Jun 7 2015

Me casa es tu casa in Mexico City

First of all, let me assure you that after our recent low point in Central America, we are back on track, fit, healthy and happy to be on the road again.

What an unexpected long stay in Mexico City and welcome rest, relaxation and rejuvenation!!!

We’ve just had 2 changes of schedule and it is a great feeling. As you know, we rushed through Central America to get to Austin in time to get Streak and Storm serviced before the end of our warranty, and especially get Streak’s throttle issue fixed. We were tempted to by-pass Mexico City, not keen on visiting such a massive city, especially as friends of ours were going be out of Mexico City the weekend we thought of spending there. But we just couldn’t not see them while we were in the country and we were offered to stay in their home over the weekend while they were away and as long as we wanted. What an offer. So we decided to put Mexico City on our route and we arrived Friday, an hour before they left and we would leave Wednesday morning early, giving us enough time to get to Austin in time.

Friday is when our rush finally stopped and everything seemed to fall into place for us. Friday is when we found out that Streak could definitely not be looked at on the 10th June in Austin, because of a major worldwide BMW recall of a different bike to ours (all dealers having to make dealing with recalled bikes their priority) but 25th June at the earliest, and may require up to 10 days at the workshop!! However, because my throttle issue had been investigated and documented since November, BMW would honour the repairs under warranty even beyond the official warranty period. Great news!! Drew Cooper, from BMW in Austin, understanding that his timing of 25th June didn’t suit us, offered to transfer all he had found out about my bike to any other dealer that would suit our itinerary and schedule better. Fantastic. He got in touch with Denver for me and booked my bike to be looked at on the 24th June. What a relief!!! I felt bad not getting our service done in Austin considering all the background investigation Drew did on my behalf but he said he understood. We decided we would travel Austin just to meet him and thank him personally.

Friday is when Streak developed a new problem which was going to require a visit to BMW Mexico City, which Anthony described in his last post: Streak hit a very bad pothole (read, huge chunk of concrete missing out of the concrete freeway) – I even asked Anthony at the time if he had seen my bike twitch as my handlebars jolted as I rode out of it but he was too busy avoiding his own potholes to be looking at me thank goodness! And in addition to damaging the front rim, it caused some misalignment which is the noise I could hear at low speeds as we were riding across Mexico City. Just shows, it pays to listen to noises at low speeds and not ignore them!! Anyway, this little incident meant that we were going to have to spend additional time in Mexico City. “Mi casa es tu casa” said Anna. We can stay at Anna and Alberto’s wonderful home – pure luxury. How wonderful. This was perfect: it allowed us to rest up, clean up, visit Mexico City and enjoy more time with Anna and Alberto and their daughters. Streak’s new problem was a godsend in many ways. Yes, I was very very lucky and thank my guardian angels…

Streak’s damaged front rim

Our first couple of days were spent washing everything. In a washing machine!!! Not by hand. Our jackets, our gloves, our trousers, our socks, all our tops, our helmet liners. They all got washed properly AND dried. Hmmmm :-). Utter luxury. It is interesting what seems like like luxury depending on what you have got used to… Not having to do hand washing every day, having totally dry clothes in the morning, doing washing in a washing machine – that’s luxury. Putting a helmet on in the morning and not feeling damp or smelling of wet dog, that’s wonderful.

So we spent a whole 9 days in Mexico City and ….. loved it!! Yes, once again, we have been surprised at much we have enjoyed a massive city, which we would have avoided had we not had friends we wanted to see there. The city surprised us in so many ways. And I can now understand why my niece who spent 7 years there loved it so much.

So many people warned us about the traffic. Well, it was easy!! Mexico City is one large city – metropolitan Mexico has 21 million people ( in 2013) – the size of Australia!!! And it took us 3 hours to cross it from east to west. But the driving style was easy. Yes, a bit of nudging forward of course, as the one with the nose in front or pushiest one wins but exactly how that works intrigues me. At what point does one stop trying to get in front or let the other through?? There is no aggression or road rage, and no hooting (except when traffic doesn’t move for a while after the lights have gone green). It all works just like magic.

