Today I left San Jóse at 7:40am and headed towards the coast. I got lost and was only able to get directions after perfecting my Spanish accent (three minutes of saying ruta tres in every possible accent imaginable). I got lost again after crossing an extremely rickety bridge (one of many crossed today) and stopped to look at my camera map invention. A guy on an 1150 GS drove up and said, “Hey, how’s it going?” It turns out he left San Jóse at the same time, took the same route, and got lost at the same place. Together we found the real route to the coast, pased hundreds of slow vehicles, survived 30 miles of grueling dirt track, and made it through the border without spending too much money. My generosity got the better of me and I may have overpaid our border helper. After the border the road was great but it began to rain. It also began to get dark but for some reason we soldiered on. After a grueling hour of dark roads and rain we stopped to fuel up. We agreed that conditions were pretty much the worst they could be and asked the gas station attendants if there were any hotels around. No hotels, they said, until Santiago. Two hours away. They made jokes about how we could get there much faster because we were on fast bikes. One of them wanted to know how many caballos (horses) my bike was.

After we set out again the rain stopped and the drive was actually kind of pleasant. It’s an interesting experience to ride at night… One I’d never like to have again.

I’m now in the lobby of the Hotel Gran David. I’m sharing a $34 room with Dane, the fellow I met earlier. We ate at a restaurant across the street that advertised an international menu—apparently international now means spaghetti, chowmein, ceviche, and steak. I will let you guess which I chose. It felt good to eat something, I didn’t have any snacks or food since breakfast. I’m in the lobby of the hotel now, typing this on an obnoxious “Internet Terminal” with flashing lights and a tiny screen. $1 an hour.

Every single muscle in my body hurts. Tomorrow we’re headed to Panama City and then back North on Friday. San Jóse Saturday and then the long drive home!