Wow my dudes we’ve been officially on the road for a year. What a wild ride it has beans. A lot of people ask us how do we do it, and you know what we says to them “love and affection”. We’ve ventured through 11 countries so far and finally we have reached South America. It’s only just the beginning of our journeys through this continent and we’re excited for more weird and challenging experiences. Its been literal and metaphorical ups and downs and we always have a hard time answering why exactly we decided to do it. It’s more that it just feels like something of a natural progression for us. We’re constantly inspired by all the generous people we’ve met along the way; they really make this trip trippy. We want to continue appreciating the unfolding stories and experiences that come. Reflecting back on a year of cycle travel is strange. Time and our perception of it has morphed in many ways along the road. So here is to another year of change and it’s everlasting inevitability.
Here is the video summary for the month:
We last left off on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rrrica where the times were well spent in a jungle haven with our Couchsurfing homie Arnoldo. We biked around playing music and playing in the waves on the beach. After leaving late one morning and heading to the border, we got there right after it had closed so we camped with a nice family that let us stay on the first floor under their house on stilts. We jumped the necessary hoops in order to cross the border and after some dubious side glances at Annina’s passport we were let into the country of Panama 
That first day was just rain all day so after we rode a bit and felt sufficiently soaked and chilly we stuck out the trusty thumb and we’re picked up by some long haul homies who were going pretty far to the other side of the country. We strapped the bikes to the back and crammed into the cab with four of us sitting side by side. We shared stories and laughs and after we reached the mountains they bought us a meal before continuing their journey into the night. We were given permission to camp in the entrance to a market that was under some construction and the next day we ran into a quirky cycle traveler from England who was coming all the way from Alaska and it had taken him five months to get to where we ran into him! What a beast. We then took the sweet steep descent into the valley of Calderas. And lo and behold we ran into another two cyclists from France who had just started their journey a few weeks prior in Panama City and were heading North Bound. We chatted it up gave them one of our Gear Grinder zines with some tips for traveling in Mexico. After, we made our way to the thermal hot springs in the valley. The road there is such a gnarly path. We had to two-person push our bikes through jagged rocks and swampy mud but it was well worth it to camp next to a rushing river and have hot springs right outside our tent.
Rejuvenated ,to say the least, we hopped back on the ol’ steeds and headed to the much talked about town of Boquete. We got there and were unable to stay with Bomberos because the head honcho was out for the weekend. But, after biking around, we found a nice abando that the neighbors gave us a blessing to camp in. We harvested green bananas from the yard to fry up for breakfast and we spent our time in the town playing the local tourist restaurants and making a good amount of tips. We went to a Brazilian pizza shop where the charismatic lady held a sermon in her restaurant filled with evangelical song and tearful prayer. We also ran into a French photojournalist that insisted we had “interesting mugs” and so took some photos of us doing our lil performance routine around the town. We took a break from the town to go up to the hills where there is a brick-like volcanic rock formation jutting out of the hillside. We ran into a Spanish family traveling in a camper van all the way from the states with their two children. We ended up spending half the day with them, sharing experiences and tips for traveling. After sharing a meal we went up to a waterfall viewpoint and swam in the river.
We later camped at a beautiful spot on the river which incidentally turned out to be the locals bathing spot. After a nice little nature break, we headed down early the next morning because we had caught wind of a local artisan market that happens on Tuesday. It’s basically an expat market where the local expat community gets together and shares and sells their hand made goods. On the outskirts we set up next to a Spanish homie we had met a few days before who traveled in van and was an avid rock climber. He was selling fruits and other produce and we set up a humble little blanket with some recycled jewelry and our zines. After we put the sign up that we were traveling by bike it was an immediate conversation starter.
Many people donated for the zines and asked about our journey. We made out with a lot of good friends from the market. We met a really nice South African couple Courtney and Ryan that invited us later for drinks. We talked for what seemed like a few hours just shooting the shit and sharing experiences about biking, then about house sitting and teaching English to Chinese children online. We also met a lovely retired couple, Mara from Panama and Claus from Germany, who invited us into their home to stay for the night. So after hanging out with Courtney and Ryan we rode the downhill to Mara and Claus’s place where we were welcomed with open arms. They are both cyclists and Claus had adventures in Europe traveling to Turkey and so they were so excited to meet fellow cycle tourers. We had a delicious soup and shared stories of family and other countries. We loved our spontaneous encounter with these kind and generous people.
The next morning, after a multi course breakfast, we coasted down to the town of Gualaca where we visited the Cangilones. This spot has sweet cliff rock formations lining the river. There were plenty of people when we arrived - a couple of groups of foreign tourists interspersed with locals and also a bus of cyclists on a supported cycling trip from Costa Rica. We sat in on a partner yoga session led by a hostal group and waited for most people to leave before setting up our tent. In the morning we had the river to ourselves and enjoyed the fresh waters and some climbing before hitting the road again.
