After a day and a half of paperwork, we left Bogota for Panama City on Feb 3rd. Everything seemed to be going as planned. Our bikes flew over the Gap in the morning and our flight was in the afternoon. Our bikes were in Panama waiting for us. It was a logistics miracle, or so we thought. After a little more paperwork, we went to the aduana to do more paperwork, which went extremely fast. We all were pleasantly surprised, but all of us thought it was strange. We ventured towards Costa Rica, and when we arrived at the border we discovered that our paperwork for the bikes was not correct. Panama impounded our bikes because according to their records, our bikes were not legal to ride on Panama streets. And, to make matters even more entertaining, it was a holiday in Panama so the government was shut down. Panama made us ride our bikes to David to the impound lot and told us to come back on Thursday after the holiday. We decided to spend the next 4 days at the beach to try and relax and enjoy the downtime, even though our situation was not good.

Imagine what it feels like knowing your main transportation when you are so far from home is taken from you. Add in stress from being on the road for so long, and the desire to want to get home and be together with two other people all the time. How would you handle it? I'm not going to bear it all here, but let's just say some days my emotions and frustrations did get the best of me. To make a long story short, our new friends, Emma and Himen, whom we met on the beach in Panama recommended we talk with Roger about our situation. Roger helped us shrink our time at the Aduana and by Friday afternoon we were reunited with our bikes and headed to Costa Rica.

We spent 2 days riding through Costa Rica with a stop again at the Harley dealer to pick up new shocks we had shipped from the US for Jay's bike. The dealer was minutes away from closing, so we took the shocks, borrowed a car jack from someone and the three of us installed them in the front of our hotel. It actually worked out quite well! The next day, we headed for the Nicaragua border with a detour to see a grand waterfall. About mid day, Brian and I both were feeling a little nauseous. But, we ate some Tums and thought it would be fine. As we were checking out of Costa Rica, I got sick. And then Brian got sick.

We pulled forward into Nicaragua, and they began fumigating our bikes. I lost it again, right in front of the entire border office. They almost wouldn't let me cross, but I told them it was the heat and the fumigation smell and I would be fine. Meanwhile, Brian is behind one of the offices out of sight losing his cookies. Our DNA is painted all over Costa Rica/Nicaragua border. We finally got through, and about 5 km up the road we were stopped by police directing a semi unloading a large earth-moving machine. As the cop is talking to Brian and Jay, I'm hurling again. The cop comes over by my bike and asks what's up with the water, and I just said I spilled it from my water bottle strapped to my bungee on the back of my bike.

Finally, we get moving again and make it to San Carlos. We found a hotel, and Brian and I both went straight to bed. The next morning both of us were much better. We concluded that the zucchini bread at breakfast must have been the culprit since it was the only thing different the two of us ate that Jay didn't. Zucchini bread from the breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn. We have eaten so much at roadside stands, and that's what did us in?!?! Unreal.

Riding yesterday (Feb 15) in Nicaragua felt like a warm fall day. Leaves were falling from the trees, and the air was crisp. The roads in Nicaragua are truly in the best shape of all Central America. Today we crossed into Honduras and took a different route back, bypassing El Salvador and heading northeast. The road started out little bumpy in Honduras, but quickly turned to smooth, windy roads throughout the mountains.