October 23, 1997 Santiago, Panama {Hotel Estacion} As we were driving to Santiago, we came across a bridge with 70+ cows chaotically moseying every which way. It was impossible to get through the narrow pass. Sharon who already had a bad experience with a bull crossing her path gets pretty anxious in these situations, not to mention she's on a red bike. I attempted to slowly plow a path through. The timid creatures got very nervous as I approached and aggressively revved my engine. Some responded by bucking. Being bucked off a motorcycle by a cows flying hooves would likely break a rib, not to mention put me in a vulnerable position to be trampled. With a lot of patience and caution, we made it through the heard. The heard had one cowboy at the end making sure none were left behind. All other traffic on this highway would have to fend for itself. Santiago is the third largest city in Panama with a population of 30,000 and is located in the center of paved Panama, that is in the center between the Costa Rican border, and Panama City. It's a good break point for driving, but little more. Along the Inter-American highway, Santiago is very similar to a junction town in the states. The road is lined with hotels, motels and restaurants, and the surrounding area between is meant to be travelled by vehicle rather than foot as there are few sidewalks. The layout of the stores suggest cars are primary modes of transportation, and that most customers shopping here would have one. This is quite a contrast from other Central American towns. The type of vehicles driving through here also suggest there is more money in this economy. Despite having our fill of fried chicken through out all of Central American, we stopped in a Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner after not having eaten all day. We walked over to a True Value hardware store next door which was better stocked than the ones I've visited in the states. Hanging out in the evening at our hotel, on the radio we listened to typical Panamanian music which I liked. Several songs we heard the melody carried by a guy wailing on a accordion with a beat and skill that kept up with Acadian music. The singing reminded me of Brazilian folk style. October 24,1997 Chorora, Panama R80G/S 30635 R100GS 21502 R80G/S 5.82 gallons over 259 miles = 44.5 mpg R100GS 5.65 gallons over 239 miles = 42.3 mpg Already by 9:00am, it felt hot. We filled up our gas at the Texaco gas station outside of our hotel as we were leaving. About twenty minutes later, Sharon's bike began to experience fuel starvation problems. Last time she had this was in the Yucatan almost three months ago. Then we dumped the gas, and everything was fine. Sharon was feeling frustrated enough to dump it again. 49 miles after we filled the tank, we pulled into a Delta gas station, I used the same Spanish phrase that worked for me in Mexico.... I told the gas attendant "I have bad gasoline, do you have a garbage for gasoline?". He didn't understand. I repeated again enunciating slowly, no luck. He asked his friends if any of them spoke English. This gas station seemed to be a hang out as there were about ten people that I could see just hanging around. In front of everybody, I said the same thing in Spanish. After the first attempt everybody caught on and two of them told him, "He's got bad gas in his motorcycle, and wants to dump it somewhere..." As what sometime happens, I think seeing my gringo face gave this guy a mental block. I allayed his fears of a refund request by telling them I bought in Santiago at a Texaco. He brought over two 5 gallon plastic buckets to dump the gas into. I removed the gas tank and started to dump it swirling it as I did to dislodge any debris from the fuel tube screens that I assumed where clogged inside. Sharon said she counted about 20 people in the crowd at the gas station watching me dump the gas into a bucket. Entertainment is obviously lacking around here. When they saw the red colored gas pouring out, Commenting on the grade of gasoline began. One remarked in disbelief "Super?". Another said "No way". While another confirmed, "Yes that's super". Their was some disbelief amongst the crowd that a vehicle could have a problem with Super. I could hear several people speculating whether it was water in the gas or dirty gas. I pulled the fuel petcocks out of the gas tank, and checked the fuel intake tube screens. They were looking pretty clean. I reassembled, put a gallon of gas in, and took it for a ride. Problem was gone. When I returned, One in the crowd pointed out with his finger to take note, the brand and grade that I was now using. He said "In the future, use Delta Maxim4 Super gasoline". I shook my head in agreement and thanked him for his advice. We filled up the tank, and dumped the old stuff. Unfortunately, there was no way to clean the old stuff. Harry, the guy we had met in Liberia and Fortuna in Costa Rica, had told me about when he use to fly in third world countries, him and all the other pilots use to carry a flannel wool cone that would then be fitted into a funnel, and would filter the gas as it was poured into the gas tank