Stew's Summary of the Entire Trip

Now that we are here in Panama and settled in Altos Del Maria, I thought it best to capture my overall thoughts on our entire trip.

We left Calgary August 30th and arrived to Altos Del Maria on October 10th.  We travelled 10,315 km over 40 days through the US, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Finally Panama.  We had some great days, some terrible days and lots of "Interesting" days.

The best parts:
 - Walking on the beach with the Schneiders and just relaxing for the first time on the trip.  We needed it.
 - Riding through the desert of the Baja peninsula in Mexico and first seeing the sea of Cortez.  It is a spectacular teal vision after seeing so much nasty land.
 - Happening on Santa Cosala South of Guadalajara Mexico and its wonderful lake communities.  This was the first place in Mexico we could really see ourselves living full time.  We spent a few short days here, but really enjoyed it.
 - Getting lost North West of Mexico city in a very small town where no one spoke english.  We had a good discussion with some locals as the road turned from cobblestones to mud in a torrential downpour.  they helped us find our way and reaffirmed that we can probably get by anywhere with the little spanish I knew.  Also reaffirmed that people are good and want to help where ever you go.
 - Finding the Holiday Inn in Tapachula, where everything else looked so sketchy before that.
 - A little gem of a hotel just into Honduras from El Salvador.  We arrived in the dark in a terrible rain storm and were all really worried about what we would find in Honduras.  We heard it was the poorest country we would travel through and the most dangerous.  What we found was a very nice hotel and great people.  Karen needed a tire repair and the friendly Hondurans who fixed it and helped me get a couple bolts to fix a loose saddlebag were tremendous.
 - The hotel in Liberia Costa Rica was also wonderful with the hotel built around the jungle.
 - Arriving in Panama to a divided highway with proper signage.  We were stopped by the police for speeding in a town area (ok there were no signs that said slow down there), and the policeman was very friendly, professional and let us know the expectations without being mean about it.  After the conditions in Mexico, Guatemala, ..., it was great to be back in a more developed country.  It almost feels like being back in Canada!
 - Last but not least, the people along the way have been incredible.  Dan and Bonita who helped us in Washington when Jada had here spill were so helpful in a very stressful situation.  Mark, the amazing bike mechanic, from Northern California who fixed Jada's starter without delaying us what could have been more than a week.  Carlos, who helped us get on the ferry to Mazatlán, gave us some good advice and has kept in contact since then.  Socrates from Tapachula who helped us so much when Karen needed a doctor for tummy troubles.  He came in on his day off to help us translate with the medical staff.  Matthew, a fellow travelling biker, who shared some time and stories with us. Brian and Jeanette in Altos Del Maria who have been simply great.  They helped us get set up, invited us to Thanksgiving supper, came over for birthday drinks and are helping us meet people in the area. There were several more people along the way who helped us and so many more who were simply good people.  Thank you so much to everyone.

Ok, so with any good also comes some bad:
 - Day 3 in Washington on the Cascade highway when Jada grabbed the front brake too hard and laid her bike down.  This scared the #@$#@* out of me because I was riding behind her and saw her sliding along the highway!  I am so glad she is ok, but never want to see that again.
 - Getting lost in Tijuana and driving through some really sketchy areas before we got on the right road.  Just a comment, Mexico signage for roads are absolutely terrible all over the country.  It is so frustrating to know you want to be on highway 1 and then come up to a sign that says highway 1 right, left and centre!  As a traveller you need to know which towns you want to go through in Mexico (every little town not just the big ones)  just to stay on the right road.
 - Getting stuck in a 10 mile long traffic jam in 40 degree heat because of striking sugar cane workers blockading the highway.  So stressful winding through the big trucks in the bikes on the shoulders and in between trucks.  Thankfully we got out before nightfall and found a hotel.
 - Getting parasites and bad bacteria in Southern Mexico that gave all of us diarea and stalled our trip for a few days until we could travel again.  We are still not back to normal more than 3 weeks later.
 - Getting ripped off at the border crossing going into Nicaragua.  All the border crossings suck big time.  We averaged about 3 hours per crossing because of the many steps, confusing layouts and bureaucracy.  The "helper" people at the borders are mostly bandits who will suck as much cash out of you as possible while telling you that they are helping you so much.  Thank you Canada and the US for being so efficient and easy.  The worst may have been  missing the customs place in Southern Mexico because it is 100 km North of the border and not marked at all coming in from the North.  This cost us an extra day and was so frustrating to try to find.  Generally the border crossings was the worst part of the trip!
 - All the huge pot holes and speed bumps in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.  The roads were absolutely atrocious.  No warnings, no signage, no speed limits, just terrible roads that rattled our bikes and our spines.  Note that Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama are so much better than the rest.
 - The scariest part of the trip was staying at an auto hotel in Guatemala in a really sketch location just across the border from Mexico.  The room was dirty, loud, had bugs, didn't lock, was really hot, felt unsafe and we heard close gun shots in the middle of the night.  We didn't sleep much that night and I have never been so grateful for the sun to come up so we could leave.

My favourite countries along the way were Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.  Costa Rica was expensive and touristy, while the others were dirty and had terrible roads.

Surprises (good and bad):
 - People are people.  Everyone likes to talk to bikers, especially bikers from elsewhere.
 - My little amount of Spanish was enough to get us through everywhere, even in places where no one spoke any English.  It wasn't always pretty and some times had lots of discussions like charades, but it worked.  And my Spanish is getting better.
 - The roads were so bad, I would have never expected it.
 - The borders are so badly organized, inefficient and expensive. Because we were travelling on bikes we had to temporarily import our bikes into each country and then cancel out of that country when leaving.
 - The food really is quite bland South of Mexico, mostly rice and beans.
 - There are some really beautiful places like La Paz Mexico, San Juan Cosála Mexico, La Libertad Nicaragua, Liberia Costa Rica and Coronado Panamá.
 - There are some real ugly, terrible places that I can't believe people live at.  Canada may be cold most of the year, but I'll take it at its worst compared to some places best days!
 - The community of altos Del Maria, where we are renting my friend Kerry's place, is beautiful, remote and home to a huge acreage development for so many expats.

Karen and the kids will each post there take on the adventure over the next few days.
I hope you all enjoyed our posts.
Stew.

PS. Here are some photos of the Altos Del Maria area.

 This is a panoramic view from the top of Altos Del Maria.  

 Watching the clouds roll in.