Costa Rica, Playa Coco, 15 Dec 2011

Posted on Saturday, 17-December-2011 by Chris Desmond

I went to bed feeling crook no dinner, nausea this time and woke up feeling worse, nearly stayed another day but took some pills and left the hotel at 0810, good road all the way to the border some slow traffic got there at 0940.

This is the most Bureaucratic and busiest border so far, again I paid to get through quickly, to add to the mess of stamps and paperwork there were about 5000 trucks lined up on both sides of the border and 200 Tour busses, every passenger has to go through Immigration on both sides and get their passport stamped, what a mess people and trucks and busses and cars everywhere. I won’t go into the details, this is what it cost – Exit Nicaragua, $1 for a ticket to get in, $1 to a kid to look after my bike, $12 for the Exit stamp, TVIP is free, $10 to jump the Immigration queue, $10 tip to the Helper = $34. Costa Rica is the worst so far, I had to go to about 4 different buildings all over the place back and forth to get various stamps etc, cost Immigration $10 to jump the queue, TVIP is free but $13.70 for Insurance, $4 weedkiller, $1 photocopies, $10 tip = $38.70. Total cost $72.70 all done by 1110 – 1:30hrs.

Costa Rica immediately feels like it is a notch up on the other Central American countries (except for their border crossing), no huts, good road signs with route numbers, no cars falling to bits and blowing clouds of smoke and the born again school busses have disappeared, arrived in Playa Coco (Coco Beach) a Tourist Village (American)  at 1250, 217km, 4:40hrs, checked into a hotel and went to sleep, went out a bit later bought some provisions, decided to stay on a liquid diet had to get some calories to keep the engine running, early night.

Posted in Costa Rica, Nicaragua | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Nicaragua, Granada, 13-14 Dec 2011

Posted on Thursday, 15-December-2011 by Chris Desmond

Left Managua at 1105 as it is only a short ride to Granada, good 4 lane road got stopped by a cop after about 30min, I was second in a line of 4 cars, the 1st guy pulled up and I pulled up behind him and the others slowed, he waved them all on except for me and then started in Spanish trying to say I had broken some rule asked for my Drivers Licence and money couldnt figure out how much, I just kept saying no and talking in English and using sign language to show that I was just following the cars we were not speeding or anything, he indicated he would keep my Drivers Licence so I said lets go and see a judge and see what he has to say, this guy must have known some English most Nicaraguans do and the authorities are trying to stamp out corruption, he then said “Cuando” asking how much I was willing to pay I said no again and he gave me back my DL and waved me on, last time this happened was in 2009 in a small town on the west coast of Mexico, play dumb, stick to your guns if you have done nothing wrong and wait the guy out and only talk English, kept going got to the hotel at around 1200 around 1 hour and 45km.

Had lunch at the park Granada’s signature dish Vigoron which is Yam topped with deep fried pork skin and chopped cabbage and chopped tomatoes and chilli not bad and a huge mug of  Papaya juice which was really good. Wandered around the town, there is a market and a million tourists and first time I have seen travel agents in Nicaragua. This place reminds me of a poorer version of Antigua in Guatemala.

Spent some time researching options to get across from Panama to Columbia, its a problem at this time of the year because of the holidays so I booked a flight to Cuba for a week over the holiday break, should be able to get a flight out to Columbia for me and the bike early in the New Year.

Posted in Nicaragua | Tagged | 4 Comments

Nicaragua, Managua, 11-12 Dec 2011

Posted on Monday, 12-December-2011 by Chris Desmond

I left Tegucigalpa at 0805 this time taking the ring road around the city no traffic being Sunday took the Danli exit after watching my Nokia N8 closely, should have used the ring road when arriving, good road winding through the mountains cool had my inner jacket on top of my riding shirt, road deteriorated after about 60k’s not by much though, saw another section of road that had disappeared got stopped at Danli by cops they checked my papers and DL chatted about my trip for a while allowed me to take their pics and rode on.