of the plane. This was necessary since the gas came in barrels that contained all sorts of contaminants including rust from the barrel. We just dumped 7.5 gallons of gas at $1.81 per gallon since we didn't have a way to filter it. The time, effort and cost make it worth it to carry and use one of these. My step brother, Shaun, is a warrant officer in the US army flying blackhawk helicopters at Fort Howard/Kobbe next to Panama City. Shaun and his wife, Heidi, and son Tayler (3) live off base in a very nice house that takes full advantage of the beautiful piece of coastal property with about 150 degree view overlooking the Pacific ocean, beaches and several islands including Taboga. That was our destination for the night. We arrived at the Howard air force base visitor center in the early afternoon. The phone number we had for Shaun didn't seem to work, and we had heard that the phone system in the town where he lived, Veracruz was under repair. Since people pick up their mail at the post office, and Shaun got his on base, their was less need for home addresses which seem to be a concept of another world. Fortunately, the airmen on duty at the visitor center were very helpful and friendly. They were interested in our trip, and over sympathetic to our quest. They were knowledgeable and able to get us through to a Spanish only speaking operator who was able to manually place the call to their house in Veracruz. Several tries we got no answer, through some more phone calls, they found out that Shaun was in the US until tomorrow. Several airmen asked about details of our trip. Two different times we were asked if we we were travelling with weapons. I told them no, and explained that with all the military checks and searches we went through in Mexico, this would not be a wise thing to do. They seemed more than uncomfortable with the thought of travelling through Central America without a pistol. We have never felt a desire to carry a weapon on this trip. Carrying a weapon I think shifts one's focus from conflict avoidance, to how and when the weapon will be used. The use of a weapon might happen during a collapse of communication with repercussion potentially far worse. It's easy to imagine a scenario where one is needed, but I believe they are virtually all products of Ted Simon's B-grade movie traveller syndrome with little basis in real world probability. Since it was going to get dark soon, and we were hungry, we decided we better find a hotel. We backtracked though A____ which we discovered had no hotels, and then through Chorora where we found an unremarkable hotel, and a McDonald's which was suitable to satiate basic needs. October 25-November 4, 1997 Veracruz, Panama {Shaun and Heidi's place} We drove to the Howard AFB visitor center again, and made phone calls again. At first, it was busy, and then no answer, and then the maid said Heidi was gone. We drove into Panama city crossing the canal bridge to look for some brunch. We made a bad turn which took us into the old French section which is now the ghettos of Panama city. Fortunately the GPS got us out again. We went to the A____ town, searching for a restaurant. The only place that had food in the Panamanian residential town was the bus station stop. I had some beans and rice, and Sharon had a Panamanian thick yellowish orange tortilla which she didn't care for. I enjoyed my rice and beans. it was the first meal we had for less than a $1. We went back to visitor center and were able to get in touch with Heidi. She came out and picked us up and we followed her through the base to her house on the motorcycles as it began to rain. Later we toured Panama city. We stopped in the largest grocery store I had seen since being in Chicago. There was a chain of grocery stores called Casa de la Carne (house of meat). The serve free cappuccino to their customers as they shop. Above the isles were huge balloon decorations made up of thousands of balloons. Given that these balloons might last a week before they deflated, this was a decoration that would be far too costly labor wise to have in the states. We picked up Shaun at the airport who just flying back from Savana Georgia from a week of simulator training. Last December we had told them that we might be arriving around July. We were a bit off on our estimate, and they were surprised to see us. Sunday For brunch, we went down to a multi- floor Chinese restaurant and had dim sum that rivals what we had in Hong Kong, and Chicago's China town. After stuffing our faces, we drove around town with Shaun and Heidi pointing out the highlights of the city. Later we stopped at the fish market. It was the cleanest smelling fish market I've ever been to, and with all sorts of seafood at cheaper prices than I'd ever seen. In addition to the giant shrimp, prawns, octopus, squid, Caribbean lobster, red snapper, corvina, grouper, clams, conch, scallops, and many others I don't remember now, a couple stalls sold potentially toxic and rarely seen in a market fish like red tide eating barracuda, and coral eating parrot fish. Shaun picked up several pounds of shrimp, digging into the piles sampling random