Just adding photos

This is Alicia, she owns the hotel/house we stayed at the last two nights.  She has two acres of land, and it is quite beautiful.

Jada studying in bed......we only had sheets to cover us.....no air conditioning in these rooms.  Jada loved the fact that the fitted sheet was of Elk, mountains, and snow.

Same room Jada is in, just showing the other side.   We had lots of room in here......plenty of space for the geckos, and ants.  As far as I know, that's the only critters we shared our room with.

Stewart's bike was parked on one side of the door, my bike was parked on the other.   Alicia didn't want us parking out front in case someone did something to our bikes.....as far as am concerned, someone can do us a favor and steal Jada's bike.

Can't steal her bike when Alicia insisted we park it inside her house.   The damn thing doesn't work properly anyway!   Frustration is on high!!!

Stewart spending the whole day working on Jada's bike.   If only we had known of the mechanics that we found today.........we can't "should have" all over ourselves.....but at least it is getting fixed now.

Rosie is by Jada, she is the manager of the hotel.  I'm sitting by Freddy, he is the Gardner.  Lot of work to be done on two acres of all kinds of trees and flowers.  Very nice people.

 This is Terry, Alicia's husband.  He drove Stewart all over the place to get the parts he needed for Jada's bike.  Terry is a Vietnam War Veteran.  It was really interesting looking at all his medals and plaques.  He really didn't talk about the war, but he is still suffering from post traumatic stress.  

Well, it's Thursday morning......Jada's bike is fixed.....way to go Stew, let's get going and head towards Nicaragua.   Time of departure, 6:30 am.  Terry had coffee waiting for us.  Everything seems spot on!

This is what happens when you drop your helmet three times in one day.  Doesn't shut properly, and the face mask goes to the back.  I'll get a new one back in Canada.....for now, it'll do.

Traffic was a little slow, which allowed me to take this shot of Stewart and Jada.  Love the country here, it is so much more beautiful here than in Panama.  Still won't retire here either!!!!

We were traveling for over an hour when something had dropped from Jada's bike.  I stopped to retrieve it, for god knows it could have been something very important.   It turned out to be the "Vulcan" logo from the windshield.  Not important at all....but who knew!   Jada saw that I had stopped, but stayed with Stew.  Stew thought I was just further behind and would catch up.  He had no idea that I had stopped.   I freaked out later because I couldn't find them.  They were waiting for me, but I hadn't travelled far enough to see them.  I had stopped by an intersection not sure if they had gotten off the road or not.  Jada and my Scala's were too far to connect so had no idea where they were.  I waited for a while, then thought maybe they had gotten off the road.  So turned to a New direction.  Realized right away that I was going the wrong way.....they wouldn't have turned off the road without me......so I did a u turn to get back to the road I was on.    Just as I was getting to the spot I had stopped before, I saw Stewart and Jada coming to find me.   Man was I happy to see them!  I felt like puking when I was lost from them.   Stew just smiled and let me know that if I had gone just a little bit further I would have seen them.  But because the road had curved, I didn't go further, in case they had taken another route, I would be easy to see.    Jada had stopped her bike to wait for me.  Started great when they decided to look for me.  When she stopped it again so we could talk, it would not turn over for her.  Needless to say, I had to beep my horn at stew so he would know that Jada's bike wasn't fixed after all.    So we ended up push starting it again, and went a little further up the road for breakfast and a much needed family talk.

 

It is decided to return to where we had come from.  This time we are a lot closer to San Jose. 

Jada is pretty sad and frustrated with her bike, as are the rest of us.  It is decided that if her bike cannot be fixed, we cut our losses with it, and fly her home.  She needs to write finals and finish her long distance learning for good.  Stewart is trying to navigate our way back, as well, as find the mechanic shop that Ana had sent him.  There is an airport here, so it is a great place to ship Jada off if we need to.   I'm feeling that it is a blessing that her bike quit here again, instead of in Nicaragua.  We are close to an airport, and some cliffs to throw her bike off of.

After breakfast, Jada and I switched out our batteries again, and headed back.  Stew got us to a little mechanic shop, and they actually knew what they were doing.  Checked out everything right quick, said it wasn't the regulator, but rather the coil in the generator.  It will hopefully be up and running by noon tomorrow.  My fingers are crossed it will all work out.  I really have to believe that this will be okay, and we will finally start to move forward.    I would love to phone up the mechanics in Panama City and let them know what useless, unorganized, unknowledgeable, idiots they really are.....these guys have caused us more grief than anything........fricken assholes the lot of them!!!  I hate Panama!

I'll stop my rant, for I really could go on......I'm glad they kicked us out of their country.......assholes!!!!

Okay......I'm done.

Let's see what tomorrow brings us!

And remember......let Stew enjoy the journey!

