Every Day Has an End

Bathroom stop under a bridge in Nicaragua


THURSDAY APRIL 3RD

Central American Riding Rule 4 ..........DON´T do two border crossings the same day.

Left Usulutan El Salvador early this morning, and made the border with Honduras at El Amatillo by 9:30. This time, the tramadores really socked it to us however. We met these guys on the Salvadoran side, and it turned into a fiasco as they promised one thing and delivered another. Some payment up front, but the number kept getting larger. First, a story about the computer was down and they would need more money to have an official do all the paperwork by hand. Then this and that, and by the time we FINALLY (3 hours later) were thro, we were about $112 lighter per man.

Trucker getting some rest at the Salvador-Honduras border

Jogi trying to find a wi-fi connection while
killing three hours at the border

Let me just sumarize the way border crossings work in Central America......first you have to export yourself and your vehicle from the country you are leaving. This involves a stop, usually one but can be two where you must show your entry papers from the country you are leaving . Then you proceed into the border zone where you must go thro immigration for yourself and customs for your vehicle to enter the other country. They typically want two copies of license, passport, registration and title plus whatever else they dream up. These are officially stamped and then you BEGIN the process. Honduras and Nicaragua require fees and in the latter case, insurance for about $30. You are besieged with money changers and dozens of tramadores all loudly insisting that you use their services. They are very vague about just what their fees might be as we found out to our regret.

Most of the work is done on typewriters (when did you last see one?) altho in El Salvador, they scanned our passports into a computer system. The slightest irregularity sends you back in line. Hot, tedious, time consuming and confusing pretty well sums it up. Plus a constant line of BS from your helpers about why things aren´t going well and why more money is needed.

Anyway, two and half hours later we clear the Honduran border and race like crazy across the scant 75 miles of that country to Nicaragua where things really got bad. Again, the gringos got royally screwed by the ¨helpers¨who took


Honduras-Nicaragua border

another $90 off us, got our papers in about an hour, but when we tried to leave, were stopped by Nicaraguan Immigration officials who said we lacked an important receipt and would have to go back. Another hour of hot hassle, and we never were exactly sure what in hell was going on, but suddenly it was discovered that we HAD the necessary papers afterall, so were allowed to cross. Our plans to ride 120 miles to León in the toilet, we set out on absolutely the worst road we´ve encountered the entire trip.........Highway Central America 3 thro Nicaragua. It will be dark in about an hour now and the road, which we were warned about by a vendor of Gatorade and bottled water, is indeed ¨muy peligroso¨.........when she said this to me, I mistakenly thought she meant dangerous because of bad guys, not bad pavement.

This ¨road¨was little more than a series of washouts and enormous potholes..........complicated by the Latin technique of pothole repair which is to jackhamer out about a 2 X 2 foot square nearly six inches deep around every pothole, circle with chalk and leave for evental filling in. Sudden death if you hit one of these on a motorcycle at speed. Speed dropped to 30 mph as we weaved in and out and around these things, dodging kids on bicycles and veering out of the way of trucks and buses which would abruptly move into your lane to avoid a huge washout. A lot of passing on the dirt to the right and other heart stopping maneuvers. My major fear was darkness falling........it gets dark earlier the more south you travel and having to navigate this bloody excuse for a road in the dark thus violating Central American Riding Rules number 1 thro 3 which is DON´T RIDE AT NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thankfully, after about 20 miles, the road began to gradually improve. We passed several horse drawn carts full of firewood, and lots of other colorful stuff I don´t have pictures of because we were set on ¨getting to a town before it gets dark.¨

Merciful God, we made it to the Hotel Los Volcanos, a very nice place, bar & restaurant, internet, secure parking right in front of the lobby for the bikes. A hot (Yes! They have hot water) shower, good meal of garlic shrimp and a nice bottle of Cabernet later, the world looks much better.

Tomorrow we are going to take it easy. Visit Granada which Jogi says is beautiful, eat lunch in the park, spend aother night in Nicaragua and plan on entering Costa Rica Saturday. I could use a day of rest.