ones since he said that some vendors have a habit of mixing not so fresh shrimp with fresh ones. He said some customers will sniff every single shrimp. He also picked up a couple lobsters. At the grocery store he picked up a huge fillet mignon cut all destined for the grill at his house tonight. We ate shrimps that had been marinated in cumin, garlic, pineapple and other ingredients cooked on hickory smoked grill. We drank several bottle of Concho y Toro Marque '95 cabernet. Later huge steak fillet mignon, and lobster all grilled. Our afternoon and evening consisted of good conversation, good music, excellent food and the buzz from a good wine. It was a vacation from our trip enjoying things that we could only get back home in a familiar style. The view of the Pacific from a hilltop on the the shore line overlooking rocky beach and coastal islands. Their new age style house was designed to allow maximum flow through of the cooling coastal breeze. We listened to beautiful Irish music from The Cranberries and Enya, and then later Enigma. Wonderful end of a weekend, excellent evening... Monday, We were feeling a little hung over from consuming four bottles of wine, and rum and coke some of which made from Bacardi 151. In the afternoon, I was feeling better, and so I took off on the motorcycle to begin researching our options to cross the Darien gap (80 miles of no road joining Panama with Colombia). I didn't get very far when I ran into a rain storm, and didn't have my rain suit with me. I turned around before getting drenched. Several sources had told me about a motorcycle club in Panama city called the Road Knights. Apparently they were a good source for finding out about Darien crossing options. and had a testimonial book listing various methods. I was hoping to start with this. The phone number I had from my guide book was a number at Albrook AFB (sp?). Due to the US pullout of Panama, This base closed October 1st, and with it all of the numbers are disconnected leaving me without a contact. Shaun had a friend that was associated with this club that had disbanded a year or more ago. Unfortunately, a call to him didn't turn up any information. Tuesday, recovered from the hangover, and with rain suit, I left early in the morning on the motorcycle to check out various options. I went to the airport, and then to port agencies which operate for the boats. Wednesday and Thursday, I worked on the bikes and searched the town looking for motorcycle parts shops, electronic shops, places to buy oil, I cleaned the air filters with some mineral spirits paint thinner that Heidi picked up for me. And Changed the air filter oil with Bardahl air foam filter oil. R100GS wasn't too bad, However, the R80G/S was due to following Sharon all of the time down the dirt roads. The air filters had captured a lot of sand. Of the four motorcycle shops I went to to find the air foam filter oil, none of them had any, or really understood why anyone would had oil to their air filter. One motorcycle shop sold the same brand foam air filters that we have in our bikes, except for a Yamaha. They had no clue that these filters required the sticky oil. I'm sure purchasers of those filters from that store have prematurely worn engines. Through some difficulty I found replacement foam air filter oil from a store called Dimar. Replaced the shock oil. R100 wasn't bad, however the R80G/S had a lot of metallic bits in the drain oil. Panama city is loaded with little electronic shops all owned and run by Chinese. They're well stocked with all sorts of parts that put Radio Shack to shame. It's strange to see how common these are in Panama City while North of here in central America, a shop like this is rare to find. I picked up some parts to replace an adapter connector that linked my helmet mic and ear pads to the walkie talkie. The 1/8" stereo female phone plug didn't seem to working very well anymore. In hindsight, I might consider using a different type of plug. [later note, this wasn't the problem] We went to Jimmy's a Greek restaurant where Shaun and I ate delicious corvina ceviche, and grilled octopus. The octopus is marinated all day. The marinade consisted of mustard, and other spices I couldn't identify. The secret to cooking it is to seer it on a super hot grill keeping the inside tender. Heidi told us how last time they came the brought a hand written bill that had incorrect prices on it. When tonight's bill arrived, she noticed the same thing, and went through tallying it up again. If it wasn't for the food being so good, they wouldn't come anymore. Since Sharon and I bought dinner, she saved us a couple bucks. Friday I went to purchase the airline tickets. I drove the ~1.5 hours back out to the airport, and went back to the Avianca office where on Tuesday the well dressed employee had confidently quoted me a price to fly the motorcycles and ourselves to Bogata for $503. I had reconfirmed the deal four times with him and another before I left the office. Happy to have found what I considered a good rate, I foolishly believed him, and had spent the last couple days working on the bikes rather than tracking