We’d been warned about corrupt cops fining foreign drivers for not following some obscure rule. Anthony carried on wearing his old gloves in case of such incidents where he may finally have to give his gloves away!! It never happened to us.

We were repeatedly warned about “express kidnappings” with taxis in Mexico but we caught many taxis, hailed on the roadside, without any problems. What happens is that a taxi driver will force a customer to retrieve a whole load of cash from an atm machine and rob them. So far our gut feel has worked for us – only got out of one cab shortly after getting in without incident (when I asked him to switch his meter on, he said it was broken and was getting fixed “tomorrow” – yes, sure..). There obviously are robberies, home invasions and kidnappings based on the security around houses, the stories we’ve heard and the number of bullet proofed personal cars. Luckily, we were of no interest to anyone, my bright green Target shopping bag which carries our hats and water bottle may help?? As we walked around Lomas de Chapultepec, Anthony was reminded of his childhood, walking in exclusive (white) areas and being the only child walking as everyone else went by car. Here, we are the only ones walking – only gardeners or workers are outside, everyone else is driving luxury cars.

Typical house in Lomas de Chapultec, Mexico City

Many houses have outside security gards in addition to serious electric wiring amd cameras

House delivery of flowers in Mexico City

Mexico City

Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City[/caption]

Mexico City is so green

We made the most of our time in Mexico City to visit the old centre a couple of times. On Sunday and again during the week. What a fabulous cacophony of sounds. Illegal street vendors shouting about their wares. Loud music, coming out of every shop and restaurant. But one sound is particular to Mexico: the harmonipan. It can be heard throughout Mexico City. It is interesting how a piece of art or an art form might not be appealing until we know the story behind it. Like a painting might not appeal until we know the story behind the topic, painter or buyer, and suddenly we understanding its meaning. The same happened with the harmonipan for me. The sound of this instrument is not particularly appealing to my ear, but learning the history behind it fascinates me. The Italian Frati family migrated to Berlin in the late 19th century and began manufacturing hand organs which found their way to Mexico as a German gift. Today, harmonipans can be heard throughout Mexico City, the players dressed in the same khaki uniform, with cap to collect tips. Sometimes, they have assistants, also dressed in the same khaki uniform, who pass the cap around. It is a century old tradition which is threatening to die as the younger generation seems reluctant to take over the art of playing this instrument as it is hard work. The instrument is heavy, weighing 40-50kgs, rests on one leg and requires the player turn a handle to play one of 6 to 8 programmed melodies by pushing air through the pipes. Each melody is coded on pins that trigger pipes to be activated as the player turns the handle.

Harmonipan player, Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City centre on a Sunday

Post Office, Mexico City

Zocalo, Mexico City

During the week, we returned to the city centre. Zocalo was so much more alive than when we went on Sunday, when it was all barricaded closed after a large demonstration, ahead of this Sunday’s election. People walking across the largest plaza I have ever seen. The plaza corners and edges are full of riot police groups of 10 to 30. Across the road from one large groups of police, down a side street, the noise is deafening: illegal street sellers, lining the pavement with an incredible variety of wares. I didn’t understand what they were shouting, but gathered it was about their great items at unbeatable prices. It is illegal trade, so the wares are laid out on material, many have knots on the corners for easy grabbing should the police raid.

Zocalo, Mexico City

One of the things I have found inspiring while traveling is seeing what business people set up to make a living. People are so ingenious! Here someone is selling tiny inflatable penguins, (not so easy to gather up in a hurry), another had scissors and his get-away/pack-away cloth was littered with tiny pieces of paper which he’d cut up.

Riot police on Zocalo

Illegal sellers in Mexico City

Mercado Jamaica, Mexico City’s flower market was another fascinating place. After a couple of hours’ wondering through and chatting with a few stalls, we had lunch at a small restaurant outside the market. Simple and very tasty buritos with a litre jug of fresh pineapple juice.

