Rding day two- La Chorrera to San Carlos approx 60km

DAY 2 -
Biker Short moment of the day - While stretching outside our hotel, in biker shorts of course, I am bending down, and stretchingout my groin, and Aaron watches this Panamanian woman walking down the street and her eyes get big. Apparently she crosses the street to our side, and walks righ behind me. I dont notice her till I stand up andshe is right there, and I smile and say hello, andshe gets this big ol smile, and says hi. As soon as she is out of sight aroudn teh corner, aaron starts laughing his ass off. What? I ask, and he explains to me what he just witnessed. Great laugh to start the day.

Alright. Well its already day three, but we didnt have access to the internet yesterday. Excuse the typing, as I am on a shitty ass keyboard with sticky keys, and white out painted letters on their. Anyway. Day two we woke up early, and again began getting our things together. We get some breakfast, and away we go. Day two was about twice as far as day one, and there were somes serious hills. The road widened a bit, so we had more shoulder to ride on, and the further we were getting from panama city, the less cars there were. That being said, at a couple different points they had the road shut down on one lane cause they were repairing that lane, AND the shoulder. So I had to ride into the one lane of traffic, and pass alongwith all the rest of the cars driivng down the fricken freeway. So Aaron goes, and hemakes it, but I clip a fucking cone with my bags on the back of my bike, and I almost eat shit. My bike starts weaving, I slam on my breaks, and skid almost intot he ditch that they were working on. A worker looks up to see me stop about one foot from falling on top of him. Ontop of that, a bus had stopped and cars were lining up behindit. It was waiting for me to pass, and so after I did, and it went by, a bunch of cars were driving by me, and yelling some spanish shit out at me. In my mind they were saying "ride on you kick ass american"but I doubt that was really what they were saying. hahaha. I was definitely a bit shaken up by that, and it was witrhin our first hour of riding. We kept on, and we were doing some climbing, at one point, wegot up on to this hill or mountain or whatever and the views were beautiful. I took some photos, adn I will see if I can post. After we dropped down out of the hills, the road became just a series of hills, up and down, up and down. but while they werent that steep, they started to seem like it after we had been ridingfor about three hours. I strained something in my knee, and my legs started to feel they didnt have much more give in them. Plus it was getting hot as shit out, and the sun was beating down on us. Sweat was pouring down my face, and my legs, and arms. At one point, I felt like I was burning. Well maybe a bit of an exageration, but not much. The last hour of the ride was abit brutal ,but when we rolled into san carlos I was so excited, and sooooo ready to stop. I felt like I was overheating. WE found this kick fucking ass hostel, hostel costazul, right on the water. For five bucks, we could camp down under these little cabana things, there wasa light, and a bathroom wth a shower. SWEET. After getting all my shit unstrapped, anddown the hill to the camping spot,I went and took a shower, cooled off, cause they dont have hot water here, and felt great. I washed my hair for the first time in three days, and wha a difference that made. My legs hurt, I was tired as shit, and I was ready to EAT. I was so hungry. WE set up the tent, got out stuff inside it, and got back onthe bikes ,and headed to town to get food. It was an awesome little town. Getting on the bikes, then, after having ridden for so long, it was SO PAINFUL to sit down. The biker shorts have a padded ass, so it helps, but I was in biker shorts now, and it literally felt like some one kicked me straight in my ass everytime my ass touched the seat. hahahaha. It was a bit odd riding our bikes wihtout the gear o n it either. Aaron got on and rode straight in to the trees and had to jump off, hahaha. Lunch was great, 2.50 or so for another big meal. On the way back, we stopped at a church, it was beautful inside and out. I actually walked inside, and knelt down at the first pew, and said a prayer. I had been praying every nightbefore bed, and the day before, I got some litte jesus thing, that I paid a quarter for, and use as a book mark. Anyway, I said a prayer, and then we got out of there. When we got back to the camp site, I crawled into on of the hammocks and put on my ipod and just tried to sleep. I was WORN THE F out. No mater how I tried though, I couldnt fall asleep. My mind was racing, and it was messing wiht me. Making me think about old stuff, and feelings, relatoinship(s) and all that, so much so that I eventually popped my head up, and decided I was going to write abit about it. I did. I sat and journaled for a bit, and once I was done with that, I decided it was time for abit of spiritual, and physical healing. I walked my happy andvery sore ass down to the beach, which started about ten feet away, but the tide was out, so I walked for about 200 yards or so, found a cool spot, and began doing a full stretch. It felt so good, Itook my time, and just concetrated on getting it all worked out. After that I did my best to get into the lotus position , which for me isbasically sitting indian style, and I tried or did meditate. I dont know how long I sat there, but I was able to quiet my mind, and begin to feel at peace. At one point a family walked by, and I could hear the kid right in front of me, trying to get me to open my eyes or move, but I didnt. I stayed like tat for a while, and when I opened them up, I felt sooo fresh. It was amazing. I am glad I did it. I also found a scallop shell, perfectly in tact when I finished, and that has some significance. When Aaron was in spain he had a moment where he found a scallop shell, unexpectedly, while debating on doing the Camino De Santiago. Thats a pilgrimage through spain that people do every year, and the scallop shell is the symbol of that trek. Because all the points, no matter which route you take, you get back to the same destination. So I pickdup the scallop shell, and have it in my journal. It came at a good time for me. I was feeling a bit beat up before, but not anymore. Walking back, the sun was starting to go down, and of course I was hungry AGAIN. Aaron was still nappinhg, so I sat and read. When he woke up, we walked this time into town, didnt want to feel the pain of being kick in my culo again. Culo means ass for those that dont know. We ate, and on the way home, we got an ice cream cone. yummy. That night, we chilled, playd some cards, and tried to get to bed early. The next day was going to be even longer than today, so we wanted our rest. It was hot as shit in the tent. I sweat my ass off, and had to sleep in such a way that no matter which way I faced one arm was going to go to sleep. So all through the night, I would wake up, and have to roll over, so one arm could go to sleep and one would wake up. hahaha. The hostel also had a couple of dogs. Tehy were doberminns, and they were adorable, reminded me of Karis old dog alice. so that was day two.