide sideways like I did all the time on my bicycle as a kid. This is a very tricky spot because if I let go of the brake too soon the rear tire will get traction and I will go high.  A lowside is when the bike just drops to the floor and slides on its side and you just slide behind it. Highside is very dangerous because the bike will slide sideways and then get traction at the last second. The bike will go from about to slide on its side but instead it will grip and launch the rider over the side pretty high in the air at times, and the bike will also start to barrel roll which will 100% total the bike and possibly even crush me if it lands on me. 

The rear wheel locks up and I’m kicking the back end out perfectly. As I’m doing that I bring my left leg up off the peg so the bike doesn’t land on my left leg/foot and shatter it. I remembered hitting the ground sliding feet first and I knew my back will be fucked since my motorcycle jacket will slide up and expose my back to the broken up asphalt loaded with loose rocks. I hit the ground, I feel a lot of pressure build up somewhere on my body and then I’m launched into the air in freefall. I’m not sure exactly what happened here but I think I ended up cartwheeling through the air once or twice. I just tried to close my eyes and relax. My helmet almost got ripped off my head, my body was taking a hit from all over, I let out a nasty moan and I finally came to a stop. I jumped right on my feet as I recall and was shaking with adrenaline that I hate. I took a few steps and the bike was on the ground blinding me with the headlight. I walked over dazed and confused to lift the bike up. As I was walking over to it I said fuck I really messed up bad here. I had no service for the last two hours of the ride. 

So now I crashed my bike in the rain at night time in the mountains of Costa Rica and I have no service, and I can’t speak spanish. My trip might be over right here. I walked over to my bike and noticed I lowsided it perfectly so the bike didn’t flip over and get totaled. As I’m lifting the bike up a man pulls up with a car and asks me if I’m ok. I don’t have words yet. I stand the bike up and put the kickstand down. I asked him to come outside and stand with me for a minute since he spoke English. He comes outside and asks me how I’m doing and if I’m ok. I said I think I was ok and I lifted up my jacket to see how bad the road rash was. He said I’m bleeding just a bit but not a lot. I take my helmet off and put it on the bike. I take a few steps and a few deep breaths. I think I’m ok, I think i’m actually 100% ok and the bike seems to be fine. I ask him if he can follow me for a few miles to make sure my bike is ok incase I need a ride to a hospital or anything. Suddenly a cop pulls up and starts to ask me questions. I give him a thumbs up and ignore him. That’s the last thing I need right now. I start my bike up, hop on it and start riding. I give the guy behind me a thumbs up and he follows me all the way to the border where he said he lived. 

My energy was drained at this point. As I was a few minutes away from town the hostel I booked in David, Panama emailed me back saying he’s pretty sure the border closes at 7pm. I called Alex up back in New Jersey and he confirmed it. He found me a hotel in town which I went to but it was a creepy looking one so I went down a few blocks and found a nice one with storage for my bike with AC. I called up a little restaurant the guy at the front desk recommended and had some food delivered. All they ended up bringing me was a piece of grilled chicken with a little side salad and a coke. I was starving but that’s all I got for tonight. I made a few phone calls and went to bed.

A example of a Highside crash, you get laughed over the bike.

Lowside crash, this is what I did. Except my leg wasn’t caught under the bike!