Arrived at the border at 1005, both Honduras and Nicaragua Immigration and Customs were in huts and close together, this is an out of the way border crossing, parked and refused help at first there seemed to be only one guy and he started telling me what to do so I gave him my documents and he did the rest going into the offices and getting things stamped etc, Immigration was $3 and TVIP $10, he then took me across the border, bike had to be sprayed $3 and introduced me to the Nicaraguan Helper, the Honduras guy said his services were Gratis but I gave him $5 and my last Lempira 50 ($2.50), next Insurance done by an Agent $12 for 1 month, then Immigration $12 again bypassing the queue and Customs TVIP Free, the Honduras guy wanted $20, I gave him $10 and he shook hands and gave me a hug hahahaha, all done by 1045, changed $20 for Cordoba the rate this side is better 22:1, the Honduras side the guy was only offering 20:1 (official rate is 22.8:1), out of there at 1055, had to buy a National Park Donation Ticket for $1. Cost Honduras side $21.50 and Nicaragua side $37, Total=$58.50. This was the easiest and quickest Border Crossing so far only 45min, a bit like the Priority tickets you buy at Universal Studios and jump the queues hahahaha, capitalism at its finest.

Straight away onto a new road, very smooth no traffic and no speed bumps great ride gradually descending to the plains, 3 police check points I got waved through all of them cars had to stop, roadworks actually had traffic control with stop signs and two way radios, whoever is in charge of the Roads in this country knows what he is doing, more towns as I got closer to Managua which slowed things down but still way ahead of schedule arrived in Managua at 1400 stopped and filled up then followed the road until I thought I had gone too far then saw a sign for the National Assembly and turned left got to another major road and turned right and saw a Texaco stopped and asked the gas attendant for directions the hotel was about 300m away around 2 corners, what a fluke all the roads I had been on were broad and 4 lanes and very little traffic, checked in at 1435, 382km and 6:30hrs.There is a big modern Shopping Centre across the road and the ATM’s dispense USD$ as well as Cordoba.

The following day visited the Crazy Cathedral, Lake Managua and the National Palace / Museum, lots of rubbish lying around everywhere, the Cathedral is very unconventional and modern unpainted grey concrete weird no colours and not one bit of stained glass, stopped at the lake, the shoreline looks like a rubbish dump and the lake stinks, the National Palace and Museum not much in there, a few artefacts on one floor and some paintings out of there in 30min. Granada tomorrow only 45min away.

Posted in Honduras, Nicaragua | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Honduras, Tegulcigalpa, 9-10 Dec 2011

Posted on Saturday, 10-December-2011 by Chris Desmond

The first thing I was told when I checked in was not to take anything with me when I went out for a walk but it looks ok during the day in this area, brainwashing. The hotel has a 3m high wall topped with razor wire, then an electric fence and security cameras, some buildings have 2 rows of razor wire hahahaha

Went for a tour of the city which means hire a guide and a car like the other cities in this region, there are no group guided tours probably because there are no tourists. Its set in the middle of the mountains at 1000m so there are a lot of narrow, steep, winding streets. The old town is all one lane, one way streets and is clogged with traffic, a permanent traffic jam, Business, Banks and Embassies are all located in the area I am staying in away from the old town, there is no poverty in this area and there are also no Police, maybe thats why people are afraid to walk on the streets, in all the other countries Police and Military are everywhere.

The hotel website does not have a map of its location so I made one up and sent it to them to add to their website and they gave me a free nights stay, Thank You Senora, I spent all day in bed.

