El Salvadore, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica
Trip Start
Nov 2006
1
8
13
Trip End
Feb 2007
Jaco,
Costa Rica
Saturday, December 2, 2006
We made it to the border around 10:30, and Troy took on the task of taking care of the paperwork. This border seemed less crazy than the previous, but it still took us 3 hours of hanging out, waiting in line, and waiting for the border folks to get back from lunch. Once through it was an easy ride down the coast to the little town of La Libertad, a surfing destination. We stayed at a great little place close to the beach. El Salvadore was definitley different from Guatemala, which is something we are finding to be the case as we travel through each of these countries, they all feel a little different. Maybe itīs just me. Still a beautiful place, but garbage on the beach is pretty normal.
Wednesday we were hoping to make it a ways into Nicaragua. The western section of Honduras is only 140 km or so from border to border, so we figured it would be easy to zip on through. It was my turn to take care of business at the border, and this one would prove to be the craziest to date. We got there around 10:30 and again were mobbed by the guys that want you to pay them for taking you through the process, which in hindsight is not a bad idea. I think if you are walking across the border it wouldnīt be so bad, but taking a vehicle through is an exercise in patience and frustration. Not to go into too much detail, but you have to get a vehicle entry form in one place, pay for the form only in another, pay the fee for the vehicle in another, then take all the reciepts, forms, multiple copies of everything to another office, by this time wait for lunch to be over, and then get everything stamped, they love stamps down here. Three hours later, on the road again. We got lost in a little town as is isnīt always obvious how to get through them, I guess you just have to know, but the people there were super friendly. After we had driven through the same intersection about 3 times, it was obvious to more than a few folks that we were lost, so they got us back on the road, just in time to attract the attention of a bunch of military guys in a truck who stopped us. Before he could get started on asking for paperwork I handed him a map and told him where we were going, he didnīt seem sure what to think, so just gave me more directions and we left as soon as we could.
Exiting Honduras and entering Nicaragua was about the same as before, but not quite as hectic. We stopped at the first little town we came to called Somotillo, found a place and called it a night. Not as far as we had hoped, but in a safe place with a room that had AC (which felt so good it was unbelievable).
Early start in the morning, not sure what to expect of Nicaragua. The road was the worst yet. Huge potholes, where there was pavement, the rest dirt or gravel. After about 20 miles it turned into great pavement through what has turned out to be one of the more scenic places on the trip. The road took us around this very large volcano (Iīll get the name later) which still has steam comming out of it. Unbelievably beautful, and clean. Very surprising. We were reminded again of why you donīt drive at night when we came across two dead horses in the road that had been there for a few days. I donīt think it is real popular to move dead stuff (especially big dead stuff) out of the road. So if you are a small vehicle, you go around it. If you are a big rig, you just run it over again. yikes!
We took a road that bypassed Managua, the capitol city of Nicaragua, as we have been trying to avoid big cities. This turned out to be a great idea (Troyīs call), as it took us over another not so great road, but through some spectacular scenery. The road did end up on the outskirts or suburbs of Managua, which were super nice. We got pulled over for speeding, or for being gringos as our bikes donīt exactly blend in down here, and had to pay once again. This time we got off for 15 bucks each, down a bit from the 200 they were asking for. One of the police didnīt look too happy, so we got the hell out of there promptly, but payed more attention to the speed limit, which only applies to out of towners.
The lower half of Nicaragua is as beautiful as the northern section. The section of land that runs along Lake Nicaragua looks similar to southern Guatemala, in that it appears to be farm or ranchland. Surrounded by water it was so lush it was amazing. And everywhere seemed to be well taken care of. This was for sure a place well worth the visit.
Iīll wrap this up as it is getting a bit longer than I like to read. We made it that same day all the way down to Jaco, Costa Rica which is where I am writing this from now. We spent today driving into San Jose to get Troys rear tire fixed as it is still giving him trouble. Hopefully it will last the trip, weīll see. Got stopped again by the traffic cops, but we have our speil down well, so this time it only cost us 4 bucks each! I love the system down here!
Weīre off to Dominical here in Costa Rica tomorrow, then on to Panama. Iīll write more then.
Cheers!
Doug
