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.