Mural outside Mercado de Jamaica – Mexico City flower market

Jamaica mercado, Mexico City

$40 for this bouquet of 120 full stem roses at Mercado de Jamaica – Mexico City flower market

Piñatas at Mercado de Jamaica – Mexico City flower market

Mercado de Jamaica – Mexico City flower market

We visited the anthropology museum – a fabulous museum, beautifully displayed, full of exquisite sculptures, masks, tools etc. It was interesting to learn a bit about Teotihuacan before our visit there the following day. The Teotihuacan, which I had never heard of before getting to Mexico, was a civilisation that lasted from around 600 BC to 800 AD. What I find interesting is that I had heard of and read about the Aztecs, yet they only lasted 300 years. The Aztec had a much larger empire, which spread geographically over a vast area and were still around when the Spaniards invaded and conquered much of Central and South America. Interestingly too, the Teotihuacan pyramids were not a ceremonial place, but part of a large city, the 6th largest city in the world at the time, with around 175,000 inhabitants. They built irrigation, terracing, multi level apartments. They were great traders of their obsidian, a glass-like volcanic rock which they fashioned into fine cutting blades, which were found in all corners of Mesoamerica.

Mexico City Anthopology museum

Fine Teotihuacan obsidian cutting tools, at the Anthropology museum

Anthropology Museum, MexicomCity

We spent a day visiting the Teotihuacan Pyramids, another Unesco heritage listed site.

Teotihuacan, Mexico

Teotihuacan, Mexico – Avenue of the Dead

From the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico

From the Pyramid of the moon, with the pyramid of the sun on the left. Teotihuacan, Mexico

The rest of the time, we rested, played with the girls, walked to the most amazing local grocery store – yes, we were staying in a very nice area.

Gloria and Isabel playing ball with Anthony – not sure who is having the most fun

Gloria scored a point against Anthony!

Pure joy on Isabel’s face while playing with Anthony

We met Beatriz at the City Market Lomas supermarket and chatted for 45′

$1.20 for the coffee and pastries at the local supermarket in Mexico City

Friday, Alberto’s driver picked us up again to help with any translation at BMW and to guide me home. Jaciel, the Motorrad service manager showed us around the facility before we left – we saw the number of recalled motorcycled waiting to get fixed. I was very grateful Streak got pushed through ahead of these. We have since heard that BMW have a policy of dealing with passing travellers’ bikes ahead of any local booked ones.

BMW Santa Fe, Mexico City backlog of work due to the recent recall

Jaciel, Motorrad Service Manager of BMW Santa Fe, Mexico City

Ready to leave BMW Mexico Santa Fe with fixed rim and steering

We enjoyed spending time with Alberto and Anna at the end of their extremely busy week. Friday evening, we all enjoyed just staying home, snacking, drinking and chatting. It was perfect. Saturday, we went to one of the sports clubs up in the hills for lunch. I went to bed early, with a throat tickle announcing a cold and because we were getting up early to cover some distance and get to San Luis Potosi for the night.

Our friends and very generous hosts Anna and Alberto, Mexico City

Thank you Anna and Alberto for your help, generosity and hospitality!! We get up early as planned, looking forward to being on the road again, with lovely clean, fresh smelling and dry clothes and helmets. Wow, what a great feeling. We leave as planned at 7am Sunday morning.

– Anne

May 29 2015

Mexico, a new adventure

As we leave the Mexican customs and Immigration facilities at Ciudad Hidalgo, we realise we can look look forward to a couple of weeks of border crossing free travel. However we still have to get our Temporary Vehicle Import paperwork at Huixtla, some 80km from the border. The strange location of the Customs facilities becomes clearer when you know that the Mexican / Guatemalan border has a dozen or so official crossings and some 370 unofficial ones!

The Mexican governments strategy is borders with depth. You can travel up to 25km into Mexico without additional paperwork, beyond that they have set up Customs checkpoints further inland on main routes to avoid unnecessary and expensive duplication of facilities nearer the border. A sensible strategy with such a porous border.

We will tackle the paperwork the following day before we travel towards Mexico City or as it is known here just Mexico or Mexico D.F. Again we enjoy the afternoon shower which leaves us well soaked and for once overnight the air-conditioning does not remove any of the water and we depart for Huixtla customs post as wet as when we arrived. Here the highway is diverted through the extensive Customs facility. Not a dirt bypass here! The morning sunshine does offer an opportunity to dry our gloves out!

