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.

This lady was the biggest hardass I’ve ever had at a border. Thank God she didn’t find my drone.

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.

Rest day in Tegucigalpa – 20220802

Yesterday I just chilled in Tegucigalpa and got some much needed errands done. First I drove to the main park to see what was there and was planning to possibly stop at a motorcycle shop, hardware store, or grocery store on the way. I saw none of them so I continued on and got sucked into the black hole that is downtown Tegucigalpa. The people there constantly walk around as if they were just caught out of their houses. There is an air of danger, caution, and stress at all times. I’ve been told over and over how dangerous Honduras is and how dangerous Tegucigalpa is.

But if feels like all in all it’s mostly a remnant of the past. I haven’t heard of any recent murders, and when they talk about people shooting people from motorbikes I get the feeling it’s anarchy from years ago.

Anyways. I immediately felt the stress of the downtown area and after about 30 minutes walking around I could not take it anymore and took the quickest route to Donkey where I hopped on and didn’t feel any less stress trying to find a shop.

I eventually found a motorcycle shop on the side of the road so pulled over and asked them if they could put some air filter oil on my air filter. They told me immediately that it was not important, I said it was, and then they told me to wait. I had no idea what I was waiting for but while waiting a guy came over with his Las Vegas hat to practice his English with me.

We baked in the sun as he regurgitated what he knew about the US and then a young kid with scars all over his hands came over and asked me how I already knew how to work on my moto. Then he kindly offered to take me around that night to explore Tegucigalpa. He started telling me how he just got back from the US as he pulled his pant leg up and showed me his nice titanium leg and banged a wrench against it saying how great the US was to give him the new leg. I asked him what happened and I already knew the answer as he said, “motorcycle accident.” I was amazed to hear he still loved and rode motorcycles all the time.

I then went to a hardware store where I got some much needed hardware to get the rear cargo thing to stick back on the way it should. I found this morning that The entire cargo rack was being held on by 1 bolt and should have 4. While I was at it I changed some brake pads out to find that once again I way overwore them down. They wore unevenly so I could not tell it was metal on metal.

I then rested the entire rest of the day.

Camp Raided by Niños, Talgua Cave, Drive from Catacamas to Danli, Brief Chat with Illegal Immigrants – 20220729

I woke up from camping like a million times throughout the night. Dogs barked on the hour every hour with one dog running right up to my tent and barking directly at my tent for a full 15 minutes. Chickens started screeching at midnight and then again at 4am. Around 2am my camelback which I was using as a pillow decided to leak out all at once and I spent the rest of the night soaking wet.

I got up around 5 or so and laid down until 6. I then pulled everything up and tried to set up some things to dry. I went to a hammock near my camp to read a little and after a while I heard the distinct sound of little niños yelling, “gringooooo, donde estaaaaas gringooooo?”

My little buddies that I made the night before came to check to see if I was still alive. I then hung out with the little kiddos as they grilled me with questions and ran around with my gopro.

I finished packing and headed to Talgua caves around 8 or so and arrived before they had officially opened. I was talking to the guides outside for a bit about the same things as usual. How big the bike is, where I came from and such. Then they started talking about the fact that I couldn’t ride around with another guy on the back. I had no idea what they were talking about so pried a little bit. Turns out that in most of the big cities in Honduras it’s illegal for 2 guys to ride together but not a guy and a girl because there were too many teams of guys going around shooting people and stealing things. Pretty damn interesting. I had never heard that as a rule before.

I did the cave hike which cost 230 lempiras($9) with a guide and I’m pretty sure a guide was required. I walked through in about an hour with Mario and we talked about some stuff and the caves. I’ve never smelled anyone in my life who more successfully put on deodorant. I would trail 20 feet behind him and still smell nothing but deodorant.

They were pretty neat caves but kind of ruined by the construction through it. It would be a much better experience without all the concrete and lights on the walls. After recently doing the hike through the caves in Semuc Champey I felt rather unimpressed.

After going through the caves I set a rough course for Danli and aimed to take the less traveled road there. It was a pretty rough road and would end up taking me all day and a ridiculous amount of energy. I stopped once for lunch and the people weren’t too friendly. It seems like the easiest meal to find here is just fried chicken with some salad on the side. It’s much more difficult finding places to eat here than it was in Mexico or Guatemala. I can go hours without seeing a restaurant.

It’s also pretty sad to see the dogs here. They are all starving. Really raggedy and no one seems to feed them. I had the idea today to carry around some treats and maybe some apples for horses as I see horses absolutely everywhere here.

I finally arrived in Danli and checked into Hotel La Esperanza for 230 lempiras($9). I used iOverlander to find it and I’m finding it to be an amazing resource for finding hotels on the motorcycle. Way easier than sifting through google and previous travelers will mention the price which is almost impossible to find on google.

I checked in and the front desk lady was super sweet. The room was alright and I went to fill my water bottle. I ended up talking to this girl for a bit and she is trying to travel to the US as an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. She was talking about how awful the passage was, especially through the Darien Strait or whatever it’s called. The area between Colombia and Panama.

Apparently, it takes 8 days and the “Indians”(their words) there kill and rape people for their things and for pleasure. Pretty awful stuff. I wanted to ask more about it but she got distracted by her friend and disappeared. I am hoping to ask more people about it but I have a feeling they won’t really trust me with much either, even though they seem way more open to talking about it than I would have thought.