And......Jada will stop when I do, so Stewart will know that I have stopped.....so I won't get lost again, and almost cry on the side of the road.

Found decent mechanics!

These mechanics have multimeters and everything!  So, it turns out the coil is bad and not the regulator, so they are trying to rebuild it and will put the original regulator back on. I wish the gringo helping me yesterday knew about this shop. 

The very nice lady we met at seagull cove (Ana Cecilia) found this shop and "What's app'd me. I bought a cell SIM card and now have internet on my phone that helped get us here. Lesson learned is use technology to help when you can. 

The black coils are toast. 

They will have it rebuilt for tomorrow at noon, hopefully. 

More bike trouble!!

So, we headed out from San Jose toward Nicaragua early this morning. Such a beautiful ride. But when we stopped about an hour away it wouldn't start again. 

The new regulator seems fine, but is not getting enough current. The battery is good (and we switched hers and Karen's batteries to be sure). So it has to be something with the generator that feeds the regulator. Argh!!!

So, we are heading back to San Jose, 1-1/2 hours away, to fnd a motorbike mechanic who can hopefully fix the bike. If not, then we sell it and fly Jada home. 

Frustration is running high here. It is hard to find any mechanics who know what they are looking at, then even if they do, finding parts is a gong show. Even going to the Kawasaki dealer/service shop in Panama City, the service and organization was terrible (they screwed up putting oil in for goodness sakes!). 

Note to self, before going on a Multi-country motorbike ride, take a full mechanics course!  And stock a few more parts (tire tubes, alternator, belts, fuel pump assembly, etc). And don't let anyone else touch the bikes. 

Remember to enjoy your journey,

Stew. 

Not the smoothest day in Costa Rica

So we all had a good night sleep after a long day getting out of Panama.  We were ready for the day, but Jada's bike wouldn't start, so we tried to push start it in the gravel parking lot.  Nope, didn't work. So we took it to the highway to push start it.  Success!  Then Jada's bike quit entirely on the highway, so Karen and I ran after her to push start again. Failure!  We tried again and it would not keep going,  the battery was completely dead and the alternator was not giving enough to keep it going.  We had a car put his hazards on to help divert traffic, which was really nice though. And he knew of a motorcycle shop that he lead me to.

I got Jada's battery on charge and headed back to go for breakfast.  It sure was nice to have coffee in the morning!  After breakfast, I went back and got the battery, put it in Jada's bike and we were off.  The mechanic had a Kawasaki alternator, so we drove there with Jada's bike and tried it out, but it did not give enough charge back to keep the bike running.  So off we went, However, we didn't know how long her battery would hold out.  So after about 3 hours, we filled up with gas and her battery was completely dead again.

We swapped out Jada and Karen's batteries, so Karen's bike could charge the dead battery while Jada's bike discharged the full one.  This got us just enough time to get close to San Jose where we can hopefully find a new or rebuilt alternator that will do the trick.  Lots of small alternators but none with the oomph we need (lots of small bikes in Central America but not many big ones like ours).  My Phone doesn't work here so I lost the address of the bike shop I was aiming for, but remembered the general area of San Jose, so I headed in that direction, but we were all tired, hungry and thirsty, so I pulled us over to a mini super store to ask about a hotel.  They directed me to one about a 2 minute drive away down a crappy road.  

We pulled into a house to ask for directions to the hotel, but the house was actually the hotel.  Awesome!  A place to stay and for only $40 too.  The owner's husband is from the states and gave me a ride in his car to get water and food.  Double awesome!!  He is taking me to the parts shop,that should have an alternator.  Triple awesome!!!  I might even get Karen's fuel pump for just in case while I am there (and gas tank gasket - does not help if I cause a leak right above her motor fixing the fuel pump).  We will see tomorrow. 

One final thing on our "hotel". We couldn't find a sign for it, because it is a rendezvous hotel for local shenanigans of unfaithful spouses!  They did let us put our bikes tucked in beside the room, in the back on the sidewalk.  I don't think it is the safest area, but it will do for the night.

Remember to enjoy your journey,

Stew.

Frustration with Panama Customs

So we met the customs officer at the border at 8:00 sharp this morning. We followed him as he drove like a bat out of hell back to David. 60 km/hr zones, people walking, people turning on did little to slow him down. We reached 160 km/hr at times. Great to feel the wind, but scary too. 

He took us to a building in a complex with no signs on it to say it was Aduana (customs). We parked the bikes and were led into a dirty room with three chairs where we handed over documents and waited, and waited, and waited. 

Finally after 4-1/2 hours (1:00 at this time) we get the boss to sign the forms and we head off to pay the fine in another area of the building. First the guy who brought us over took our keys then a lady took the paperwork (some 10-12 pages each bike) and had to call her boss to see what the fine would be. A little more waiting and we were told it will be $1,550. Ok, I expected a fine, but not this much. 