Finally a chance to dry our wet gloves at the Mexican customs post

We ride westwards with the southern tip of the Sierra Madre del Sur on our right. Vivid greenery runs right to the road’s edge, a mountain of work for the machete wielding workers at the roadside, although I did ponder if the high grass was left, it might provide a natural barrier in the event of accidents to slow cars and motorcycles down?

Overgrown grass or safety barrier in Mexico?

The roads are generally in reasonable condition along this stretch and we make good progress. We pass vast wind farms, I count at least 5 each over 100MW each. As we have mentioned before we are seeing quite sizeable wind farm developments as we have progressed through South and Central America. It would be interesting to see how these countries’ renewable energy sources stack up against the supposedly advanced countries like ours.

Wind farms in Mexico

Storm brewing in Mexico

We keep a watchful eye on the clouds gathering to our right. They only seem to concern us, the truck drivers at our lunch stop seem uninterested in the weather, just a quiet siesta in the afternoon heat. We had seen hammocks for sale in many places that only locals would frequent, but had not seen them in action before.

Drivers taking a nap after lunch in Mexico

Matías Romero Avendaño provides an overnight stop. Storm clouds gather but for the first time in a week we arrive before the heavens open up. Our first dry day and we are moving out of malaria territory. Tomorrow we will reach the coast and take a couple days’ R&R before we progress to Mexico City.

Our hotel in Matias Romero Avendano, Mexico

Our beachside destination is Boca del Rio, just outside Veracruz on the Mexican Caribbean coast. A four lane toll road provides a fast route to the coast, we note however the damaged road surface and while, for the first time in weeks, the speed limit is a seductive 110 km per hour, large potholes and crevasses in the concrete sections make for more dangerous riding and require keen observation to avoid most of the obstacles.

Mexican autopista

Boca del Rio is just what we needed, although the expected washing machine advertised on the website does not eventuate and the wet dog smell will persist till Mexico City.

We realise that evening that we have reached probably our lowest energy point on the trip. We both find it difficult to communicate clearly and misunderstand what we are saying to each other. We decide that night we will spend a second night here. We are not ready to travel on.

Beach, swimming and relaxing are the order of the day. Our evenings are spent at the nearby Irish pub, eating spicy Mexican/Irish food, listening to rock music and chatting with a couple of local motorcycle riders.

Boca del Rio, Mexico

Anne enjoying her first scotch since arriving in South America

Anthony enjoying a beer at Boca del Rio

Our ride to Mexico City starts with an unexpected rain storm. The deluge leaves us travelling slowly trying to avoid the sheets of water that the buses and trucks generate, mostly unsuccessfully. Our persistence is rewarded, the sun returns and we can look forward to climbing from sea level to over 3,000 meters to cross the Sierra Madre Oriental. The climb near Maltrata is spectacular, two lanes in each direction that take completely different routes with little traffic almost makes you want to ride down and do it again except the temperature has dropped from 30 to 13 degrees celsius!

This is wet

Anthony’s turn

The road in the distance is the opposite lane of the MEX150D

The unusual and fantastic MEX150D road

Along the MEX150D – at 3,300m high

Around this point we pass 35,000 km or 22,000 miles on this trip. What will our final mileage be, I estimate between 42,000 and 45,000 km. When we reach the USA I should put a poll up as to what you the reader estimate we will do to reach Montreal in early September.

Sign in a roadside cafe in Mexico - no alcohol for minors or people in uniform

We are staying with our friends, Anna and Alberto and their two daughters. They live on the western side of Mexico City, population estimated to be around 20 million and as we arrive from the east, a fun crossing awaits. In cities we have used taxis and especially since my GPS map stops short of the city so we get into the centre and hire a taxi to follow. Given the style of driving here to avoid losing the taxi, one needs to sit about half a meter off his bumper to avoid being squeezed out by other drivers. Wish I had the skill of a Formula 1 driver that can do that easily. It takes us 3 hours to cross Mexico City.

