David to Panama City Airport

October 13th David to Panama City Airport
A very early rise this morning - 5pm!!! I was on the road by 6pm as my journey was nearly 300 miles. The shippers close at 3pm, so if I was to get my bike on tomorrow's plane I needed to get there in plenty of time, as their was bound to be paperwork. I left while still dark, forgetting that the clocks had gone forward when entering Panama, thus losing an hour. In Costa Rica it was light at 6am. It was a muggy day with lots of very low cloud. The road was good for the first 10 miles then I hit roadworks and single carriageway - these lasted for around 90 miles. Much of the road that was closed off was brand new and could easily  have been opened and ridden but for some strange reason the whole 90 miles was being worked on at bridges or intersections, piece meal. It was bizarre, but traffic was light, so I suppose traffic management is less of an issue. What is an issue however, is their complete lack of signage. I found myself in the dark on the outside lane, or so I assumed, until I was faced with speeding traffic coming straight at me. I swear there was no indication that we had been reduced to one lane. If I hadn't had my wits about me it could have been nasty.
Talking of nasty I was flagged down by a traffic cop (I may have been speeding - again no indication as to what the speed limit is on motorways) but by the time I had stopped I was a good hundred metres down the road - he waved me on. Either he couldn't be bothered to walk or he saw my number plate and didn't want the paperwork. Either way it was beneficial for me. I was however, stopped at one of their routine road patrols and the policeman wanted to see everything - I could easily have got annoyed but instead I used wit to get back at him- I smiled and said in poor Spanish  'You only want to see my paperwork so you can spend longer looking at my bike.' He smiled and lightened up after this. The road did not let up on its motorcycle traffic cops though - they seemed to be every 10 miles or so. I drove more conservatively after my first experience. I very rarely went above 60 mph.
My ride took 6 1/2 hours and was especially slow around Panama City. I went over the Panama canal and was struck by its size and also the deep sided valley it sits in. When you think of a canal, you don't imagine something 500m wide in places. As I went across the bridge and looked along the canal, I could see the skyscrapers of Panama City. I was glad I  wasn't staying there tonight, instead I had booked a cheap hostel near the airport.
I went straight to the airport to eventually discover that the cargo planes have a different terminal. I jumped back on the bike and some 2 or 3 miles away I found the entrance and soon found the buildings of the shipping company. I had a short wait, as the staff were having their lunch break.
I was told by the staff there that I had to go back down the road to customs and get my documents cancelled - it took me two attempts to find the right building. I was anticipating a long wait, but I was pleasantly surprised to find I only waited 10 minutes. Back to Air CargoPack and the formalities were done and I paid my money and left poor Bonito all alone. I took a taxi to my accommodation just a few miles down the road.. The hotel is really grotty but very convenient and offers a Shuttle service to the airport, so for one night it is ok. I fly to Bogota at 3.40pm, so Bonito, flying out at eleven will be there before me. I'll be able to check this out by using my GPS tracking.
I will not collect the bike on my arrival as I don't want to be driving through Bogata in the dark and I don't fancy customs at that time of day. I shall wake up on Saturday morning and make my way back to customs to do my least favourite thing.
All in all today went smoothly, the weather was kind, the scenery stunning and the logistics were good. One really annoying thing that car park attendants do here, is they wait until you have parked and got off the bike before saying, 'You can't park there mate.' This happened to me three times today. I'm really looking forward to getting into South America tomorrow and I feel that my trip is at last getting going. It always was South America that I really wanted to see, so I'm eager to see what it offers. I hope to spend Sunday looking round Bogota and then begin my trip south on Monday.