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Honduras, Tegucigalpa, 7-8 Dec 2011

Posted on Friday, 9-December-2011 by Chris Desmond

I left La Libertad, El Salvador at 0920 got delayed a bit because there was some sort of procession in the street with a band banging away followed by a long line of traffic, lucky they were going in the opposite direction to me. Uneventful ride cool fairly good roads not much traffic lots of small villages most of the time doing 80-90kph got to San Miguel at 1140 after 154km in 2:20hrs still feeling crook, stopped at the Comfort Inn on the outskirts of the town, got something to eat and to bed. Left at 0810 the next morning running on Cold tablets did not go through the town went straight back out arrived at the Honduras border at 0900, some guys waved at me about 2k’s from the border so I stopped, they said they would do all the paperwork for $10, I said ok and followed them, long line of trucks rode to the front and stopped, a crowd of “Helpers” appeared but I told them I already had one, handed over documents to  my Helper, he made some photocopies and got a signature.

Rode on to the El Salvador Immigration and Customs building

Park here and queue for Immigration

Immigration Queue, the Immigration Officer checks your passport and gives you a small ticket, my passport is so full of stamps these guys can’t find the previous entry and exit stamps so its a good idea to note the page of your previous entries and exits so you can point it out to them, this guy traced my entry from Mexico to here and El Salvador does not stamp your passport ? While I was doing this the Helper got my El Salvador TVIP cancelled, again there is no cost for El Salvador Immigration and Customs.

 Cross the bridge into Honduras

Honduras Immigration and Customs, ride around to the right and park somewhere, I just waited with my bike the Helper’s did the rest.

While waiting 2 other guys appeared one was the Honduras Helper he took charge here and took me with him to see an Immigration and Customs Official, she explained to me that there was a $3 charge for Immigration and $35 for the Bikes TVIP and that I should not pay any more, I paid the second Helper the money and went back to waiting.

 While waiting the first helper who had by now acquired a mate who spoke good English started their scam saying that there were lots of other procedures that would require more money  yadayada, I told them I was paying only $38 as specified by the Government Official and not a cent more, a bit later he came back with the required paperwork and said that due to a power failure it could take another 12 hours but he bribed someone and got my papers put on top of the pile yadayada, I took all the documents off him, including the originals checked them twice and put them in my pocket then gave him $20 double what he asked for originally, they continued to hassel me, I just said NO and put my Helmet on, he said F’you and walked off, how do you pick a good Helper, no idea because they are really nice in the beginning, I read another blog where the guy got scammed of $200. Total time taken 2 hours and cost to me $60 – TVIP $35, Visa $3, Tip $20, Photocopies $2. I only finished up with one receipt for $3 hahahaha, there did not appear to be any official corruption but maybe the TVIP did not really cost $35 as there was no receipt. Anyway I was glad it was over and rode on stopped again a few hundred meters on and I handed over a copy of the Honduras TVIP and finally on the road.

After a few miles a police stop and I thought here we go again but it turned out to be a legit fund raiser and I put $1 into a slot in a large water container a girl was carrying around to all the cars.

The first half of the road after this was the worst I have ridden so far, large pot holes, vehicles dodging around them on the wrong side of the road hahahaha, landslides, in one case the whole road had disappeared and they had dug into the cliff to get past the drop-off, sections of dirt, cows, horses, bullock carts, not much traffic, small villages, fun ride overall, beats the freeway any day, steep winding climb upto 1500m then down to 1000m for Tegulcigalpa, a couple of wind farms at altitude, second half of the road was good. Got to the city at 1300 and spent another hour getting to the other side where my hotel was located, strangely my Nokia N8 had maps of the city so it was easy to find my way around and there is a really good ring road around the city which is set in the middle of the mountains with not a straight road in sight. 6 hours and 210km for the day with only 2 hours at the border a lot less than I thought it would be based on other reports.

