Day 62

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!