Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

With a relaxed start to the day and a late departure, I finally get chance to update the blog and deal with my email, and work with Kevin to order the seals needed to fix the leak in my final drive, which will be brought out to Panama by Roddy from the freight company, James Cargo.

As I was getting ready to leave Granada, I discovered I'd lost one of my custom-made earplugs, another minor set-back, as getting a set made and sent out here will take a while... but it's only a short ride today so earplugs are not essential...

Leaving Granada we weave our way through a crowded market, the usual chaos of people everywhere, stepping out in front of the bikes without looking, whilst others stand and stare, the bikes so much bigger than anything they ride out here... then out into the open countryside, riding past endless tropical trees, with the volcanoes that dot the landscape towering above the huge lake. The ride takes us south, skirting the edge of the lake before we turn right and head across country to the Pacific coast and the town of San Juan del Sur and our hotel just a block away from the beach. Within a few minutes of parking the bike in the parking area I was swimming in the ocean, the huge waves crashing around me, the water very salty, making body-surfing great fun, but the strong undercurrent meant I couldn't swim too far from shore...

After a good cooling swim, we sat in one of the beach-front bars and had a cool beer, and ate a delicious lunch of Jalapeño Chicken, a huge flat chicken breast with a rich sauce with sweet chillies in. When we got too hot again, a short walk saw us again playing in the waves, diving through the bigger waves before they broke on the sand. Finally it was time to head back to the hotel to prepare for the evening's group meal... Then I hit a problem, as I came out of the shower to discover that Jim had locked the door and taken the key with him... only he hadn't just locked the door, he'd dead-locked it... and from the inside there was no-way to unlock it... So I banged on the door for a while, whilst also attempting to unscrew the lock from the door... after a while of banging and shouting Ozzy Andy came out of his room and got the spare key from reception and freed me from my unexpected incarceration...

When free, we headed to a bar on the beach to watch the sunset, and boy, what a sunset it was, the sky turning a fantastic shade of orange, the clouds looking like those from a renaissance painting...





Whether it was the location or the heat I'm not sure, but large quantities of cold beer were consumed, before we headed next door to the restaurant for the group meal, an official occasion and therefore I had to wear the hat, which I did despite the heat, relying on cold beer and cold white wine to keep myself from overheating... Dinner was superb, with a starter of small muscles in garlic (sweet and not at all chewy), and then I had deep-fried Red Snapper in Garlic, the fish as fresh as could be, the flesh falling off the bones at the slightest touch... I may have also drank a little too much, if this picture is anything to go by...