Our taxi in front – we got stuck at these lights for 30′ as the green light only lasted 2 seconds

As we approach our destination Anne can hear an unusual sound from the front wheel. We decide a visit to BMW is in order to check this out. On arrival at BMW, Anne then discovers a dented wheel rim! Anne and I recall a particularly bad pothole Anne hit on the highway, probably while avoiding other potholes or it could have happened this morning as she didn’t have time to see the coverless manhole before riding over it. We will now be staying 10 days not the 5 we had planned. Anna and Alberto are kind enough to extend their hospitality for another five days. We will get to see more of them and Mexico City than we had planned and enjoy relaxing in their lovely home.

– Anthony

May 28 2015

Video

Central America from the saddle

May 27 2015

Life along Central America’s Panamerican Hwy

The few photos in our last post didn’t do justice to the stunning scenery and colourful lifestyle of Central America. We got the message :-). So here are more photos. But they still don’t convey our full experience and intense variety of senses. The music everywhere, the sight of fluttering butterflies (sadly too many ended up with sore heads against our screen or visors), the smell of storm, the sweet smell of mangoes dripping from the trees or waiting to be bought from roadside carts, the sweet smell of pineapples from the roadside sellers, the daily sound of car alarms (we know the sequence of sounds and rhythms as we have heard the same alarm throughout South America too), the number of heavily armed police everywhere and the number of police checks along the road. Mostly, they wave us through. Sometimes, when we’ve had enough of slowing down and stopping for nothing, we just wave at them with a big smile and drive off!! And luckily, you won’t experience the smell of dog, which became wet dog, and finally wet horse which we have worn every morning in Central America – our clothing has got progressively wetter and has not managed to dry out by the morning. You can tell the time of the day each photo was taken based on the colour of the sky and the clouds.

Central American villages love to use “reductors” to slow traffic down. Some are easily rideable on a bike, others are serious humps. They are often perfect opportunities for us to overtake slow trucks but sometimes, when they are spaced literally every 50 metres, they can be a bit painful. Some villages though build their own humps so they are not that visible as they don’t paint the warning stripes over them.

People in Central and South America have great concern for their motorcars safety and wellbeing. This goes as far as to have hotels that allow you to take your car into the bedroom with you. The Auto hotels as they are known allow you to drive, with your partner into garage attached to the bedroom and close the door behind you for privacy for you and your car. As most of us do not sleep for 24 hours, you, your car and partner can rent the room by the hour. What enlightened hotel management that think of your wallet and your cars safety.

Hope you enjoy the ride 🙂

Anne & Anthony

Great meeting fellow rider Carlos at BMW San Jose

That’s the only monkey we saw – Costa Rica road sign

Stunning trees in Costa Rica

Our wrong turn left looking for Costa Rica exit border post

El Savador border Municipality tax counter

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Pelican diving for fish at San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Anthony body surfing at San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

San Juan Del Sur beach, Nicaragua

It was windy in Nicaragua

Poincianas throughout Central America reminded us of home – here in Nicaragua

We could be anywhere in the world – here in Nicaragua

Rocking chairs for sale roadside in Nicaragua

Nandaime, Nicaragua

That’s one straight stretch of road in Nicaragua, near Nagarote

Chinandega, Nicaragua

Leaving Chinandega, Nicaragua

Approaching the Nicaragua-Honduras border post

Honduras border post

So many volcanoes in Central America – here in Honduras

Honduras

Lizard seller in Honduras

More volcanoes in Honduras

More fabulous clouds just over the border into El Savador, at El Amatillo

Long day to San Miguel – here coming up to El Caemen, El Savador

Another wet end to the day in San Miguel, El Savador

Transport in El Savador

Coconut sellers in El Savador

Police going to work in El Savador

So many police checks – here in El Savador

Guatemala here we are!!

