Failed Attempt

Daryll writes:

The fact that we have internet access must say something already. 
We awoke to some nice warm weather for a change this morning and had high hope for the day to come as the sun poked through the cloud cover.  We got our bikes packed and hit the Pan-American Hwy towards the Darien.  Our friends Naomi and Alberto needed to go to the bank and change some money so we arranged to meet them at the boat pick-up point.  We took the toll road out of Panama City towards the airport and beyond.  About an hour into the ride, it started to rain and didn’t look good in the distance. 

As usual, we pull over to the side of the road, put our rain gear on and continue, but only for another few minutes till we get to a police blockade.  There are a few police officers milling around and several people out of their vehicles looking distressed.  I check with the one officer and he says that the road to Carti has been closed for a day and he isn’t letting anyone through.  In the mean time, he takes down the license of other drivers and lets them pass.  Apparently these people are going to towns before out turn-off and the road is fine till then.  I ask a few people standing around when they think the road will re-open and they all shrug their shoulders.  This isn’t looking good.

Stopped in our tracks

Some meaning looking Police

We wait for about 20mins and our friends show up.  Spanish is Alberto’s first language, so he starts to chat to a few of the police officers while Ang and Naomi get friendly with another.  Apparently these officers were given strict instructions not to let anyone through; however not 30mins prior to our arrival, the one officer says he was letting people pass.  We called the Captain of the boat we were going to take and he suggested that we go back to Panama City and hope that the road re-opens soon and after seeing most other people leave, decided that we call it a day and head back to the City and to the Hotel we left a few hours ago.

Angela, Jose & Naomi

Once we unpack and settle into the same room - we asked for it as it was one of the few larger rooms, we try to come up with a plan.  There is 4 of us and 4 bikes, that is almost half of the revenue this Captain is going to be generating of this sailing, so he is sure to come up with an alternate pick-up point.  We are way too valuable to him and he is definitely not sailing without us. 

About an hour ago, we received an email from Fritz (the Captain) letting us know that we should meet at the same point tomorrow and the road was re-opened this afternoon, probably a few hours after we turned around and headed back.  Damn!  We will try again tomorrow.