Border Crossing! Honduras to Nicaragua at Las Manos – 20220803

Border crossing day! Drove from Valle de Angeles straight through to Las Manos. Slightly nervous as always to cross the border.

So far an easy process. On the Honduras side I got stamped out of one window and handed them the Honduras document at another window. They wanted me to fill out an exit form so I did. Then I continued on and right past the border the Nicaraguans waved me over. They took documents into a little hut just to look at them I guess? Passport, license, registration, and title. They kept telling me my title had expired and I kept explaining that it hadn’t. What I was most nervous about was that the registration does expire in 5 days. I thought maybe they wouldn’t let me in with that little time left.

I then went to a little building where they checked my covid vaccine. They gave me a little slip of paper which I took to immigration right past the covid hut. They took the slip of paper, passport, and asked to see the form I filled out the week prior.

The cost was $13. Yes, they do not accept their own currency. Only US dollars. Then I had to go back to the little front hut. They then told me to drive down to “the tree” and “la niña” and so I drove down like 5 seconds until a lady waved me over. She pointed to some guy who then sprayed the bike real quick. I don’t have a clue what it does. But it was kind of funny watching him walk around fighting ghosts.

Then she wanted to look through my things. She found my gopro and could just not wrap her head around it. She must have asked me 100 questions about it. An official then came over who was clearly drunk and kept asking me about it. I just straight up ignored him until he went away. She asked if I had a drone and I said no. I would only find out later that drones are illegal in Nicaragua.

She then told me to head back to aduana where I’m at now. They wanted license, title, and immigration form and passport

They gave me a form that lets me enter Nicaragua for 30 days. I then went on to the next roadblock. They wanted to see the receipt, registration and license. They then told me I needed insurance which would cost $12. There was also a guy there that sold me some stupid piece of paper that cost a dollar. Some tourist BS. Easily the most annoying border crossing so far. They again asked if I had a drone and I said no. Why is the insurance guy asking me? Feels scammy.

I finally got going and immediately noticed how different Nicaragua was from Honduras. Almost the whole road from the border to Esteli was flawless. I rode fast and comfortable. No stress of trying to dodge pothole after pothole.

I also noticed how much better people took care of their stuff and how sparse it was. Perhaps the population is much lower or they live more on the coast. I stopped to eat a very late lunch and the people were so nice and the food was so good. Some kind of chicken mixed with yucca and chicharrón with some kind of coleslaw mixed in.

I ended up staying at a place called Albergue something. It’s only 400($11) and I got a room with 3 beds. Super cozy and the wifi is actually pretty damn good. Tomorrow I will try to voyage deeper into the mountains.