Leaving Panama City and trying to keep the speed of a biker

November 24, 2014 Longboard Lady 0 Comments

The taxi driver dropped me off at a bus stop at the same time people quit work and the road was filled with people, all staring at me when I set up my equpiment. I put my things together as fast as I could and started in a slow pace up the first hill. The traffic was heavy, the shoulders littered and even if they were wide enough, cars, buses and trucks were close and I was nervous. It took a while but then I felt more self confident and I could concentrate on the not so steep but long uphills. My legs were sored and my head wanted to be released from my helmet. Hot, sweating, struggling.

Downhill was something else. I used my soles to brake once again and could feel how the asphalt ate them but was to afraid of the speed that came immediately. When I finally felt a little bit braver I gave one hill a try. Unfortunately I had to swerve for some potholes in the road and my trailer, which I thought where more stable after some adjustments, turned over again. I could hear it scraping after my longboard but instead of slowing me down it went back for a while then rolled over again. I couldn't find the balance to foot brake and had to wait until next uphill before I stopped rolling. Looked at the damages, ignored them for the moment and went on, more careful but also annoyed with the fact that my equipment still didn't work.

I was expecting Anders to catch up on me but guessed he had left later from Panama City than expected. A camera flash went off from one of the passing cars, I heard whistles and saw thumbs up all the way, even from a police car. At one point a couple of dogs where a little bit to curious about my longboard and I was nervous because my earlier experiences with dogs and my Subsonic board wasn't great. Those two were sniffing around and I did my best to ignore them and hoped they choosed not to play with my board or attack it. They left and so did I. Glad that I didn't have to defend my belongings.


My legs started to be so tired that I didn't trust them and even if I hadn't pushed my board for slightly more than seven kilometers I felt relieved when I saw our meeting point. Ten minutes later I was accompanied by my biker again and we had a nice meal in a asian restaurant before we went looking for somewhere to sleep. No camping today either. We found a small hotell in the small village of Arraiján.