Man, I got lucky today. (I was lucky last night, too. I won $85 at the poker table, not from the Chinese dudes but from rich people who flashed hundreds and had stacks of up to a thousand bucks on the table; kind of a fun playground for these people but I felt like I didn’t belong. although it was clear that the money didn’t mean that much to them their play in general was smart and good.) The mechanic here was able to get an electric motor from a refrigerator and air conditioning shop that was almost identical to the one on my bike. he drilled a couple of holes in the assembly frame, changed up the wiring, and I was back in business. The motor cost $95 and the labor was $30 and the bike is fixed right now. The other option would have been at least $350 for a new assembly plus shipping from the states. I would have had to wait at least a week and have to ride around worrying about the engine overheating. What great luck…

We are headed to Portobelo, Panama to catch a ship that will sail to the san blas islands and then on to Cartagena. sailing time will be about four to five days and we will probably be completely off the grid for most of that time so we might not be able to update the blog for a while….