We made it to a major intersection on the Panamericana highway and rode to a fruit stand where a local offered us many a coconut. We decide to get a ride since we had a flight to catch out of Panama City in a few days and were still hundreds of miles away and over a series of mountains. We got a ride with a really kind truck driver named Xavier who offered us a place to stay at his Aunt’s house and bought us half a sack of oranges with maybe close to 50 oranges in it. We slept like babies on a bed and cooked some veggie soup and played some music in return for such a nice evening. We left really early the next morning to the town of Anton where we had already arranged with a Cricket Farm to visit their facilities. We biked down a dirt road to a farm in the countryside and walked up to a facility with some greenhouses. We met with Conan, a French Canadian, who with his partner started this cricket business. He said he was inspired by the movie Snow Piercer in which they feed these bars of insects to the people and it made him think of the food of the future. We learned about all the trials and errors of starting this venture and got to see the whole process from the egg laying to the baking room. We learned that cricket fras (poop) is a highly coveted gold in terms of organic fertilizer. He even showed us his farming experiment with growing squash on the fields outside. The plot of land with cricket fras was growing like crazy. He also explained that they extend the normal life expectancy of the cricket by double and give it the best conditions for quality of life. All in all we were very impressed by this small farm that is actually the biggest cricket farm in all of Central America. We got a small bag of cricket protein as a gift to sprinkle in our food, which has kind of a nutty flavor.
We settled down with the bomberos in Anton for the night where we were welcomed with jokes and a meal. Nina feed them cricket powder and told them what it was only after they ate it. They laughed really hard and a few people washed their mouths out. We biked to the pacific coast the next day and took lunch near a poopy smelling beach near San Carlos. We soon got caught in the rain right as we were leaving. So we took refuge under a covered parking and then made our way to Chame after the storm settled down. We stayed with the bomberos again, they let us sleep in their balcony. From there, we made it to the outskirts of Panama City to the town of Arraijan where we were welcomed by bomberos and given many delicious Panamanian treats. We left the next morning after Ernesto got a haircut from one of the firemen who is also a barber.
Once in the city we realized with the celebration of Mother’s Day we couldn’t find refuge in our normal spots like the firestation or the Red Cross but we biked to the Hard Rock Cafe Hotel one of the taller buildings in downtown because we had gotten a tip that you could go to the top floor and see the view from there for free. When we got there they said the bar on the top floor is closed on Monday but we could go swim in the pool on the 12th floor. So we did, well Annina did because Ernesto only had pants on. But we were able to go up pretty high on the elevator and some of the top floors were under renovation so we still got to see the birds eye view of Panama City. We then biked around the city on its coast line bike way the Cinta Costera and into the old town we scoped out a chill spot to camp right off the bike path. Our camp was suspended over the water on a bridge overlook. We came back later to this spot at night which seemed to be Lovers point because their were only couples and the occasionally runner who stopped to take a break from the loop. It was the perfect spot for the night as you can only access it really by walking or biking so it was very relaxed.
We woke up in the morning and got ready for the day to prepare to head to the airport. We went to a bike shop to pick up bike boxes and were asked a lot of questions by curious cyclist in the store. After we packed the boxes down and strapped them to the bikes we made our way out of the city and over the Panama Canal bridge towards the airport. Once we got to the airport we realized it was a lot smaller than we thought. We had anticipated being able to sleep inside like some major international airports but this was just a small single airline terminal. So after we talked to some people we realized we had to buy a proof of onward travel in order to enter Colombia and we had to find a place to sleep somewhere outside they recommended the 24 hour gas station. Being in a weird, privately-owned development the whole vibe around the airport felt like we were back in a fancy american suburb. We went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks and, after being told we couldn’t sleep at the gas station, we found a discreet place to camp in between the airport and the gas station. We were lucky to get a good nights rest because the next day of airport travel turned out to be a stress ball and a half. It was like a Nicholas cage montage mixed with a timed game show. We got to the airport 3 hours before our flight chatted with some people as we packed our boxes and taped them up for the flight and then waited in the long understaffed line for checked luggage. This part was tranquil. But once we got to the front of the line we were told our boxes were way too heavy and we had to transfer weight to our carry-on luggage. So we scrambled as we had to tear open our boxes and fling stuff out of our bags in order to beat the buzzer. We finally figured out the weight ratio in the nick of time and had to borrow tape from the airline to repack our boxes. We got the go ahead to pass through immigration although the condition of Annina’s passport was clearly noted. We boarded smoothly and were up in the sky in no time. After a seemingly short and bumpy flight we landed in Bogota Colombia!!! The tribulations had only begun as we landed and once we got through the line for immigration Annina was given a scolding for her passport and told that she couldn’t use this passport any longer to travel and the officers wrote that in to the passport. We made it through and reunited with our boxes and once outside in the main hall of the airport we got to the task of putting the bikes back together.
After getting them together and packed we rode off into the city and soon notice we were not alone as cyclists. On the contrary, we were surprised by how many people were on bikes. We had never seen so cyclists. The bike routes through the city are really extensive and there is a very strong culture of cycling. We made our way to our Couchsurfing host’s house where we were welcomed in with a glass of homemade lemonade. We’re now chilling in the city of Bogotá where we partook in a nighttime city wide bike ride. Thousands of people and families on bikes taking the main thoroughfares throughout the city. It was such a massive turnout it was crazy to experience. There were thousands of people on bicycles. We turned in our bikes to a shop for some long overdue maintenance and are just resting up for the ride onwards and upwards towards Medellin. We’re excited to see how this year folds us into its unfolding.
Have you folded anything recently? Laundry? A secret note? A body part during a weird yoga pose? Or has a truth recently unfolded itself to you???
What is the old you going to do for the new you?
Let us know what is up or down in your life :)
Til then.
Besos y pedos,
Annina and Ernesto
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