It was a full circus. 4 different lines to get through and they search your luggage. As soon as we got across the border the road was beautiful, smooth, and the road crew must be from Newport Beach because the landscaping was near perfect. We enjoyed a flat, smooth ride with a tailwind and some cloud cover. Sometimes you get near perfect conditions cycling and it was that way for about 3 hours. We ate at a little. Alot like the 100's of other little places on this trip. It's always delicious and were always stoked. Cycling heightens the taste buds in ways I can't explain. If you ride you get it and if you dont you probably think I'm just some food obsessed exaggerator. Nonetheless it was again the BEST MEAL EEEEEEEVER.
We rode another hour then grabbed a coke and Gatorade. We decided to ride another few hours. I'm definitely feeling 100% again. Dane says he's at like 90-95% so were thankful for that. The last 2 hours I felt great and that's a good thing because in the last 25 miles of today's ride it was 104 degrees and we climbed 3000 ft. So if my blogging seems a little sub par at times it's for good reason. Sometimes you finish a hard day like today where it was nearly 70 miles of riding, 3000ft of climbing, and 104 degrees and you feel great. Other times you look like the village drunk and you haven't had a sip.
About 3 miles from the town we decided to stop at I got attacked while riding by a swarm of killer bees. It was straight out of a horror film and I took off like a bat out of hell riding as fast as I could swinging my arms widely. I lost my cycling glasses trying to kill the one that stung my back. Then I tried to swat the one the stung my left eye. Then I tried to kill the 2 that stung both my arms. The clincher was the one that went inside my cycling bib and stung my neck.
Nothing on this trip has fazed me including multiple choatic border crossings, sleeping in every conceivable place, learning Spanish, and eating all sorts if weird stuff-but this episode FREAKED ME OUT!
Dane rolled in later and showed me the 6 stings he got. He was pissed and said it ruined his day. I told him to grab a beer and listen to a Chuck Smith sermon-one of them was bound to help get him in a good mood!
Currently my left eye is swollen as well as my arms. It hurts to close my eye but im sure it will pass. It sort of looks like someone punched me in the face. So if you've ever secretly wanted to punch me in the face you can thank Mr.Bee and his gang of insano wingmen. They did a fine job on me.
On the positive side it might be the finest sprint I have ever put down on my bike. Hopefully next time I ride that hard it won't be Bee induced.
So I asked around and found out from the locals that there is a abeja tienda which means bee farm. We happened to ride by it and there you go.
What are the odds I would ride by a bee farm in Panama?
Ride4water via Iphone4