So then we had to wait for the bill so we could pay. And we waited again. Finally at 3:00 the bill came (maybe they had to call another boss). We paid then had to find the guy to get our keys back, oh and Karen's original registration (why just hers, I will never know).  

So in total, having our bikes in Panama for longer than 6 months, cost us 2 full days delay and a lot if cash. We had been expecting 3-1/2 hours per border, but not days delays. 

What also sucks is that we have not had water since the morning. We carry granola bars for this type of situation, but we need food, water and coffee. Everyone is a lot on edge and all directed at me. I offered for Karen or Jada to take over negotiation, translation, navigation, planner and general shit taker duties, but no takers. 

So we were escorted out of Panama right to the border. I've never been kicked right out of a country before!!

Entering Costa Rica was really easy and only took 1-1/2 hours to get through. Although I drove right through the whole border, thinking it was farther ahead. We had to turn around to go back!

About 20 minutes into Costa Rica, we found a nice hotel with three beds and air conditioning. Yay!  It was right close to a cool looking cemetery. 

Remember Stew,

Enjoy your journey!

Overnight in a border town.

Ok, so we got to the border on our way to Costa Rica a little before 9 am (it opens at 8). We got to a checkpoint before the border and were told that our temporary Vehicle Import Permit had expired and we would have to go back to David and pay a fine on Monday (not open today). The customs official lead us to the border, and after him and another person trying to find a way to get us through for about 2-1/2 hours, finally did up some paper work and asked us to return the next day at 8:00 am.  A delay, but no big deal, except that they kept our bikes, keys and registration.  The bikes were not registered, so could not be used.

Plan B has been to stay at a hotel right near the border, that is actually semi nice, clean and cheap with a queen bed for Karen and I and a smaller bed for Jada. We have always said we would avoid border towns, but this one is not too bad.  Both Panama and Costa Rica have similar governmental policies and more importantly the border extends for about 15 km toward the ocean ports and the only thing preventing travel between the 2 countries is a boulevard (there are 2 parallel streets in either country).  People walk back and forth all day and night. So instead of needing to smuggle anything across the border, they just walk it across.  So the system is great at catching honest smugglers, but not anyone who does not want to get caught.

We will see what tomorrow brings.  Maybe we'll get to Costa Rica early, maybe not.

Enjoy the journey,

Stew. 

David Panama

Well, we arrived in David early (around 2) and beat the rain!  But we did have some bike problems.   Since getting the bikes fully serviced so that they were ready to go, we have had some issues.  Karen's bike loses power when she tries to accelerate.  I changed the air filter, checked the fuel vent and added fuel injector cleaner to try to fix it, but it was still losing power today, worse than ever and it does it more when it is hot.  Jada's bike was not starting, so we push started it a few times today.

We booked into the hotel and asked where to take the bikes to have them looked at and were told to go to Robinsons, so we did.  It was a tire shop, but I thought they might have a good bike mechanic there.  We told a guy our problems and he called someone to come to the shop who spoke English better, so we waited.  The guy came and we explained our issues.  I wish the first guy would have let me explain, but when I asked if he spoke English it scared him off.  I am sure I could have explained it in Spanish well enough.  So we waited some more while the translator spoke to the busy mechanic.  Then we waited some more and couldn't see the guys dealing with us.  Finally after about 45 minutes in the shop, they said that they didn't have any bike mechanics and that I should go somewhere else.  We got directions to a bike shop. 

We pulled into a very little Honda bike shop and within 30 seconds a mechanic was there to talk to us and he spoke English!  He asked the problems and immediately asked if he could check the battery on Jada's bike.  He checked it (it was at 9.2V - low), so he put it on charge to see if it was the battery or if not then probably the alternator.  I was hoping for a bad battery, but the battery was good after a charge.  Batteries are easier to find than alternators.  When the battery was charged, he started the bike and checked the alternator output, which was low, but stil giving some juice.  So he disconnected the headlight (we don't drive in the dark anyways) to help keep the battery charged.  Hopefully we can find an alternator somewhere along the road.  While the battery was charging he looked at Karen's bike.

We talked over the issue and what I had done and he asked a lot of questions.  In the end he said that it was probably one of three things, fuel pump, fuel filter or fuel pressure valve.  Fortunately all three come as a one piece unit, so changing that out should fix the problem whatever it is. Unfortunately the chances of getting one in David is zero.  Karen can drive it, but we might have to take more breaks than we normally like too.  Hopefully we find a Kawasaki dealer in Costa Rica, maybe in San Jose.

Not the best start to our journey, but at least we got closer to home today.

Enjoy the journey,

Stew.