Final day in Panama

 

Our final day in Panama was to be at Boquete, a beautiful little tourist resort surrounded by volcanic rain forest. It was not a long nor difficult drive, just a long 37km climb from David. Certainly nothing we hadn’t done before.

 

We set off at a leisurely pace, along 2km of dirt track and then back onto clean tarmac al the way to David. We were told “blink and you will miss David” which I have to say isn’t quite true. It’s the second largest city in Panama and a commercial centre so nothing the write about there. Ham was running hot, but manageable, Nigel temperature was fine but sounding a bit rough whilst the Rolls just kept chugging along.

 

The road from David to Boquete was a different matter though. It is a steady climb to about 1500m over 37km and Ham’s Lagonda just hated it. The temperature immediately started to rise and by about 20km was boiling. A 30 minute stop in an air conditioned service station cooled down the crew as well as the car and having topped up the radiator with about 5liters of water they set off again with about 17km to go. After only another 7km the car was boiling again and they stopped in a tiny bit of shade on the side of the road to let it cool down and top up the rad. Once again they set off and this time they made it arriving at 105C but at least we could try and get it sorted.

 

In the meantime Nigel and Tobs had left the hotel for a drive around the volcano above the hotel and to visit some coffee plantations.

 

 

Chris had been tucked up in the Hotel for an hour or so and as is his want, a swim followed by cold beer and lunch had all been enjoyed. Ham on the other hand arrived stressed, worried and thinking what else could this temperature problem be?

 

 

 

First out was the radiator for a second time. In the process we managed to break the thermocouple so that is the end of knowing what the temperature of the engine is. Is not knowing the answer to a problem , or simply compounds it? Time will tell. In trying to remove one of the drain bolts we also managed to tear the solder repair around it. So at this point we seemed to be heading backwards. Despite this the radiator to all intense and purposes was working fine with no obvious defects, apart from those we had just created! We removed the slats on the front of the radiator to maximise air flow. A call to David Ayre confirmed that “it is never the water pump” but explained how to test it and guess what, it’s the fuel pump! Whatever happened it simply is not pumping the water fast and strong enough to get it back up into the radiator.

 

Fortunately Ham was carrying a spare so with that fitted, the radiator back in and a laser thermometer with which to monitor the temperature it all seems to be working fine. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.!

 

Early start tomorrow, we leave Panama and cross into Costa Rica. We aren’t sure whether or not we will be able to drive or will be on a truck, We have both options covered.