January 2nd, 2014, Panama City,

We really enjoyed our stay at the Holiday Inn Express. For too long now we have had rooms where there was barely room to move, you only had one electrical plug in, the AC (if it worked) sounded like it would vibrate itself off the wall.

 Old quarter of Panama City.

 

 

 Pool party on the streets in the old quarter on New Years day.

 Here's an example of before and after restoration on the buildings in the old quarter.

 Municipal building.

 Panama City skyline,

 

 Panama canal

 Electric locomotive used to keep the ships in the center of the canal, this ship had 2 feet clearance on either side. (the ships use their own power to navigate the canal)

 This ship was a bulk chemical carrier. (you can see the new locks being built in the background)

 It took about an hour for this ship to clear the lock.

 

  

Tonight we are staying at the Panama House Bed & Breakfast with five other bikers (all in their twenties) and we've spent the afternoon exchanging travel stories with each other while I'm trying to write this blog.

Tomorrow, January 3rd we leave for Colon on the Atlantic coast to board the Stahlratte for Columbia. We will be traveling with 5 other bikers from Panama City to the coast, a ride of about 2 hours we're told.

 

Please note that we will be on the water for a number of days with no access to internet so the next post will probably be in a weeks time, hopefully with a few good photo's and new experiences to share.

 

We'll take this opportunity to let everyone know that we have changed our original plan of driving both ways. Instead, we are looking at two different options:

#1 sell the bike in Argentina and fly to Vancouver.

#2 ship the bike by air to Los Angeles or Dallas and ride home from there.

Our reason for the change is that the border crossing aggravation along with the cost of hotels, fuel, meals and wear a tear on the bike for a return trip would cost about the same as flying the bike to the USA. This would also allow us more time to tour the remote area's of South America.

 

A few stats for the trip so far:

 

Distance traveled: 10,638 km

Flat tires: zero

Oil changes: two

Crashes: two (thankfully both were minor)

Rain days: two (Washington and Oregon)

Hot days: almost every day is above 30 degrees C

Number of times sick (from food or water) Diana: one, Ken: two