I have a good friend down here who rides confidently through Central America with few security concerns but balks at Honduras. This same friend is mulling over buying one of Lucinda’s sisters and has entered a quiet stage on this, which we take to be a good sign.
So, with some time on our hands, but not enough for dithering we decide to blast through Honduras in a day and deal with two borders, which is possible, look at Honduras with an open if paranoid mind and decide the next move from the other side, backwards if need be.
Two borders means four sets of hassle, as explained in another post. My new Guate plates should save me time. But 4 to 5 hours per border with non CA plates is not unusual so we’re cautious and pick a safe fast destination and budget a 10 hour day, hoping nothing goes wrong
Getting close
Not many photos or video, I was just concentrating on getting the job done. The first border sign
Then, same as new American friends I met a day later, I get nailed by this guy. He notices I’m running video and makes a grab for the camera,. I fake turning it off and ignore him. But he asks me for all my documentation and sits down in a chair to read it. Then after about 10 minutes says the Gaute stamp on my title is no good. Bullshit. He’s looking for a bribe. I sit it out, and eventually he gets bored and gives me my papers back. The Americans, I’m guessing from their story are about three hours behind me and he does it again to them. A standard crook in police uniform. Here he goes
Then into the mess
they check you over before you even start. You’re constantly pulling out your passport, licence, title
Then the ‘helpers’ start in on you. I refuse to use these guys
then, some luck. An insurance woman is grabbing business at the same time as Lucinda has to suffer the indignity of bug spray. You need all these papers to go further
Then the tough stuff starts. Immigration and customs. I shut the camera off, no need to risk having it confiscated. I have a medium-fast crossing, about 1 1/2 hours. Some would think that’s fast but my plate has shaved off maybe 40 minutes
It’s so hot, way over 100F, I’m worrying about dehydration, despite having downed two big bottles of water. I’ve sweat through my suit but it’s my wallet, housing everything so don’t risk taking it off and carrying it. Soaked through
Then on through some town. Not very happy because I’m so hot, have a two hour drive to the next border, and the town’s streets are all torn up. But we stopped for a pic of this bridge just to have one Honduran shot for the time being
As it happens, an ADV rider had posted a warning about the road conditions between borders, saying the potholes were bike-busting. The post sounded a bit hysterical so me and others sortof ignored it, Turns out he was right. CA3 was a disaster. The holes were up to 10 inches deep and even the sixteen wheelers were slowly snaking around them
Small village trucks were filling the holes through corners with a clay mix
And then on through the Nicaraguan border, too tired to take photos or risk video, which I hoped would be a breeze but was just what we didn’t need, much worse, between 2 and 3 hours, and into Chinandega, Nicaragua, wasted. A typical bad ADV day, nothing exceptional either way and every gringo on a bike goes through this. A rite of passage.