down other options. Now that I came to buy the tickets another older clerk said, "We don't ship motorcycles". I told him that they would go as cargo, "We don't ship motorcycles". I said they could go as excess luggage without gas, or oil, "We don't ship motorcycles". I turned to the guy who had quoted me the prices. He babbled with the guy for about 5 seconds, turned around, and quietly walked out of the room not saying a word or making eye contact with me. Uh ohh... The older clerk said "We don't ship motorcycles". The clerk I had previously talked apparently pulled the idea out of his butt. Today, Friday, was Halloween. Saturday was All Saints Day. Sunday was The Day of the Dead. Monday-Wed was Independence Day. Being a holiday weekend, many things shut down early afternoon Friday, many places would be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday due to continued observance of Independence day. If I didn't get the info I needed quick, I'd be out of luck till Thursday. While at the airport, I double checked all of my leads. I went back to Copa Airlines. The first time, they had quoted me a rate of $.36 per kilo.... Motorcycles no problems. The second time, couldn't get through to anyone in cargo The third time, "We don't ship motorcycles". Continental could ship to Ecuador. I talked to an English speaking person who sounded like she knew what she was talking about, and told me the Continental deal. She said due to Quito airport being closed, and the holiday I wouldn't be able to ship until after 11/10 The bikes would have to be gas vapor free, and the tires deflated due to high altitude, and crated. "Crated?". She said yes, usually they deal with a shipping agent that does this rather than the passenger. Without having all the details, she guessed that it would probably cost about $400 per bike to ship. She gave me the name and number of a place I might try later called Servi Carga. Someone had suggested Pacific Airways at the old cargo airport. I drove out there and asked. The office was practically on the end of the runway. With various cargo sitting behind a chain link fence. They quoted me $500 cash per bike, and said just drive it up and we'll ship it, no problem. These prices were more than I wanted to spend, so I went back home to check out some of the ship info I had. I got in touch with one shipping agent at Gemini Shipping company. They said they would be willing to take open cargo such as our motorcycles were called. However, it would have to be loaded up Saturday by noon since the ship takes off Monday morning. I asked about paper work. They said they would need a police check which I could get at the Police office. However, it was now 4:35pm. and the police office closed at 4:00pm. Since there were 5 holidays in a row now, the earliest I could get this check would be Thursday morning, six days from now. The boat would be long gone, without another chance for two weeks. I tried another number for air freight I had picked up called Servi Carga. I called them up and talked to Alfredo who said, they would ship the bikes by air to Bogota for $250 + $33 handling. They have flights everyday, and require no prior notice other than to drop it off in the morning for a flight that night. Due to the holidays, Tuesday would be the first opportunity. Excellent... That evening, we went over to Chris and Erin's house, friends and co-workers of Shaun and Heidi's who were throwing a Halloween party at their house on base at Howard AFB. I met several blackhawk pilot warrant officers who were all pretty friendly. They asked about our trip and about our plans. They talked about flying helicopters, and being stationed in Ecuador for six month rotations. Saturday I worked on the bikes in the morning, and in the afternoon we did some souvenir shopping. At Steven's point, Cuna indians sell their wares. The Cunas are from this area, and the woman still wear traditional dress. which consist of head covering, a thick gold center nose ring, bead bands on the calves, and mola designs on the shirts. They are famous for their mola stitchings which they sell. They are multi-fabric intricate designs. They also weave incredibly tight woven baskets with sometimes intricate designs from colored straw. The end products are quite hard and can get very expensive. A 5 gallon basket may sell for several hundred dollars, due to the work involved, tightness of weave, and intricateness of design. Tagua nut carvings are also popular. It's a large solid nut that grows on trees down here. At one time was considered a substitute for ivory. Many of the carvings look somewhat like ivory. Depending on detail level the carvings go from $10 up to several hundred. Most are smaller than 3" diameter, unless more than one have been bonded together. Flexible Panamanian hats made from plant a tough plant fiber are sold, and so are Panamanian woven bags. All of the tourist trade items are high in price, however also high in quality relative to similar type items in Guatemala. Afterwards we stopped at the old YMCA where they also sold more of the above. We took Shaun and Heidi out to their favorite restaurant in Panama