PowerCycle

09/03 A new day, a new country. The border crossing was a bit confusing due to a lack of signs or officials of any kind but once I tracked down the immigration offices all was well. $10 to get into Nicaragua.

Saw some interesting things on the road today. First up were two kids fishing. That was the first time I’ve seen people fishing since leaving California (technically I don’t think I saw anyone there fishing but I’m sure there are fish somewhere; there’s just not a lot of water). No fishing rods, they were just tossing out some line. As for the quality of the water, since leaving northern Honduras the water is not quite as brown and looks like it might be cleaner (not so many garbage piles nearby or people washing themselves/clothes/dishes). It could be that things actually live in it I guess. Whether or not I’d eat it is a different story.

The second thing was kind of disturbing only because at one point I actually owned a couple as pets. Some kids were selling rather large lizards (iguanas presumably) at the side of the road. Not sure what was in store for the dead lizards, at least I think they were dead–2 of them were being held up by their tails and it looked like the were tied together. Down the road a ways there was a little shack by the road and the lady was grilling up chicken nuggets. Maybe it wasn’t though…

The hotel I’m at is OK (Las Fronteras). Small room but for $11 it’s not the worst place I’ve stayed. The owners are really nice and helped me break back into my room after I locked it by accident (they don’t have a key). Knowing that no one is going to walk in on me by accident is a bit refreshing. That’s happened a couple times. Knocking first isn’t a big thing with the cleaning crews in these parts. I had my first bucket shower too. It was a little weird but at least I’m dirt free.

[osm_map lat="12.821" long="-84.859" zoom="6" width="400" height="250" gpx_file="http://www.powercycle.net/maps/leg2/090310.gpx"]

09/02 Back in Honduras, but only for the night. It’s a short run to the border with Nicaragua along this stretch of CA-1–most riders only ever see this little section of the country since they tend to skip the northern section and ride the PanAm all the way down. Not me though (or Karin and Marten who ride all over the place like I do). I’m out of the mountain (elev: 434 feet–been a long time) which is kind of sad.

My worries about crossing from El Salvador were unfounded. The border agents spent quite a bit of time examining my passport but they didn’t say a word about the missing entry stamp. I handed over my $3 to the Honduran customs people and sped off.

Some police stopped me at a “checkpoint” not too far after crossing. There were 2 of them but only the younger one came over to talk to me. The other older, chunkier officer didn’t get up the whole time. At first he wanted to know where I was going so I told him. Then he asked to see my passport. He flipped it open and looked at it for 10 seconds before giving it back. For the next 5 minutes he basically just looked at my bike while letting all the cars/trucks go by without so much as a second glance. I knew something was up at this point and this was confirmed when he pointed at my bike and said, “mucho dinero” and then clearly checking out my gold necklace. He asked for my passport again and read off my name for me immediately followed by a request for a $10 exit fee. I looked at his name tag and read his name (Roberto, R) and then asked if I could have a receipt. I guess saying his name and asking for the receipt did the trick because he waved me off and went back to looking for more bribe money suspicious vehicles.

Rained all day and quite hard for a good bit of it. I was warned to stay away from one motel here (Hotel Bonsai) so I found a place called Hotel Kali that is amazing. All new furniture, clean bed, great wifi, AC and friendly owners. No hot shower. Only $14 and change. The place last night was bad. Spotted 3 cockroaches, one was so big I thought it was my bike moving across the floor. The AC was horrible and I ended up turning it off at 1am because it was so loud.

I’ve been reading all these weird books lately: An Inquiry into the Nature and Wealth of Nations, The Earth as Modified by Humans, Youth, The Invisible Man and The Science of Human Nature. I downloaded War and Peace but I can’t bring myself to stare at the screen for that long. Grabbed them for free using the Stanza app for my swell iTouch. I kind of wish I had a Kindle…

[osm_map lat="14.04" long="-88.023" zoom="7" width="400" height="250" gpx_file="http://www.powercycle.net/maps/leg2/090210.gpx"]