Finishing Off the Trip

February 16, 2019 to November 19, 2019

This trip would have continued on to Costa Rica and Panama but I ended up bailing on it. The original idea all along was to meet a friend living in Shanghai who is originally from Panama and she had flown back to Panama for the Chinese New Year holiday. But no matter how I tried to pull off the logistics it wasn't possible to do this. For reasons I'll never understand, the flights in and out of Panama are extremely expensive compared to everywhere else. Trying to go via Costa Rica would have worked except it would mean a long and grueling overnight bus ride to Panama. There just wasn't time or motivation to do that kind of shit and so I bailed. Probably pissed off my friend a lot in the process, but what can I say this is a holiday. I'd rather be cycling and not spending so much time on other transport. Besides she'd be driving me around for almost two weeks anyway and that's not cycling. So while there may have been some romantic escapades involved, it would be at the expense of not riding the bicycle and the cost/benefit analysis showed this sacrifice wasn't worth it.

The kicker in the decision making was that somehow I ended up staying in Tijuana for a night and picked a hotel that was adjacent to a nightclub with the most loud and pounding music I could ever recall. It was impossible to even have a conversation in that room let alone sleep. The music continued until past 4am and I had a flight to Mexico City the next day. In the end I said fuck it, booked a quiet room somewhere else to catch up on sleep, changed my flights earlier back to Shanghai and told my Panamanian friend I wasn't coming to see her. Predictably she was pissed and suggested a variety of compromises but I just didn't have the time or energy to continue this trip.

Recovery pad for the next 3 days. It was a great deal too and discounted on Agoda

So after a few days rest, I got on the bus back to Pasadena, opened up my bank account successfully, and flew back to Shanghai.

Lots of people there that night so it turned into an ad-hoc dinner

Today's ride: 15 km (9 miles)
Total: 656 km (407 miles)

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