city called Siete del Mar (The 7 seas) in celebration of Shaun's birthday which was last week. It's a wonderful seafood restaurant where all the rich Panamanian go for seafood. Sharon and Heidi had Lobster bisque for an appetizer and a huge crab stuffed shrimp for an entree. Shaun ordered a grilled octopus as an appetizer, and sage shrimp with cashews for an entree. For an appetizer, I had lobster bisque and an assortment of ceviche which included shrimp, corvina, and lobster. For the entree, I had an assortment of perfectly cooked tender squid caps, octopus, shrimp, and corvina. With this we downed three bottle of sauvignon blanc, and then ended with cappuccino, caramelized flan and a fruit topped cake. All of the food was excellent, and service was wonderful, Sunday We all went down to the boat dock and launched Shaun and Heidi's boat into the canal. We drove under the canal bridge and out to Toboga island which is a sort of weekend resort island just South of Panama. We dropped anchor just off the beach coast, and hung out eating cold fried chicken, Soberana and HB beer, Pringle's potato chips, and frosted oatmeal cookies. We swam in the nice warm water along the nice sandy beeches, and people watched from the boat. Meanwhile Taylor played with the live shrimp that Shaun bought to catch catfish for Taylor's entertainment. Heidi had told us how on the weekend their are lots of big fat harry Panamanian men who come out with their skinny bikini babes on the boat and that people watching was always a riot. Shaun mentioned today was slim pickings for the bikini babes.. Not that we married men care... Despite all of us, except Shaun, having some sort of sun block on, we all were fried to various degrees. Sharon mostly on her lip, and me on my face where I forgot to put block on. The sun is fierce down here. Heidi was red. In the evening, Taylor got bit by the neighbors spider monkey. While it's happened before, this was the first time it broke skin. Taylor had some fat hanging out of the bite on his wrist, and so Heidi took him into the base clinic where they started a rabies series. Apparently with monkeys it's difficult to tell if they have rabies even with a brain biopsy. Taylor being only three is a bit rough on the animal kingdom. Their dog Jeb just deals with him and prefers to leave the vicinity, however their neighbor's monkey is fighting back. Apparently, it's illegal to keep a monkey as a pet, but no one enforces this. The neighbors monkey has had it's thumbs cut off, and for birth control, it had it's uterus pulled out of it's body which now hangs out of it like an appendage, Monday Since it was a holiday, Shaun and Heidi had a barbecue of filet, spicy marinated flank steak and chicken and invited people from his work over in the afternoon. Tuesday Sharon and I drove the R80G/S out to the Chadwick travel agent at the old YMCA building to buy our airline tickets. We drove out to the BMW dealer only to get caught up in massive traffic jams as roads were routed around parade routes. Of course the BMW dealer ship was closed for the continued observance of the holiday. Riding a motorcycle in traffic, it's expected that one will drive in between cars down the middle or side. Friday afternoon, this saved me nearly two hours of this holiday traffic. Today, it saved us a lot of time and some annoyance. Fortunately I had removed the panniers making the bike lighter, narrower and easier to navigate. In the late afternoon, Sharon and I hung out in their huge hammock hung out on the deck overlooking the Pacific and nearby islands while Enigma and then Enya played in the background. The temperature was perfect and atmosphere wonderful. I'm not sure why we're leaving. We still have two weeks left on our visa. [Notes on the Area] A friend of Heidi's use to buy the local chicken in the local stores since it was about $.50 cheaper than in the military commissary. Her three year old daughter developed lumps in her chest, and so she took her to the doctor. The doctor asked, "By any chance, do you happen to eat a lot of chicken?" "Yes.", she said. "From the local market?". "Yes." The doctor then told her that the Panamanians feed their chicken a lot of steroids and that he has seen quite a few 3-5 year olds showing signs of puberty because of this. In Shaun's back yard, there were three pretty trees that grew thick green leaves. Sometime during the year they bloom beautiful flowers, however sap from these trees will blind a person if it gets in one's eyes. Three days ago, these trees were covered with thick green leaves, now they're barren except for several huge colorful caterpillars which only eat the leaves of this tree. Shaun says this happens every October, and that the trees grow back every year. They have approximately 50 mango trees in their yard of several different varieties. One problem they have to deal with is that mango pollen is a skin and respiratory irritant of which many people have a lot of problems. Their yards is also loaded with coconuts of which there are two kind, the green kind and the brown kind (these are not the technical names). The green kind are primarily used