Guatemala hammocks

It is ‘red team’ territory – in other areas, the red rocks were painted over in white in Guatemala

Love these tropical storms as they build

Another storm brewing for us on our way to Guatemala City

Guatemala don’t have emissions control

This emergency truck escape line started further up the hill, cutting out sharp bends – Guatemala

Cheese balls and other delicacies in Santa Lucia, Guatemala

Another glorious poinciana, Jalpatagua, Guatamela

Cuilapa, Guatemala

Rio Madre Vieja in Guatemala

Another Auto Hotel in Guatemala

Guatamelan family

May 26 2015

Transiting the Central American Isthmus

Definitely our longest gap between blog entries, you may have thought we had been swallowed up by the Central American jungles, but no, just a little busy travelling (thank you to a number of you who have emailed or messaged us checking we were ok). Transiting Central America has been challenging for us. Since we left San Juan in Costa Rica on the 21st of May, we have ridden every day, crossed 5 countries riding in a variety of road and traffic conditions, temperatures maxing out at 42 degrees celsius, up to 100% humidity most days, negotiating up to four customs and immigration procedures in one day. We had decided to move quickly through Central America, transiting rather than touring. Why you may ask?

The decision has been made for a number of reasons. We are running out of time. While our return to Europe in September 2015 may seem distant, we have 10,000 plus kilometres we still have to cover and we have to decide who and what we can see in the USA. This is a RTW trip that we had decided we would undertake in around 12 months in two 6 month segments, which from experience is about as long as we like to travel for. We have to make decisions about what we can and cannot do.

We also need also get to the USA to get Anne’s bike fixed before the warranty runs out in mid June. The continuing problem with the engine management system which affects Anne’s throttle can only be fixed with a replacement part that has to be coded to the individual Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), which BMW will only do in the factory in Berlin and this has a substantial lead time. We have not been able to organise this in South America, probably due to our deficient Spanish and a reluctance of a particular BMW dealer to get involved. With parts lead times in South America, we may have had to wait weeks in one location.

We also want to get out of malaria country as Anne has a negative reaction to Malaria prophylactics. The thought of all the reportedly difficult border crossings waiting for us has added to a tiredness which has grown in recent weeks. We are looking forward to finding some good mountain camping spots in the Rocky Mountains in June, hiking and relaxing by a cool stream.

Anyway I am getting ahead of myself, Let me take you all back a week…….. It has been a little surreal staying at the Hilton Garden Inn in San Jose. The hotel has only been open 5 days and has 8 rooms is use. The hotel occupies the top half of a building with finishing work continuing below during the day. The pool is not completed, power switching rooms are open to guests and we are the only people at dinner. We meet the executive chef who used to teach at university as he and his staff serve us. It all seems so dream like in the hotel.

The replacement of the steering head bearings and the new tyres make for a new pleasurable riding experience once we have covered the first 100km / 60 miles to remove the new tyre oil film.

Today seems to be tyre day: just ahead of us bang! an explosion as a truck tyre disintegrates in a cloud of dust and debris which we both see. Anne, who is leading, is lucky that a car is between her and the truck or else she would have had showered. I have never actually seen a tyre let go like that, just the debris scattered in the road, another first. Anne mentions that she feels like she may one day wake up from one long dream. After our recent strange dreamlike stay in this empty hotel, many experiences have been a little unreal or just so perfectly lucky: like the tyre explosion, like when we left San Jose with brand new slick tyres and the weather ‘waited’ until we had ridden 160kms before it rained, like arriving at border posts with no queues ahead of us.

As we progress towards to the Nicaraguan border, the scenery changes to a drier more open country painted with an artist’s palette of browns and rust. I had assumed, incorrectly, that the Central American landscape would be all bright and vivid jungle greens based on pictures I had seen before we came here.

Our crossing of the various borders in Central America has been made easier by having sent Kristjan ahead to scout the route, note processes and problems and report back to us in written form. This has given us a head start at each border crossing as to what we might reasonably expect to encounter and Kristjan’s view of the current process.

