Waiting For Parts

Boquete has got to have one of the highest ratio of pool tables to population of any town I’ve been to, and even though I enjoy shooting a few games of nine ball now and then, I somehow never found time to play.

I’ve been here over a month now, three weeks of which were spent waiting for parts to come so I could get my machine running for the long ride home. All the while I wondered whether they would ever come or if they would be the right parts when they do.
I met dozens of folks here, mostly Ex-Pats from the USA and Canada, who have a very similar reply when I describe my situation, “…Plenty of worse places you could be stuck…” I can’t argue the point at all since it has just about everything a person waiting for motorcycle parts could ask for….except the parts. Always a fly in the ointment.

I have not met anyone here who didn’t express joy about living in Boquete. With such free floating feelings of contentment comes the inevitable expansion of the town population, real estate values, prices and construction. The only thing I saw for the first few days of being stuck here was the road we took to get to Mickey and Sharons house just outside town. This road is being widened to four lanes from the current two and presented no visible redeeming qualities until I moved my base of operations into the center of town after the parts were ordered. Sharon and Mickey need their privacy after a long visit by the previous guest. It was the best thing all around to get with new people, but at the time I just didn’t know that Boquete was such a travelers Mecca and that I would meet the people I need to complete a rudimentary social network.

Given that I was under the stress of dealing with a broken vehicle and an unknown quantity in Alberto Volio, who works at the San Jose Suzuki dealership, my overall experience is very similar to the showers here. They run cold, then very hot, then cold again repeatedly. I always need to make adjustment in my attitude and thinking process in order to cope with being absolutely powerless in a pretty cool place.

Along those lines, when in Rome, do as the Roman do. I talked to as many folks as possible, now and then feigning joy in their company but mostly very grateful to have people to spend time with. As you might gather from viewing the Picasa pictures, I have been surviving on keeping busy and getting with people as is becomes possible. 

The diversity of personalities and background is pretty amazing for a town of about 20,000 people.
I met a group of cruiser riders who connected me to Gary and Jennifer who are riding their Yamaha Tenere to Boston starting tomorrow. It’s quite a coincidence that the Tenere is the same bike that Terry Hammond had on order when he suddenly died back in November just after the Moonshine Rally.

I was able to take nice check out ride up to the Rio Sereno border crossing yesterday. On that ride I met more riders who live in David and talked about a couple who were riding to Boston soon. It turned out to be Gary and Jen who I am riding with. “The world is small…” he said.
I’ll ride out of Boquete tomorrow and meet Gary and Jennifer at noon. We’ll cross into Costa Rica and spend the night with their friends in San Jose. Jennifer needs to fly to a seminar in Florida and will be back in 24 hours.

I am on the edge of my seat with anticipation as to how this will turn out. Thanks to all the positive energy coming from you folks back home, and the STOC TAG book inscriptions, it is turning out well so far.