This Morning we had a coffee and pastry at a little bakery next to our hotel and then we headed off to the see our Shipping Agent at the Cargo Terminal at the Airport. I was expecting lots of heavy traffic but the roads were flowing and we rode with the sea on our right and new modern 40 Stories high-rise buildings on our left. The CBD is a modern sky-line and reminded me of Hong Kong. At the Agent we bumped into a Brazilian Couple traveling on Harley’s, a guy and his girlfriend, they had toured North America and went to Sturges Bike Rally and then they got lost. I think he had the right idea, a Venter Trailer and cooler box is a must for the future for me:
The lady traveled on her own Harley and had a Bear-skin draped over her seat to make a day in the saddle feel much shorter:
Our agent also does storage, and if I had to plan this trip again I would have pushed-through from San Jose and store the bikes with him, then he could ship it just before our TIP’s (Temporary Import Permits) expired in 90 days and then we got another 90 days when the bikes arrived in Colombia.
We handed the Agent all our Documents and they started preparing all the Paper-Work for when we bring the bikes tomorrow morning, when we will go with them to Customs and have our bikes TIP’s canceled so that they can fly out of Panama and then the bikes are strapped onto a pallet and we dropped off at the airport from where we will fly separately on another flight. The bikes will arrive in Bogota but will have to clear customs there and new TIP’s issued for entering Colombia, and they are also closed on Sunday, so we will be spending the weekend in Bogota as tourist and collect the bikes 1st thing on Monday to continue our ride.
Then we rode to the local KTM Guys and we paid them the connect our bikes onto the computer as the “Service Light” came on as we entered San Jose (7500km after their last service,) but now we are changing the oil and filters all the way to the end of South America but we just wanted the irritation of the Error Light to be canceled and not having us have to clear the light every time we start the bike. Peens’s bike was not serviced in Houston so he had an oil service done.
We thought that we could easily book our flights on the internet but failed as the transaction kept on being flagged as “Suspicious Transaction” and after several attempts we gave up and rode to the airport to find a office with as human behind the counter. It was a looooong story to get the flights issued as they needed our visas plus proof of accommodation and wanted detail of our Next-of-kin and their phone numbers, but eventually we won and got our flight tickets.
Then we rode right in the opposite direction again, past our hotel to the Panama Canal Visitors Centre to watch an I-Max movie:
Nogal in 3-D !!!!!!
Then it was off to the Viewing-deck to watch an Oil Tanker of only 300m go down the Lock, there were three sailboats in front of the tanker. Here you can see them after the water level had dropped (takes about 8 minutes) and they sailed off at the lower level:
Below the Sailboats are still at the higher level before the two gates (each gate is as high as an 8 Storey Building:
The oil tanker follows the yachts and is guided by 8 Electric Locomotives, 4 in the front and 4 at the back, the ship is under its own power but the steering is handed over to a Pilot who works for the Panama Canal Company. There is only 30cm of space between the ship and the side wall of the canal and the winches on each electric locomotive is used to keep the ship in the centre.
It was difficult to get 1 photo that captured everything, especially and the oil tanker passed the viewing-deck 24 meters lower than our level. The 2nd and 3rd floor viewing decks were being renovated so hundreds of people were left to push and shove on the steps and on the 1st floor deck to get view:
The silver locomotive is in front on the photo below, behind the yellow metal structure, and you can see the bow of the ship a little further behind the blue metal structure in the photo, once the bow had passed it was just pipes and gantries and more pipes and then the bridge only comes past a few minutes later:
The I-max Movie was very professional and even had the voice of Morgan Freeman telling us how the French and their engineer that successfully built the Suez Canal started the Panama Canal in the late 1800’s but due to disease and the loss of 20 000 Workers they abandoned the project, only for the USA to start with a new plan in 1905, instead of digging the canal all the way through from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast their engineer said they should build a dam-wall and flood the river and then a lake was created on which the ships could sail, and then they could drop down or go up to the correct level with locks. In 2007 they started an up-grade and a further 3 canal-locks were build to accommodate the modern much bigger and wider ships which one can see in the back-ground from the viewing deck.
Proof Google’s view of the Locks:
The bikes are being flown tomorrow from Panama the Bogota:
The reason why the bikes are flow in because of a section called The Darien Gap, there are no official roads here, only smugglers tracks and paths through the mangroves and rain-forest where all the people walking North to the USA have to cross and pay bandits to pass through the area. Terrible things happen to those walking through the Gap and sexual exploitation, murder and rape is common. People also have to pay exorbitant prices to pass and then still have to provide further sexual “favours” and in most cases the little money they have is also stolen from them. The common belief is that authorities have decided on purpose not to build a road through the Darien Gap as a road would assist the drug smugglers to move their product faster by hiding it in trucks, so at least this way it stems the tide of drugs a little:
The people are very friendly here, like our Laundry Lady below, but we are really taking strain with communicating, we try using Google Translate but it is not easy:
I am still at our hotel doing this Blog but the guys has gone ahead to Nina and her family for pizza and a swim and a few beers. One of Pie’s old Engineering Friends Marco’s daughter Nina and her husband emigrated to Panama and we decided to go and see how they are finding life here in the tropics:
There are many places we plan to visit in Bogota over the weekend and I hope I can give you a glimpse into life in Bogota soon.
Signing Off
Fleisch
Hi Peter (PIE) , it’s Mike & Diana ..After the last days of exausting travel , we hope you guys are able to relax in Bogota and just enjoy being tourist ! Your still my idol and we think of you often, All the best to you and your wild friends ..