Writing instructions. This is harder than you think. When each of us write instructions, we make sub-conscious assumptions, our own and about the audience. In the case of the Costa Rica Nicaragua border we went wrong at the first instruction which said take the first road after the entrance gate. I spotted a dirt road immediately after the entrance we turned left followed past the 300-400 meters in the instructions without spotting the customs building. Ahead a police car waived us down, we told them what we were looking for, they laughed and they directed us to continue and then turn right. This seemed a little strange until we realised the road we were on completely bypassed Costa Rica Customs and Immigration! I presume for those that were too busy to fill out the paperwork. We should have been looking for a concrete road a little further on the left, the second road in fact not the first, but the dirt road with trucks parked either side could be easily missed or mistaken for a parking area, Anne had not noticed it but I did. I am certain that those who read and use our border crossing notes may find fault or error in them. It may be the process has changed or I have made some assumptions along the way that others are not able to follow. It is always easier to amend than create, so our thanks to Kristjan for his pioneering work.

Full details of the actual crossing process are in Borders and Visas section. Again we were lucky with the process, the Costa Rica side we handled without a facilitator and apart from having to convince a customs officer that we had not been processed by the colleague who he had just taken over from was straight forward. Our intelligence on the Nicaraguan side was that a facilitator was needed and it turned out to be a beneficial. He took us through the myriad of buildings, windows and processes. We also inadvertently came across our first border corruption. After completing the customs and police inspection we were advised by our facilitator that the police check, which was in addition to the Customs check, only took 2 minutes because we were to pay US$20 avoiding a 2 hour search. Neither of us were happy with not knowing this in advance as we would have chosen the longer search. Some may think us hypocritical because we have paid spot fines to police before, but that was our choice. I should add that we have seen signs in some of the offices in Costa Rica saying there are no charges for forms or processing by Government officials. Progress is being made.

It is interesting that in all our travels on this trip, the Central American countries are the only places we have encountered ‘fixers’ or facilitators. In Central Asia, locals or officials would always point out the next place to go in the process, similarly in South America. In Central America however it has become a business which, given the amount of queuing and running around that can take place, they can be useful to expedite the process. We used them on two of the five border crossings, the others we took care of ourselves.

We have deduced from the number of land crossings we have made that the paperwork process, in our experience should, but probably will not, go along these lines:

Country Exit – cancel ‘Vehicle Temporary Import Permit’, process Passport for exit ……..
Country Entry – complete immigration and customs form, process Passport, obtain Vehicle Insurance, obtain ‘Vehicle Temporary Import Permit’

Photocopies are the order of the day at most borders, some you can do in advance such as Passport, Vehicle Registration and Driving Licence. Photocopies of your just stamped passport page, or document just issued means unless you have a portable photocopier, you will need fresh copies and it always seems there is a business setup to provide such services handy. I did talk with one official who spoke good English at a border crossing about the endless copies and they agreed to processes are very bureaucratic for them and probably unnecessary in many cases as well.

We come across a large (44MW) wind farm manufactured by Suzlon just inside Nicaragua along side lake Nicaragua, close to where the proposed canal connecting Pacific and Atlantic would be built by the Chinese. Here we see our first broken wind turbine blade, the remains just hanging in space, further on a complete turbine and tower are down. The base looks like the centre of a kitchen roll that had been bent. Not real good for the turbine when it hit the ground. Given the strong gusts wind we are encountering I can understand how the those two turbines met their fate.

Horizontal and broken off wind turbine.

Not good for the turbine as it hit the ground.

Down to San Juan del Sur, one of Nicaragua’s must see beaches. We find a wonderful hotel on the main street. Across the street palm frond roofed restaurants sit with views across the beach and out over the sea. One can sit and sip a cold beer watching pelicans dive for fish. The place has a pleasant feel and not too overcrowded. We realise that San Juan del Sur caters to a younger crowd than us by the proliferation of bars/discos using loud, well to us, music to attract clientele.

When we travelled down through Africa in 1982-1983, we commented on the proliferation of Coca-Cola signs, even in the remotest places, and how one day when archeologists in the the future are excavating our present, they may assume Coca-Cola was a vast all encompassing empire. I prefer it to Pepsi any day. Fast forward some 30 odd years, Coca-Cola is still everywhere, but archaeologists, will be puzzling over the hand held VISA card machines that seem to be at every small cafe, store and petrol station. We are able to pass through some countries without changing any currency due to to proliferation of VISA machines. Progress moves steadily forward, what will be the global relic in another 30 years?

