Riding to Patagonia

[1.21GW]

For the record (spoiler alert!) I had dinner with Carlos last night.  So: mission accomplished.     With that box checked, the thread begs for a rechristening.


In any case, good to see a fellow DMFer.  Feels a bit like a mini-DIMBY---the number of participants may be less, but the opinions are just as plentiful and twice as colorful.   

[Mhanis]

Congratulations on getting that done! 

Mark

[koko64]

Bravo.

[DarkMonster620]

Well, we had dinner then dimsum then some lunch and dogs warmed up to him quite fast . ..

He will tell the rest later

[DuciD03]

For the record (spoiler alert!) I had dinner with Carlos last night.  So: mission accomplished.     With that box checked, the thread begs for a rechristening.


In any case, good to see a fellow DMFer.  Feels a bit like a mini-DIMBY---the number of participants may be less, but the opinions are just as plentiful and twice as colorful.  

Congrats on getting to Panama! Interesting choice of moto to get there ... many would talk about it ... little who would do.

Good wright up, pics and thread. ....Write & Ride on brother ...
 






(ummm hate to ask but...Dinner with Carlos;.... I've see this reference before ... but I'll be the duffus to ask who IS Carlos? lol)

[Dirty Duc]

Congrats! Interesting choice; many would talk little would do.

Good wright up, pics and thread. ....Write & Ride on brother ...
 






(ummm hate to ask but...Dinner with Carlos;.... I've see this reference before ... but I'll be the duffus to ask who IS Carlos? lol)

DarkMonster620...
He's participated in many group activities, but lives in Panama.

[DuciD03]

ah!
tanks for the clue in ...lol.

 

[GK]

DarkMonster620 IS Carlos!

He's been around for ages, an ex Ducati mech who is both extremely friendly and helpful.

His eating and cooking habits are legendary. His snacks would make most people's main meals look rank amateur!

Funny guy, great guy! 👍🏻👍🏻

[1.21GW]

Quick post on Panama pre-Carlos:

So Panama is the Forgotten Country: so many travelers I met on my journey had little to say, positive or negative, about it.  I guess it suffers from being a pivot point between continents thats traveler as afflicted with hyperopia and spend little time exploring its various offerings before moving on to undiscovered lands north and south.  That's a shame, since there are really some great spots like Bocas del Toro (a series of islands and remote beaches near the border of Costa Rica), Santa Catalina (a surfing town with beautiful views of the Pacific and great food), Sante Fe (a mountain village where orange and tangerine trees are so abundant that fruit falls like rain as you walk along hiking trails and dirt roads)  and El Valle (a popular weekend getaway two hours from the Panama City with hikes and waterfalls).  Panama gets the award for hottest country on the trip so far: the Caribbean side is humid and hot and green like Florida and the SE USA; the Pacific side is hot and brown and dry much like SoCal and Baja.  A few images from these places below.  Free dinner to whoever can identify the rusted engine at the bottom. 

[ducpainter]

That's either a Cat Dozer motor...or Carlos' 620.

[Monsterlover]

Definitely could be either of those

[1.21GW]

Carlos's (DarkMonster620) wife works for the Canal, so we are able to get VIP access and my first full night in the city we were invited to ride a container ship through the Gallard Cut, the narrowest portion of the Canal, and out into the Pacific ocean.  This included passing through two sets of locks: Pedro Miguel and Miraflores.

For a non-engineer like myself, the Canal initially had a mild appeal, the kind of roadside attraction that would get Clark Griswold excited but did little to spur interest from his wife and kids ("Don't you want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away?!").  But actually experiencing the process, riding atop an enormous container ship six stories high carrying a thousand tons of cargo under the spider-like Centenario Bridge while approaching 100-yr old locks that draw water from manmade Gutan Lake in order to raise and lower ships 27m, was a sublime experience that parallels first seeing the Grand Canyon or climbing 5000m Peruvian peaks.

The human brain is incapable of grasping truly large things, which is why scientists use so many analogies when describing the universe.  The temperature of the sun, the distance between stars, the age of our planet, the depth of the ocean are all so inconceivably large and so far beyond our daily experience that our brains simply can't comprehend them.  It's in places at the edge of civilization like where we for a brief moment grasp the infinite.

The reason I mention this is that the Canal is the first and only manmade structure I've experienced that has this effect.  The ships as impossibly large.  The Centenario Bridge is lit up in a way that highlights the simple and elegant beauty of its engineering.  The locks are at once incredibly simple in concept and inconceivably complex in function.  And to think that man did this.  That someone a century ago said "What if...?" and then someone else said "Why not?" and then it was done.  It's baffling.  It is man playing god.

This was the impression I could not escape drifting along at 8 knots under a full moon in the cool night air atop a manmade mountain in a manmade river, a paean to human ingenuity and ambition.  Thanks Carlos!

[1.21GW]

That's either a Cat Dozer motor...or Carlos' 620.

 

[duccarlos]

For the record (spoiler alert!) I had dinner with Carlos last night.  So: mission accomplished.   

Pics or it did not happen

[DarkMonster620]

Pics or it did not happen

Haven't seen a pic of our lunch   . . . . I know it happened but we have no proof .. .. ..