LOADING A NEW ROUND INTO THE ENTHUSIASM CHAMBER...SOUTH AMERICA!

Panama City 
to

Caucasia Colombia
South America!

Listening to  Banana Boat Song  Harry Belefonte

Pull up the Youtube Beatlejuice clip of this Harry Belefonte classic, it's a crack up. Then sing out loud... Dayo Daaayo... and get those hips moving!

Time to Reload.
On the advice of an email from the Stahlratte captain I head straight to the Panama House Bed and Breakfast in the centre of Panama City. He's trying to get bike people who are boarding his boat to gather and leave from there Monday morning together. As I only planned to transit through Panama anyway I book a couple of days, crank the air conditioner and take a deep breath. On the way there from Santiago I cross the famous Panama canal in crazy traffic but when I get within seven hundred metres of my destination the traffic is so gridlocked I give up and pull over and wait a while in the heat. I walk the final distance to the B&B just to see where it is and then walk back to the bike to find the traffic hasn't moved. Hmm...in the end as most of it is downhill I just wheel the bike there along the footpath...well maybe not wheel...
...OK I rode it down the footpath...and up a one way street the wrong way...
...Jeez I hate cities!

The Panama Bed and Breakfast turned out as an OK place to crash.
Willy the house Beagle slept with the bikes...I later found out he was
interned with the bikes as he had a habit of chewing things about
the house...erm...what about brake lines then?

If you're not particularly fond of the beer it's best
to get rid of it an move on right?

C'mon let's do this!
It's seven twenty in the morning. I'm kitted up and sweating my ass off. The bike's loaded and my new friends and fellow travellers are manoeuvring their clumsy luggage laden bikes into position to leave. We're heading out about a hundred and twenty K's out of Panama City through Kuna Indian tribal land to a secluded jetty at Carti on the Caribbean sea.
 I love this stuff! 
The road into the jetty is not even on Google maps and the directions are kinda vague but the final line from Captain Ludwig reads "after a kilometre you see some huts and we will be anchored there and waiting for you and direct you to a concrete pier to the left". 
Yep Rattles the KLR and I are off to sea...

Early Monday morning outside the Panama House B&B.
PK and Maral are on a round the world tour. Look up
www.ridetobeone.com  and check them out.

The road to Carti was stunning  with endless tight curves 
and roller coaster dips and rises. It rained heavily
on the way in making it even hairier.

John and Catherine had a slight tumble from their BMW after
a truck in front of them almost ground to a standstill going
up a hill in the rain. All good though and nobody hurt.

The end as the captain described with the Stahlratte waiting.

I think there was about sixteen bikes on board. A Dutch tour group
boarded the next day after we had visited El Povenir Island.

Rattles tethered and about to take the strain.

And up and over. It was actually a very simple and quick process
getting the bikes aboard. 

Strapped to another KLR to the side of the ship. Some bikes received a
couple of new dings and scratches but Rattles and I brought our own!
 All bikes were covered for the voyage to try and protect against sea spray.

Step Away from the bike and relax...
...that's an order!
OK as usual I'd not done any research before booking my passage on the Stahlratte to Cartagena. (I always wanted to write "book my passage" as it sounds so cool!) When I booked it I half thought it was just a ferry to transport vehicles and people. While I had a couple of days free in Panama city I looked it up and erm...shit...it's a sailing boat built in 1903...hmm OK yep it's got an engine as well...good...the engine's from 1955, a four cylinder Volund engine...hmm never heard of that one. Ok it looks pretty cool though...that's the main thing. The trip to Cartagena is sold as a kind of mini cruise. The first day you load the bikes and go aboard and leave your gear. Then you go by small motorboat to El Porvenir Island to relax and swim and stay the night. Hmm not big on laying around and relaxing but I guess I can force myself. The next day you rejoin the Stahlratte and sail for about three hours to the Coco Bandero Cays in the San Blas Islands and swim and snorkel about for another day. The following day you set sail for thirty odd hours depending on the wind across the Caribbean to Cartagena and sleep the night in the harbour before unloading the following morning. 
Hmm. How can I put this. 
I booked this on a whim whilst on a downer while soaking wet in a crappy hotel in Santiago Panama...
I gotta follow these whims more often!
WINNER!
I'll let the pictures do the talking...

El Porvenir Island. Just an airstrip and a very
basic Hotel consisting of a strip of single rooms
and a kitchen.

Not much going on here...guess I'll have to relax...

You get the picture...first time in a hammock.

