May 25, 2017
to Aguadulce: down the Pan American
"We got here just in time" Rachel says, "well not quite, about 5 minutes too late" Patrick adds. Just as a huge downpour soaks us, we get to Penome and find the McDonalds for a second breakfast just before the menu is changed for lunch. The rain had stopped by the time we get back on the bikes.
We had started riding again at first light to try and avoid the heat. Today is a much better day though, there are clouds to keep the sun rays off our skins. We run into Etienne and Sabine, a French couple on their way from Alaska to Ushuaia. They are on a low budget and have been staying at the Bomberos (fire stations). We are finding Panama expensive and it sounds like it won't get much better in Costa Rica. Panama feels like a poor US state with strip malls and large scale developments, many of them empty. Plenty of large bill boards by the side of the roads showing pretty people with perfect teeth and perfect two-kid families in front of their 129K, 249K or 649K beach homes.
The road undulates in the beginning, the shoulder is hit-and miss, sometimes good, then terrible with lots of trash and blown truck tires. Then the shoulder improves, we make good time and get to our original destination of Nata early. We see the David hotel we were aiming for but decide to go check-out the church first. The Iglesia de Natá de los Caballeros. It is one of the oldest churches in the Americas with construction started in 1520.
We decide to ride on a bit further to Aguadulce. The hotel choice there is better, but the Hotel Interamericano is a bit expensive, and the Plaza Aguadulce next door does not seem very bike friendly. They don't even want to show us a room because it is "too small for our bikes", and there is no space anywhere else for them in the hotel. We get the message and go back to Interamericano, at $44 for a AC room overpriced, but there is a hot water, TV and a pool!
We get to watch some movies, take a dip and eat not-very-good Chinese food next door. There is also a supermarket around the corner. We've decided to change our planned route, staying on Hwy 1 and going to a warmshowers host near Canazas.
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Today's ride: 100 km (62 miles)
Total: 32,019 km (19,884 miles)
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