Last day to La Ceiba!

Day 32 (291 Km)

  Last day, so we left Siguatepeque kind of early to have an easy ride to La Ceiba. We had to reach around 1 pm to put our bikes on the freight boat the Utila Express and Scotty went with the Yate to Utila that day and I stayed one more day in La Ceiba. During the ride to La Ceiba, almost towards the end, I heard the chain and sprockets making once in a while a banging noise and thought, this was a pretty time to act funny about 50 km before La Ceiba. I even stopped and inspected the parts, but saw nothing wrong and continued on slow speed to La Ceiba. We reached the dock in one piece and somehow I was glad the trips were over and did what we had to do and that was "Go Ushuaia and back to Honduras" and visit all the other 19 countries in between! So 40.000 km later, with lots of worn out tires, chains, sprockets, radiators and carburetor problems and do not forget my 13 flat tires, we made it in one piece.

      

Back in Honduras!

Day 31 (271 Km)

       15 minutes more to get to the border and only 10 minutes it took to do our paperwork and we were on our way to Danli in Honduras. We did some banking in Danli, because they had a Bac/Bamer and Scotty's bank was represented as well  and this was one way to avoid Tegus busy traffic and probably big bank lines. 

      Danli looks like a nice town with  busy centre and saw many up to date hotels, but after a cold drink, we took off for the capital Tegus and an our later, we passed through Tegus on one of the main ring roads and without making the wrong exit, what is the key in Tegus traffic, we only took 20 minutes and were already on the main road to San Pedro, which is now 4 lanes beautiful paved all the way to Siguatepeque. 

    Last time a year or so ago this stretch was a nightmare, but the whole road is finished now 4 lanes! We choose Siguatepeque as our stop, because of the climate and it is about 4 to 5 hours away from La Ceiba and that will be our final destination tomorrow and where we will put our bikes on the boat to Utila!

Ocotal, close to the last country to get through to Utila

Day 30 (349 Km)

    After a late start, we left almost midday for the Honduran border.
I took this picture below to show, there is more progress seen below as all the officials of Nicaragua together

 We decided to get lunch 100 km away in Granada on the main square in an old colonial setting.

   Around 2 pm we hit the road again and drove through Masaya and then north for another 200 km to reach a place Ocotal about 15 minutes before the Honduran border Los Manos, we knew this place from before and checked into the same hotel as 18 months ago.

   Tomorrow will be the final moment to bring the bikes back to Honduras and actually looking forward to that.

Penas Blanca, Nicaraguan border crossing and still not making any friends.

 Day 29 (266 Km)

   Had a good breakfast and then took the ride alongside Lake Arenal to Canas, Took almost 2 hours to do this 100 km scenic twisted road through a nice rain forest, After Canas it was north to the border on a dryer and dusty highway, due to road works. Arriving @ the border around 1 pm, we processed our bikes and ourselves out of Costa-Rica within 30 minutes and then crossed over to the Nicaraguan side, where all hell soon broke loose.

Lots of people, all with badges to show that  they are “legitimate” are not offering, but harassing you  to fill out your papers upon entering Nicaragua and as my standard way of procedure, I always refuse every-one and go direct to Immigration and customs to do my paperwork myself.  After receiving after a while my entry stamp and having an argument, that I was not paying a one cent to enter, because I was a resident of Honduras and that there  is free of charge border crossings between the CA-4 countries, they gave in and let me in free of charge on the end, but were pissed off, Scotty of course had to pay, by not being an Honduran resident yet after 20 years!

    Then we went to the Custom area to do our bike and presenting all the papers, he wanted to see the signed customs declarations of each of us and when I  asked for the forms, he said, you have to get this form  from one of the “people” outside, After looking for an half an hour for someone that had these forms, they send Scotty back to the Costa Rica area, where all the loafers were trying to push you papers earlier and finally reached the guy what had the empty forms, He didn't want to give the forms to Scotty  and start cursing his mother out for not getting it an hour ago. (The guy just had a T-shirt on) He said you not getting one now, because you did not wanted one earlier, so they had an altercation! Finally Scotty came back with only one empty form,  so then I had to go back to do the same thing. So arguing there the same point and listening to his crap, I told him in my very best Spanish, what I thought about him and I called the police standing around to put an official complaint against the loser, and took everybody mug shot for intimidation and a few minutes later the boss came and processed our papers after sending us first to secondary inspection of our motorcycles for narcotics. End of story, 4 hours later we drove away from the border to San Juan del Sur about 40 km away in Nicaragua, a sea town on the Pacific side.

    We had been there before, so it was easy to get a hotel, food and a few beers!

La Fortuna ^ Arenal for the 2nd time.

Day 28 (171 Km)

       We made a Sunday easy short drive towards Volcano Arenal, close to Fortuna. We went there already on the way going south 3 years ago and  the place had some good restaurants and many hotels in the small touristic village and it was only 150 km away from San Jose and we took the scenic road first to Volcano Poas and just before reaching that , cut across to Arenal. The whole drive still took more as 4 hours, but was worthwhile and  passed the small mountain roads to get there.

        We reached 2 pm and found a suitable hotel with A/C and WiFi and could park the moto's covered in front of the room. What more you want! Later we will have some good  food here, because the many restaurants cater to tourists here!, and is probably the last decent meal till I get home. Tomorrow Nicaragua and looking forward to cross that border zoo!