On the trip out to the San Blas islands the dolphins rode along for a while.

There are literally islands everywhere. They don't normally have palms
but the Kuna Indians who own the islands plant them to farm coconuts.  

Beautiful...that's all!

The food was excellent and the scenery from the table unbeatable.

Listening to  No Woman No Cry  Bob Marley
While cruising through the islands we encountered many
yachts and craft owned and skippered by erm...fortunate folk. 
While passing one such craft they were belting out
 Bob Marley through their sound system across the water. 
Does it get any more appropriate?

The clouds hung over the mainland and we could see many showers
falling in the distance. Luckily we copped it sweet with almost
 perfect weather.

So there's a rope ladder to the top...
so ya gotta climb it right....

And the view...

The water was warmer than any of the hotel showers in the last month!

This catamaran had run aground on a rock and the Stahlratte
manoeuvred around for three hours to pull it free.

The mighty Volund engine
. Think chuffater chuff dudder dudder chuffater chuffater chuff dudder dudder dudder...
....there's a song in there somewhere...

Selfies are serious stuff when you're new at them.

Losing ya Dinner

Someone's shakin out the ole blue carpet

we're risin 'n rollin 

 goin up one side 'n down t'other

Someone's shakin out the ole blue carpet

me stomach's risin 'n rollin

about to go over one side or down t'other!

Dean

The beds were kinda basic...more Stalag 13 than the Ritz.

Captain Ludwig hard at work in the kitchen. He 
and three staff handle everything. He appears an 
exceptionally jolly fellow...

Heading into Cartagena harbour.

The captain at the wheel.

The mighty Stahlratte.

This is John and Catherine. They are on a
round the world trip on a GS1200. I found
myself humbled by most people on the boat
going round the world or on trips with no
real plan to end.

Rattles finally on South American soil on the wharf at Cartagena.

New continent New country 
New Learning
After landing in Cartagena the motorcycling shipmates rode to the Cartagena audana for their temporary import paperwork and then fragmented into their personal agendas. Two couples, Maral and PK and John and Catherine are on round world trips, the Dutch tour  group has to be in Ushuaia by early December, Chris has till January to explore and get to Buenos Aires, and Steve Josh and Ollie are all blowing with the wind as to where and when they may settle. (Oh to be younger!) And me...well now I'm way behind in any imagined schedule and a thousand odd K's behind my planned starting point in Columbia ...
...worth every inch though! 

After dining with the younger crew I joined John and Catherine
 at this cafe in the old town for Vodka shots and a
shared cab ride back to the hotel.

 After one night in Cartagena and a final dinner with the younger lads in  the old town I load up and set off across Columbia. Yep it would have been good to explore Cartagena for a while but I've got to get going. I clear the city reasonably easily and after a pummelling with rain and roadworks arrive at a town called Caucasia by mid afternoon. First thoughts on Columbia, well, except for  maybe Vietnam there are more motorcycles  on the road than I've ever seen. It's absolutely mind boggling the amount of motorcycles and motorcycle business infrastructure in every town. It's almost impossible to be anywhere in Columbia so far and not be able to see a motorcycle. They are all small capacity Japanese and Chinese brands and oddly on the day we landed it was the monthly no motorcycle day in Cartagena with motorcycles banned from being on the street for one day a month.
 Seems the city needs a break from these small capacity road fleas once a month!

The KLR is too porky for tight filtering but there were always dozens
of volunteers to fill any gaps within seconds!

There are two ladies and two girls on this bike. I was regularly held up at
roadworks and as "motos" always ride to the front I constantly met the
same gang every few K's at the roadworks and we had a few laughs.
 When I took this photo the ladies offered to offload their passengers
 onto my bike!

Aah yep beaudy that's what I need, a couple of K's of
gluey mud and a semi to throw on another layer! In
ya go son don't be shy.

Reality Check No.11 
I'm feeling a bit off balance...it's a whole new continent buuut... I dunno. It's a new challenge for sure but as I set off today across Columbia in the rain and humidity it was kinda more of the same. I'm itching to get round the corner and through Ecuador and into Peru and Chile. Hmm and only two months left. As I pulled into the hotel today covered in mud and sweat and paid just a little more than I was comfortable with again I couldn't help thinking I've got to put a couple of thousand K's under the wheels for a change in environment and then see what I can see
...yep it's a plan!

Next Blog
Slogging it out across Columbia. Only a couple of thousand to the border...gulp.
Thanks heaps for the comments. It's a highlight of my day to check my emails and find someone's made the effort. Cheers Dean