Posted in El Salvador, Honduras | Tagged , | 3 Comments

El Salvador, La Libertad and San Salvador, 5-6 Dec 2011

Posted on Wednesday, 7-December-2011 by Chris Desmond

Did an oil change on my bike in the car park finished up soaked in sweat 200% humidity no bike oil available, only suitable SJ oil I could find was for Diesel Engines it meets the specs in the manual so should be ok no slippery additives to interfere with the clutch. Wandered around town, one street along the coast not busy on a Monday. The jetty is both a parking lot for the fishing boats and a fish market. These tiny boats get lowered off the end of the jetty by a crane they go out and catch the fish, get hauled back up on top of the jetty and the fish are sold at the shore end of the jetty, couldn’t get any fresher. Tuesday I hired a taxi and went to San Salvador the capital to check out the Nationl Palace, the Cathedral, the National Theatre and the Museum, 33km good 4 lane road, second biggest city in Central America after Guatemala City looks a bit more organised, the Museum is the best so far. Feels like I have caught a cold/flu like bug, hope my white blood cells are going to get rid of it quick.

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El Salvador, La Libertad, 4 Dec 2011

Posted on Tuesday, 6-December-2011 by Chris Desmond

I left Antigua at 0900 and rode downhill from 1500m towards the coast then along the flat to the border with El Salvador at Ciudad Pedro de Alvarado from cool to hot and humid 35c in the shade, lost my way a couple of times, with no signs or maps for my GPS, I am getting used to this.

Arrived at the border at 1145, there was a mile long queue of trucks waiting to cross, all going into El Salvador, I followed the rest of the traffic on the wrong side of the road through the town to get to the front of the queue, it all works out somehow hahahaha amazing.

At the front of the queue is this guy, stop and show him your Guatemalan TVIP papers he will endorse them with the date and time and a stamp.

Next follow the red car until you get to the end of the building, stop and park your bike in front of or as close to the Immigration window as possible, you can see a bunch of people standing there.

Park here

Give the Immigration Officer your passport and any other Guatemalan papers you have on you. The guy in the yellow top was pestering me so I let him take over and just watched, he gave me his Guatemalan ID card to keep as security, at the end I gave him a tip of Q100 or USD$12.50, follow these instructions and you can do it yourself.

Next take all you papers across the road to where you can see the guy in the yellow top and get 2 copies of everything, TVIP, Title, Registration, Drivers Licence and Passport. Cost Q5 or $0.65c

Now walk back to the Immigration Building to the other side and at the other end and present your papers at the Aduana window or if there is a queue put them at the bottom of the pile in the window, you can see the pile of papers in the window in front of the guy in the red shirt. There were 5 people ahead of me and each one takes about 5-10min, this was the longest wait, when it comes to your turn the Customs guy will check the VIN on your bike and it was all done by 1245 total 1 hour. After this I gave my helper his tip and then changed the last of my Quetzals to USD$ I only had Q60 left and should have got $6.50 in return, the money changer gave me some $1 notes and as I just wanted to get going I did not count them, just stuffed them into my pocket, later I counted them and there was only $4, no big deal but if you are changing a larger sum make sure you count the money before riding off,  now for the El Salvador mob.

Ride across the bridge on the wrong side and hope a truck is not coming the other way hahahaha, at the other side of the bridge there is a check point just give the guy all the Guatemalan papers he will endorse them with the time and date and a stamp, ride on staying to the right of the building up ahead which is Immigration and Customs.

Park in front of the window where the girl in the white top is standing and present your passport, it gets stamped, no charge and away you go.

On your bike and ride about 10m further down and park your bike between 2 cars in front of the Aduana office under cover phew out of the hot sun for a change.

Park here enter through the door and turn right, its air-conditioned Ahaaaaaa

This is the window, the sign above it says in English that all Immigration and Customs is completely Free and to stop corruption and not pay anyone, hand in your Guatemalan document and passport and a copy of your drivers licence, the Customs Officer will process them and check the VIN number on your bike, she will then produce a document which you have to get 2 copies of, the photocopy place which is in the same building was closed for lunch so she very kindly took them across the road to one of their offices and made the copies for me, no charge otherwise I would have had to wait until the photocopy guy finished his lunch and got back to work, Thank You Senora. When she handed me the completed documents she pointed to the Notice above the window about corruption and asked me to read it. On my bike glad to get moving, next stop is the final checkpoint before you enter the country to make sure you haven’t just ridden past all the offices without getting the right stamps and papers. There was a guy and a good looking young woman at the checkpoint, I handed the guy my papers and the girl kept asking for something and I did not have a clue what she wanted so I kept saying NO ESPANOL, finally he said “Ticket $5”, the first instance of Corruption I have come across, I said NO collected my documents and rode off, total time for both exit and entry procedures 1:45 hours and total cost about $13 (tip and photocopies) not bad at all.

