Another early rise this morning and immediately I got on with putting my wheel back together and getting it back on the bike. I discovered a slit in the tyre which was probably the reason for the two punctures. The only inner tube I have is the one I had repaired three days ago, so I was anxious not tot damage this in the assembling. I have tyres on order in San Isidro which is the main reason for moving 40 miles down the road. In my haste to put the tyre back on I inadvertently put it on back to front - I was not too worried about that as this tyre will be changed in the next few days. I was however worried about the 40 mile trip as I had no spare inner tubes , a split in the tyre and was concerned about what i would do if I punctured again. Even in the early morning sunshine I was working up a sweat and eventually had to change tops as the one I was wearing was saturated. I said goodbye to my kind and generous hosts, took one last look at their exotic garden and then let them help me roll my heavily laden bike backwards down their sloping entrance.
The inside of Joseph and Mariya's cabin of teak. Mary's the one at the sink!
Yes they are chickens
For comparison this is the neighbour's abode - you can see I was living the high life
I did of course have the numbers of Mariya and Joseph, if I needed help, but my phone or me seem incapable of making calls within Central America. I drove hesitantly over the gravel road, anxious that at any moment I might puncture. I relaxed a little once I had managed to traverse the suspension bridge successfully. I did notice this time that it wasn't just the swinging motion in the middle that tipped me yesterday, it was that when the front wheel it the lowered section this was immediately followed by the back wheel landing and creating a tipping motion on the forks. Anyway I got across ok, but still had 4 miles of rough road clawing at my vulnerable tyre. I was so relieved to hit the main road and tarmac.
As the miles ticked down I felt the pressure reduce, whilst at any moment conscious that the tube could still go like it had on the previous two days. it didn't and I arrived in the small town of San Isidro and my hotel by 12.30pm. It felt great to be in air conditioned room with electricity, but more importantly no mosquitoes. San Isidro is high in the mountains so it is that much cooler and a more pleasant temperature, though it does rain a fair bit. As I rolled up at the Hotel, I couldn't believe my ears, there was a football match taking place in the stadium nearby and it was weird to hear the chants of the crowd singing the songs I associate with football back home. For the size of the town the stadium was disproportionately large. It was about the size of Exeter's ground at St James Park,
I used the rest of the day to catch up on paperwork and investigate different means of getting out of Panama and into Columbia. I think I favour the plane option as I don't fancy spending five days at sea., although the plane option is 3 times the cost.
What was nice about today was everything went according to plan, for once. I am hoping to meet a friend of Joseph's tomorrow who is a keen motorcyclist and has kindly ordered the tyres for me. He is also Argentinian, so I will pick his brain about that part of the world,
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