vlog: Cerro Banco Adventure Overview

Well the Cerro Banco adventure is over. I tried to make it once and just got turned around. I was exhausted and dehydrated so I went back a second time. I remember when I came back from Cerro Banco the first time when I didn't make it. I remember thinking I've got to go back there. I've got to eventually make it. I can't just let myself be defeated like that and so when I was getting ready to go the second time, make the second attempt, I told my wife, hey I'm gonna go to Cerro Banco today. I'll see you, you know, when you get home from work. And she said, we had plans the next day. We were going away for the weekend and she said, don't go. Don't go. You're gonna get hurt. Something bad's gonna happen. And when your wife says something like that, it's your job as a man to go anyways because women love being able to say I told you so. So if you're a good husband, you will give your wife as many opportunities to say I told you so as possible. And that's a half throttle marriage pro tip. Don't forget that. Motorcycle adventure and marriage counselor. All in one. After that loader got me across the river, I crashed. I crashed and hurt my leg almost immediately after that. I mean just a few hundred meters up the road from where that river was, that's where I crashed. So as soon as my day started, that's when I crashed. And you know, had I fallen somewhere where the bike could have laid flat, could have put my shoulder in the ground a little bit and then maybe took some pressure off my leg and then pulled my leg out like that. But because it fell where it did, it had me pinned. Like I needed my right leg to push off of the ground and get the bike back up but I couldn't do that. So pretty much what I had to do is just kind of take the bike and bounce it sort of off of my leg to get enough weight off of it to pull my leg out. So my my leg was trapped into this this box and my ankle was kind of like at a right angle. You know my calf was here, foot was here, and then it was jammed up against dirt here. So this is a really painful situation. Later that day I had a big lump. It's still a little bit swollen. Still hurts a little bit but I can get around okay. It turned out it was it wasn't like exactly my ankle. It was a little bit up higher but it certainly felt like a sprained ankle or maybe a small fracture when it happened. Thankfully it wasn't. After everything that I'd been through, the hiking, the pushing the bike, the getting back down to the river through the mud, I got to that river and it was moving fast and it was it was big and I sat there. A couple people, once in a while, a person would come along and be like oh just go for it. Some of the first person told me don't do it. It's too big. Other people were telling me oh you've got a big motorcycle. It's no problem and I would I would ask them how many times have you ridden a motorcycle? None. Yeah exactly. So I think that I know that if I feel like I can't do it I'm not going to do it. So I sat there for at least two hours. I just sat there and the rain just kept coming down. I was the rain stopped for a little bit and I was watching this one little spot in the in the river to kind of measure where where the level was and I noticed it started to go down and then the rain turned back on and it just was pouring for hours and I was yelling at the clouds and telling them to go away and it just wasn't happening. So I walked into town. I got those guys and they got me out of there. I rode home through some gnarly rain and lightning. When the lightning flashed that was the only time I could see anything. It was so dark. My helmet was so foggy. So the lightning was actually kind of a good thing. At end of the last video I said I was never going outside again. Well obviously I'm going to go outside again and go on more adventures with the KLR. But that isn't going to stop me from complaining when I'm out there and things are going wrong and proclaiming that I'm never going to do it again. So get used to it. Thanks for all your comments on these videos about the Cerro Banco and sort of even though I was already home and editing obviously you were still cheering me on and hoping that I made it and I have fun reading them and responding and joking around and answering questions. One thing I get, one thing is getting on my nerves though about the comments about knobby tires. I know I should have knobby tires. When I was in Panama City with my flat tire I was in the biggest city in the country at the biggest shopping center probably in Central America. This huge mall that they had there and the only tire that they had that would fit the KLR 650 was this one. A Pirelli MT60. So I know I should have knobby tires but I can't get them. Some people say well just order. Well there's no mail system here. I have to get a courier to bring it down. When I ordered a new rear shock when I bought the bike the shock was spent. So I ordered a new rear shock and paid I don't know $450 for the new shock. To ship it down here cost me $200. So if I buy a knobby tire for whatever they cost and then ship it down here it's going to cost me $50 to $100 and then the chances of it being stolen are pretty high. So that's my situation. I can't just get stuff in Panama. I can't just jump on eBay find some tires and have them shipped down. I don't I don't have that option. So life is different here. So if you see me not having something there's probably a good reason that I don't have it. That's just because I can't get it. All the motorcycles in Panama or most of them they're much smaller than this. People ride 125cc's. Little dirt bikes around they don't have tires this big. I just so why would a store have them if there's not many bikes around like this. I tell people that this is a 650cc bike and it like blows their mind. 650? Like they're trying to do the math in their head. What? Thanks for cheering me on. Thanks for watching. There's gonna be plenty more to come. Try to put out something new every day. I don't always make it but check back often because there's always going to be something new here.