About last night... Ernie and I have our lawn chairs fully reclined. We haven’t stayed somewhere this quiet and off the highway in a long time, so we wanted to spend as much time outside as possible. Except for a few, scattered mini-party lights that slowly rotate through all the colors of the rainbow, the pool and its surrounding areas are dark. There are only good and interesting insects, none of the biting or molesting kind. We were watching the bats. First the little echolocating insectivores, fast and erratic and if you listen real hard, you can hear their little chirps. Then came the big bats, the kind that eat tungara frogs. They fly slow and steady, always solo, and in a straight line across the dimly lit sky. We were mostly looking up, but female tungaras hopping around the pool would catch our eye every so often. In the calm, a ~5 inch long “thing” drops into the pool and the mini-splash catches both our eyes. We are staring, wondering what it is. It starts swimming! And swimming gracefully and intently, not floundering or drowning. I am totally baffled and my curiosity is peaked… what falls from the sky, hits the water, then swims?!? Nothing I have ever heard of has these locomotor abilities. With excitement, I am following it along the pools edge and I am almost on top of it... POOF. I fall 4-5 feet. I thought it was a hole, as the “walls” are up to my armpits. The balls of my feet are barely holding me up in this “hole”, and I shout to Ernie for help. He lifts me out, gets me back to our lawn chairs, and we inspect for damage. Two nasty shin scrapes and bumps (no worries), a forearm scape (again, no worries), and a not so good feeling on the right foot… I’ve broken three metatarsals before, so I know what it feels like. So far, and even after the ride and walking today, the pain is bad but not as bad as the times I endured known metatarsal fractures, so I’ve still self-diagnosed as it-is-not-fractured-Tara-you-just-banged-it-up-real-good”. The bruise is coming… I’ll wait until it is good and nasty to share a picture of it with you.
In the light this morning we went and inspected my Baby Jessica hole (see pics). If one comes in from a different angle, it is the under-pool maintenance room - tall enough to stand in and filled with chlorine tabs, filter equipment, and PVC pipes. The best I can figure is that I happened to fall right on that piece of wood that is overlaying the stairs; the little bit of give in the plank when I landed on it was probably enough to save me from a very hard and harmful crack on the tile below.
But back to “the thing”! I had forgotten this part (adrenaline I guess), but it eventually swam over towards us when I was icing my foot back on the lawn chairs, and Ernie went back to it and inspected. He got right up on top of it (without falling…). It was a grasshopper. And when it got to the pool stairs it walked out like it was nothing. Ernie said “he finished having a nice swim, crawled up and out of the pool, and hopped away.” A flying, swimming, crawling, hopping, half a foot long grasshopper. Bueno.
So yeah… chasing bugs in the dark is dangerous, not motorcycling. It's ok when its elevated and resting, and despite whatever the hell bird that was last night that would NOT shut up, I managed to get a little sleep. Walking is the most painful right now; Ernie was sweet to carry all my gear to and from my bike today, and he will likely have to do it again tomorrow… Riding isn’t so bad. Since it was so beautiful and cool today and the road is four lane luxury, we actually did almost 300 km today, stopping every 100 km to ice and rest my foot. And they say to wear a boot when you injure your feet and I am in boots already so that is good ha ha! Also, its my right foot and not my left which is great, as the left foot is clutch foot. And we have five days off the bike coming up when we are on the boat. Lots of silver linings given what a stupid klutz I am.
Ernesto is amazing. He is so patient, so considerate… so willing to do whatever is needed to be better than ok as we get through every moment of day. Today is day 56 and he hasn’t waned. I’m trying to be positive and will keep my head up and stay committed to the ride of course, but admittedly I’m frustrated and angry that I have done something to make everything just a little bit harder for a while… this trip tests us enough that we (or at least me) didn’t need another pressure point (literally and figuratively).
Tomorrow we ride to a home base on the east side of Panama City. We shall stay there for four nights, where in addition to some foot rest we shall do some tourist activities by bus and taxi. We are stoked!
In the light this morning we went and inspected my Baby Jessica hole (see pics). If one comes in from a different angle, it is the under-pool maintenance room - tall enough to stand in and filled with chlorine tabs, filter equipment, and PVC pipes. The best I can figure is that I happened to fall right on that piece of wood that is overlaying the stairs; the little bit of give in the plank when I landed on it was probably enough to save me from a very hard and harmful crack on the tile below.
But back to “the thing”! I had forgotten this part (adrenaline I guess), but it eventually swam over towards us when I was icing my foot back on the lawn chairs, and Ernie went back to it and inspected. He got right up on top of it (without falling…). It was a grasshopper. And when it got to the pool stairs it walked out like it was nothing. Ernie said “he finished having a nice swim, crawled up and out of the pool, and hopped away.” A flying, swimming, crawling, hopping, half a foot long grasshopper. Bueno.
So yeah… chasing bugs in the dark is dangerous, not motorcycling. It's ok when its elevated and resting, and despite whatever the hell bird that was last night that would NOT shut up, I managed to get a little sleep. Walking is the most painful right now; Ernie was sweet to carry all my gear to and from my bike today, and he will likely have to do it again tomorrow… Riding isn’t so bad. Since it was so beautiful and cool today and the road is four lane luxury, we actually did almost 300 km today, stopping every 100 km to ice and rest my foot. And they say to wear a boot when you injure your feet and I am in boots already so that is good ha ha! Also, its my right foot and not my left which is great, as the left foot is clutch foot. And we have five days off the bike coming up when we are on the boat. Lots of silver linings given what a stupid klutz I am.
Ernesto is amazing. He is so patient, so considerate… so willing to do whatever is needed to be better than ok as we get through every moment of day. Today is day 56 and he hasn’t waned. I’m trying to be positive and will keep my head up and stay committed to the ride of course, but admittedly I’m frustrated and angry that I have done something to make everything just a little bit harder for a while… this trip tests us enough that we (or at least me) didn’t need another pressure point (literally and figuratively).
Tomorrow we ride to a home base on the east side of Panama City. We shall stay there for four nights, where in addition to some foot rest we shall do some tourist activities by bus and taxi. We are stoked!