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Wrecking Crew Diaries
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1996 Panama - Mud of No Return
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Day 9, Tuesday, January 9

Day 9, Tuesday, January 9

For breakfast the chef de cuisine serves up goodies from the survival handbook. The grub slobbered, the Four guide their front ends towards Agua Fría. The ride is more than ever the ride on a steam hammer. The further south the track crawls, the wider the holes in the gravel get. Only superhuman control of their bodies allows the riders to keep their rigid framed twins on the road. Best forget the state of the road. A break and a beer every now and then feel almost like a rejuvenating miracle. Every mile is a mile of fighting with potholes, mud and hard rain. No wonder the Pantastic Four begin to think this road may lead directamente to Nowhere.

Night is falling in a few minutes, and some sort of lodging needs to be found pronto. A few miles off the track the Four find the Indio settling Santa Fe. The little detour rewards with two separate rooms and a shower. Well, almost. The rooms a kind of walk-in cupboard, and the shower is a open stall complete with water barrel and plastic cup. And free view from all rooms. No feelings of loneliness here. Showered and refreshed the Four retire to the snack bar nearby, where mouth-watering things roast on the barbecue. Nobody really wants to know - or could tell, the chef included, what that actually is. Who cares. Hungry is hungry, and the jungle is the jungle.

As a side dish manioc roots are being served, easily recognized by their distinct taste of soaked socks. The gluey aftertaste is best washed off with generous quantities of PANAMA beer, which comes in handy 3/4 litre bottles. On his return to the room Wolfgang discovers that the temperature would make this an ideal place to raise chicken. He opts for a bunk in the 4x4, where the last two bottles of wine hold the promise of sweet slumber. Half an hour later Klaus has the same idea and joins Wolfgang in the car, the two of them working hard at the last bottle. The darkness mercifully hides the larges pools in the swamp, doesn't however keep the Mosquitos out of the car. WTF. Sleep is sleep, and the jungle is the jungle.