It has been surprising the counties we have travelled through have been so dry. We were expecting lush tropical scenery and instead found ourselves travelling through a vista not too dissimilar to riding out towards Esk and Wivenhoe dam back home. The temperature reached 42 degrees celsius during our Central American transit which makes for hard riding.

Not what we expected in tropical Central America

We spend a second night in Nicaragua at Chinandega. A small town within a reasonable distance of our next border crossing. A wander through the town reveals a main square with a recently built castle, we think for the kids. Always interesting how each place we visit tries to develop itself, we may not understand why they pick a particular approach, but they are making an effort to provide for the local people.

Chinandega, Nicaragua

Chinandega main square, Nicaragua

After last night’s massive downpour, we get off to a blue sky day, and fabulous views of one of the many small, hopefully dormant volcanoes that dot the landscape.

San Cristobal volcano, Nicaragua

We decided to attempt two crossings in one day, estimating 2 hours per crossing based on previous experiences. Our first crossing is from Nicaragua to Honduras, the usual crowd of facilitators is around, and we offer the opportunity to a young kid, but he does not speak english or fully understand the process so an English speaker steps in. The process is detailed in Borders and Visas. Doing four sets of Immigration, Customs and Vehicle temporary import processing in one day, I am having some difficulty extracting each element clearly from my memory so if something is not right please bear with me.

What was interesting to learn from the Honduras Customs officials is that they ask us not to pay money to fixers for services, we will tip the fixers for their help but not pay for officials’ services.

After spending almost three hours entering El Salvador, mostly due to the indifferent attitude of the data entry operator who spent one and a half hours entering data from three forms, already completed by their colleagues in Spanish. One was mine, one Anne’s and third and Aussie couple from Perth in a van. Even when the Aussie couple had their paperwork completed, they still waited with us, which was really kind of them.

On this border crossing we also ran into a problem with my Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) sticker. During the replacement of my steering head bearings, they damaged the sticker removing one of the VIN numerals. Luckily I was able to show the official the actual engraved VIN as well. He only looked closely because he was training new staff, most countries never bother to check as long as they have their multiple paper copies.

El Salvador to Guatemala was straightforward and as it was Sunday all the fixers were in Church! Guatemala to Mexico was our last crossing in the series. Fairly straight forward, expect that the gentleman who had entered our temporary vehicle permit had not activated it, thus it could not be cancelled! I thought for a brief moment, could we have our money back as we were now across the country, but thought better of it. It never pays to mess with Customs and Immigration officers.

We have been constantly warned about our personal security by locals as we travelled through Central America. Sometimes they warn about the next country along, others about their own country. We were advised not to stop in Honduras at all. The vast quantities of razor wire in evidence around businesses and homes are testament to either top quality razor wire salesmen or a real problem of theft. I suspect the latter.

One aspect we were not used to is the use of armed security guards. In Guatemala and El Salvador armed security guards can be found at petrol stations and restaurants, anywhere that cash accumulates, usually in pairs armed with pistols and pump action shotguns. We see them traveling around on the back of mopeds, nothing like riding past the business end of a pump action shotgun laid across the seat between driver and passenger, we travel past quickly, I would hate for a bump in the road to set the gun off as we pass, ruining and otherwise perfectly good day.

Security guy riding with his shotgun across his lap, Escuintla, Guatemala

Army guy riding with his shotgun across his lap, Escuintla, Guatemala

It was interesting to note the changes in modes of transport between the various Central American countries. The number of mopeds, tuk tuk’s and donkey carts varied from one to another depending, I surmise, on the respective wealth of the country. While the Golden Arches of MacDonald’s and other American consumer icons became more prevalent as we moved towards Mexico, the roadside stalls still exist in large numbers, enabling one to stop, for whatever is the local produce, Mangos in this case.

Having a fresh mango peeled on the side of the road in El Salvador

While we have only briefly visited this region, there is much to intrigue the visitor who has time to explore further. The beaches, jungles, volcanoes, historic monuments and the people make would make for an adventurous journey.