for coconut milk, while the brown are harvested for coconut meat, and are the type found in grocery stores in the US. The green coconut meet is more gelatinous and thin. Ticks are common here and their dog is groomed almost daily for them. Tick fever is common among dogs which results in among other thing bleeding though the nose. If the dog isn't treated immediately, it usually results in death. They've been having a lot of problems lately with their '94 Jeep Cherokee. They said the fuel quality is very poor here. I drove Heidi in to have her Jeep worked on where they cleaned the filthy fuel injectors. Parts down here for the jeep run about 4 times what they cost back in the states. Usually they have someone order it back in the US, and then have it shipped through US mail to the base. Minimum wage in Panama is $1.01 per hour. Their maid (who is also their neighbor and baby sitter) gets paid $143 per month + free electricity and telephone. Minimum wage in Mexico is $.46 per hour Heidi says that electricity bills for them were outrageous. It would cost them $100-$200 per month to run the clothes dryer. She says many of the locals have devices on their meters that slow the meters down. The honest ones then pay for everyone. Six months ago, a tree fell on her power meter breaking it. She says the meter man still comes out once a month and takes a reading. They get charged for 1kw per month even though their meter doesn't change, which comes to $1.67. Afraid of one day getting a huge back bill, she has called the power company each month over the last 6 months to remind them that her meter is broken. Each time the power company says ok, however it's not repaired, and they get charged for 1kw. They've been having extortion phone problems in Veracruz. For $20 a repair man will fix the phone right away, only for it to knocked out of service the following week, where for another $20 it'll be fixed again. Instead they deal with the crappy line, and the frequent phone outage. I asked how people feel about Americans after the Panamanian invasion of the late 80's. Most of the old timers think it was the best thing that could have happened. At night they have police check point where police check for drivers licenses. Shaun was saying that before the invasion, it was very common to see the police dragging people out of their cars beating them. Presidents served as puppets for Noriega. People who contradicted Noriega often got a one way helicopter flight over the ocean where they were they were pushed out without their clothes. Several of the police headquarters containing long police records on the citizens were destroyed. Panama uses the US dollar as it's currency. This makes Panama an excellent place for Colombia to launder drug money. However, there is a fear of counterfeit bills, and so 50's and 100's are rarely accepted. Panama mints their own coins which are identical in size, weight and material to the US penny, nickel, dime, quarter and $.50 piece. While it's clear that canal generates a lot of money, and the US bases also pump a lot of money into the economy, it's hard to imagine that drug money doesn't play a substantial part, given that the economy is what it appears to be. Realestate is stagnating. With the US pulling out, there is a surplus of realestate, and so it's very difficult to sell property now. Shaun and Heidi's place would sell for in the millions in Southern California, however in Panama, it's for sale for $40k. However rent is $1.2k per month, since that's what the army pays for off base housing allowance. I'm sure the owners aren't in a hurry to sell. There are 10,000 troops stationed at Howard AFB and Kobbe army base. The army runs 12 blackhawk helicopters and 6 of the twin overhead rotor chinook helicopters (sp?). These helicopters serve all US operations for Central America and South America. All drug related operations in the area are done through here. They do a lot of night time troop insertions. While we were there, we could hear most of the activity was in the wee hours of the morning before dawn. Many of the blackhawk pilots were doing 6 month rotations in Ecuador for DEA related operations. Several that I talked to at the Halloween party really enjoyed Ecuador and showed me some of the souvenirs they picked up while there. The Darien is the Eastern region of Panama bordering Colombia where there is approximately 80 miles of no roads to connect Central America with South America. Conservationists have seen to it that the roads will likely not exist in the foreseeable future. The Choco Indians, a short jungle tribe like Congo Pygmies inhabit this area. Shaun was telling us that drug runners pretty much rule the area coercing the locals at gun point. A lot of drugs are smuggled over land through the Darien and then are smuggled to the North Caribbean shores around Colon, Panama where boat runners speed them through the Caribbean. Approximately 1 in 10 don't make it. Not bad odds considering the pay back and the potential alternative life style. Because of the Darien now permeated with drug smugglers, it's completely off limits for US military personal to