Day 0 - Bogota

Andy and I left SFO shortly after midnight.  I got charged for my bike and he did not as we checked in beside each other. Unlucky for me or he was much nicer to the agent.  The flight had quite a few empty seats and I had a whole row to myself. We arrived in Panama City mid morning and my connection left almost immediately but Andy was on the next flight in 4 hours.

I had the bike assembled and had been out for a little test ride by the time Andy arrived.  My bike needed some attention from a mechanic.  When we got Andy's built with some frustration it was clear his needed more.  We would have some work to do to then next day.

We got help from Bogota contacts Carolina and Fernando throught out the day for bike fixing and dinner plans.  Every Colombian I have ever come into contact with has always been beyond friendly and helpful.

We rode our bikes 6km along a great bike path to Bike Republic.  They tuned our bikes while we waited.  Riding back it felt we were on different bikes.

Mike was arriving on the same flight Andy was on 24 hours later so we caught a cab into the Candalaria district and walked around. The cab driver gave himself a generous tip.  We walked around for a while and had been planning to have dinner in the area but it was pretty far from the hotel and cancelling that plan turned out to be a good call as the was frustration getting Mike's bike together.