Wandering with Tedder and Tamara

Saturday (the 26^th) was a slow day for us, because we were both quite sick. The only things of note were chatting with some riders, and calling Captain Steve. We were supposed to call him anyhow- he said he couldn't get his boat to the dock, and the bike is too heavy to risk loading by lancha. We pretty much agreed, and asked him to return our deposit. He said he'd return the bike portion, but not the portion for the passengers. We completely disagreed with this theory- it was a package deal, after all. We agreed to meet him, in person, to discuss it.

Cue Sunday. We FINALLY packed and left our hotel in PC. It was nice, especially for the price ($20). But it is nice to be moving on. We dropped a borrowed book off, got some gas, and used the toll road to head for Colon.

The toll road was much nicer- remember it was the free road that caused us so much trouble with our rim, bearings, and suspension. Unfortunately, it (currently) only goes about a third of the way across the peninsula. Still, it probably saved us 30 minutes or more.

The trip out to Portobelo was more pleasant than the previous day- no rain, no broken bike bits, and no threat of darkness. It was still too warm for us- we just don't care for the high humidity and temperatures. We met with Captain Steve, who was able to figure out how the navigation channel to the dock works. We went over the sailing plan with him and rebuilt a level of trust.

So here's the plan- keep in mind this is being written on Sunday. We'll load the bike during Monday's high tide (about 3pm). Tuesday morning the three of us will go get food for the trip. We'll board the boat Tuesday evening, and set sail early Wednesday morning. I'm trying to encourage Steve to leave early Tuesday morning, since we don't need an entire day for grocery shopping. We'll see how that pans out.

Next, we backtracked to Colon. The city of Colon is notorious as an incredibly dangerous place to be- many people recommend never going into the city, or not without an escort. I think it is very economically depressed, too many people and not enough jobs.

Whatever the deal is, we looked around for a specific hotel for a little bit, then settled on our second choice- the Hotel International. It's an old hotel, not far from the bus station, built in the grand old style (which is a little tragic now). $25 for air conditioning and a guarded parking area seemed worth it to us.

The town is actually kind of neat, in a depressing sort of way. The buildings are almost all three stories, probably built in the 20s to 40s, but in very terrible condition now. The alleys are a gutter for water and presumably sewage. A lot of the pools of water have green algae in it- a sign the water stagnates. The people seem quite friendly- a lot of West Indies, with a real nice mix of other races.

We'll probably visit the Colon Free Zone in the morning- it is only open on business days. It's basically a wholesale-only market that tolerates some level of retail activity. We don't know how much retail, and we don't know if we can get any goods out- people who visit usually have their purchases 'forwarded' to the airport so they can pick it up on their way out. We don't have that option.

Around noon we'll head back out to Portobelo to load the bike.