Day 61

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!