travel there. Between Chepo and Yaviza, where the road turns from paved to dirt and then ends requires permission from the on base general. In the late 80's, Ed Culberson took his '86 R80G/S through the Darien which he wrote about in his book "Obsessions Die Hard". If I remember correctly, he did this on his second attempt during the dry season and basically dragged his motorcycle through the jungle for 6 weeks. He later said that it was good timing since it was before drug runners took over the area. Reading his book would pretty much dissuade any normal person from trying to take a vehicle through. Our guide books mention tips for hiking through which I think would be much easier, however don't recommend it due to all of the dangers. Danny Liska took his BMW R60/2 through in the 60's, however if I remember correctly, a large portion of this was done on canoe down the rivers to Turbo. Upton, took a 60's vintage jeep through the Darien in the late 80's, and have recently published a book on the details of this. This venture spanned over a year since the first time it wasn't completed before the end of the dry season. The Darien is infested with chloriquine resistant malaria, and so this has to be accounted for when crossing. Malaria prophylactics are a necessity. I seem to recall that while waiting until the next dry season in the Darien, Upton went through several bouts of malaria. Liver damage limits the length of which one can take malaria prophylactics. The "normal" way to cross the Darien is by boat or plane. A couple of years ago, the Crucero express which was a luxury ferry line started up taking people and their vehicles from Panama to Colombia for cheap. Unfortunately this ended after only 6 months of operations approximately 1.5 years ago. Flights from Panama on most all of the carriers is $160 per person one way to Bogota. There doesn't seem to be a regular way to transport vehicles, which requires some leg work to get arranged. There are several boats that will do this, and for motorcycles air cargo is an option. [Travel related info only interesting if you're planning to cross the Darien by vehicle...] Of the air cargo freighter that would transport a motorcycle to Bogota, I found the following . I went with Girag Air Cargo and had no problems. I heard good things about Servi Carga from two independent sources. Servi Carga. phone: 223-1144, 238-4165, 238-4162, 238-4286, 238-4250 cost is $250 per motorcycle + $33 handling. Girag Air Cargo (Cargo Three, Inc.) Phone in city: 26-5775, 26-3173, 26-5477, Fax 26-5477 Phone at Tocumen: 238-4326, 238-4289, 238-4397, 238-4091, Fax 238-4417 In Bogota: 571-414-7010,571-414-7011,571-414-7012 413-5349, 413-5358, 413-5093, 413-5087, Fax: 413-5104, E-mail: adolfog@colomsat.net.co Cost was $250 cash or TC per motorcycle Pacific Airlines. located at the old cargo Tocumen airport. They quoted me $500 cash per motorcycles. Continental Airlines will ship a motorcycle to Ecuador, either Guayaquel or Quito. However motorcycle must be delivered crated. Guess of price by clerk was $400 per motorcycle. For people, there are several flights from Panama to Bogota per day on Copa, Avianca, Aces. We flew on Aces and would recommend it. Flight time is approximate 1 hour and 20 minutes. Cost was $160 for all the airlines one way. No problem booking flight at last minute. For cargo boats, In Panama city, There are several port agencies grouped all together at WGS84 coordinates N8d57.534, W79d33.647. Each port agent books cargo passage on a small set of boats, so one must go to each and ask if they will take open cargo. At OTC, I found a very friendly person who gave some leads to check out. OTC themselves only had a 20 foot container as their smallest which was $950 to Cartagena plus $100 handling. Perfect if I had a Winnebego. I think Colon might be a better port town to check for open cargo passage to South America. Some contacts: Gemini Shipping Co. Tel: 441-6269, 441-6959. They would except open cargo cars or motorcycle. However they sailed every 1-2 weeks. Fast Cargo Inc. Tel: 263-2008, 263-7826, 264-5792, 441-7037, Fax: 269-8447, They handle arrangements by air or boat. Tip from a Swiss motorcycle traveller we met. He booked passage on the boat named "Alejandra" sailed by captain Eduardo Barrios sailing from Puerto Coco Solo in Venezuela to Colon, Panama. He paid $200 for the three day passage of himself and his motorcycle. However, he slept on the floor in a cramp area shared by others, and managed to lose all of his riding gear during the voyage. Useful WGS84 coordinates around Panama city: Port Agencies N8d57.534, W79d33.647 Nuts & Bolts Store N8d58.043, W79d32.497 Suzuki & Yamaha N8d59.930, W79d31.997 Honda N9d00.828, W79d32.105 Yamaha N8d59.174, W79d30.846 Dimar(fork&air oil) N8d59.897, W79d31.120 BMW N8d59.378, W79d30.769 Tocuman Airport N9d04.006, W79d23.291 Cargo Airport N9d05.232, W79d22.314 Howard AFB N8d56.997, W79d35.404 Panama Canal bridge N8d56.628, W79d33.842 [End of notes] ---- Dave Thompson thompson@pdnt.com www - http://sdg.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~mag/Thompson Net-Tamer V 1.09 Palm Top - Registered