Tag: El Salto de Estanzuela

First day in Esteli. Woke up, told the hotel guy I’d stay another night and shot out of town around 10. My first destination was El Salto de Estanzuela. It cost 25 córdoba($.50) and I had to drive through someone’s house as the road was under construction at the front.

The road was a little rough but short. It’s really just a semi-nice waterfall with a nice little swimming hole and trash littered everywhere. I met a nice family from El Salvador who had just caught a river crab and were super excited about it.

I then tried to drive to “mirador cerro apaguijil” but stopped at a place right next to it as it seemed a little nicer. There was no one there but a bunch of cabins everywhere and a family just eating at a picnic bench. So I parked the bike and started hiking. There was some trail there that took me about 45 minutes. It was supposed to see some cave but I didn’t see any.

I then continued on the road towards Alboroto thinking it would be a nice circuit around the area. It was an absolutely gorgeous ride but extremely exhausting. Huge rocks everywhere too. I came very close many times to sliding out.

I stopped once to take a photo of the bike in the road and when I went to pee I heard the old terrible smack sound and the engine stop.

Because I had left the bike on it vibrated forward and the kickstand popped up. The engine quit pretty quick and I tried to lift it. It was right next to a steep and sandy drop-off and when I yanked the bike with all my weight my left foot broke through the road and swung down below. Then I became very, very afraid that the bike would fall down. But I could not lift it from the other side and I watched as fuel leaked out while I was more than an hour ride from any kind of civilization. So I held the brake as hard as I could and squatted up as I felt more earth moving under my boot.

I shoved my foot under the bike and continued. I came very very close to falling down the ravine with the bike. I was sweating and nervous when I finally got the bike up. I assessed the damage. The choke switch was broken off. Part of the clutch handle broke off and there was a pool of gas on the ground and running down my leg. I started her up and she started just fine with a little throttle. I continued on with sweaty fog on my sunglasses cursing myself for taking the stupid photo.

On the ride out I felt incredibly mortal. If the bike or I had fallen down that hill we would have been done. There were 0 people or facilitates anywhere close to where the bike fell over. I felt really stupid.

I’ve gotten good at the offroad stuff but I can’t help but wince at each rock I hit. I feel like I’m always doing damage to poor Donkey and taking miles off the trip. At some point something will break. But until then I will keep trying to hit some of these awful roads as they offer the best views and best experiences. People always look up in awe, especially kids. They can’t help their expression as their jaw drops down into a, “who the f*ck is that?” face.

Once I hit the “main road”  it was only a tiny bit better. Large pieces of gravel kept my back tire swinging all over the place and the entire route was under heavy construction. But the guys holding the “para” and “siga” stop and go signs were all sleeping but one so I always shot by and would maneuver around the huge caterpillar machines. I felt like a tiny ant in a world of giants. As the giants tended to their road scraping away at the mountains and putting huge loads of dirt in their buckets I was shooting by trying to not get stepped on.

I finally got back to Esteli and took a moment to walk around. It’s not especially beautiful but it does have some character. It’s mostly just a long strip of little commercial shops. But I love the lack of tourists.