Great ride along the coast, the mountains come down to the sea and the road is about 100m above the ocean, a few tunnels and villages, looks poor but the road is wide good overall and there are some road signs, arrived in La Libertad at 1500 after covering 297km, this is the Surfing capital of El Salvador, the beaches are made up of Black Volcanic sand like parts of Hawaii and New Zealand

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Guatemala, Guatemala City, 3 Dec 2011

Posted on Tuesday, 6-December-2011 by Chris Desmond

I hired a taxi and guide and made a half day trip to Guatemala City, 1 hour to go, 3 hours sight-seeing and an hour’s drive back, not a lot to see, first we went to the Museum, small, a few Archeaological artifacts, next to the Avenida of the Americas where various Nations have built small monuments, then to an exclusive gated community where the billionaires live under heavy security, we were only allowed in after the guide showed his official Guide Pass, then to the Main plaza small, to see the National Palace (not allowed in) and the Cathedral, then a drive to have a look at the hillside slums from a distance where the Police are not allowed in controlled by the Gangs, this is a major drug corridor.

That night there were Christmas celebrations in the Antigua Park, fireworks, bands, childrens choir etc. my last day in Antigua.

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Guatemala, Antigua, 27 Nov – 02 Dec 2011

Posted on Friday, 2-December-2011 by Chris Desmond

I left Santa Elena on Sunday at 0750 blue skies and the road winding through hills small towns along the way, cool weather roads good most of the time except for about a 100km section of broken pot holed road through the mountains (altitude 1500m) approaching Guatemala city which then turned into a new concrete 4 lane highway for the last 40km. The Road engineers have worked out a couple of innovative ways to slow traffic down, put up signs for speed bumps and then dont have any speed bumps, next is lay down some patchy bitumen over the good road in corners to make it bumpy enough to slow cars down, see pic’s. It took 6 hours to do the first 500km to Guatemala City and then another 2.5 hours to do the next 50km to Antigua hahahaha, I got to the other side of the city without too much trouble then hit a road block and went around in circles for 1.5 hours trying to get onto the highway, finally got fed up asking for directions and stopped at a taxi rank and got one of them to show me the way to the Antigua turnoff for the princely sum of Q100 ($13), he probably made a 100% profit and was very happy and I was very happy to get out of the traffic and into Antigua before dark. There are no GPS maps of Guatemala and signs are practically non-existent.

Antigua a very old historic town that has been preserved in its original form, narrow one way cobblestone streets, another trick from the engineers to slow traffic down and keep cars off the roads ie. its faster to walk if you don’t break an ankle.

Spanish school (http://www.donpedrospanishschool.com/index.php) is full on, 0800-1200 then siesta and then 1400 to 1600, one on one tuition. I am staying with a local family about a 5min walk from the school very convenient, I don’t think I can handle more than a week of this. Today we went on a tour of a Macadamia plantation instead of having class in the afternoon, thank you, my brain was ready to explode and spew nuevo palabra all over the lugar.

Dinner and Salsa dancing (not me) at the school on Thursday then a session at Frida’s.

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USA, Canada and Mexico, 2008-2011

Posted on Wednesday, 30-November-2011 by Chris Desmond

I travelled through all 50 states of the USA and Canada and Mexico on and off from 2008 to 2011.

This is a link to my Horizons Unlimited Blog which I used during my 2008 USA ride.

http://new.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/chrisd/around-the-world-2008

and pictures from 2009 and 2010

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=A388D94AFD20F1E4

USA 2008-11

Alaska 2008-10

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