Cattle grazing near the Costa Rican border
I drove on into the Nicaraguan night after the border. The roads were very good. At night if the roads are too rough, or there are too many potholes it can be very dangerous. I can't see the holes coming and if their is a big one it could end the trip. The two hardest things to deal with when night driving down here is rough roads, and rain. Either one can force me to stop all together. Things like livestock in the road, or stalled vehicles and vehicles without taillights while dangerous can be dealt with mainly by adjusting ones speed. At night 40-45 mph was the maximum on these winding mountain roads and gave me time to either slow down or stop when I came upon trucks parked in the middle of the road with no lights on. This happened several times, trucks just sitting in the middle of the lane, broke down with no lights. While not ideal driving conditions by any means, they could be dealt with until I could find a hotel. Again the roads and the weather were so good I did think about driving all night.
A local tends his cattle
As I drove thru different towns looking for a hotel I noticed for the first time disco's and night life like I had not seen before on this trip. Apparently Nicaragua had a bar scene just like anywhere else. People were dressed up and heading into bars that had big disco neon signs glowing above the entrances. I don't remember seeing disco signs anywhere now that I think about, even in the seventies.
I came upon a few auto hotels (the kind that sometimes are rented by the hour and always have a garage in which to keep your car safe) but they were so dark, no lights anywhere, even at the entrance. If a place can't even have a lit sign out front, or lights in the courtyard so you can find your room I just don't stop. These places aren't catering to the weary highway traveler anyway, their on a strictly need to know bases only, probably just by the locals.
Building Windmills in Nicaragua
Finally after a couple hours of night driving I found a well lit place just out of a town. I went in to the gas station convenience store in town which was absolutely packed. People hanging out all over the parking lot, even the streets around the station were filled with people. It was a warm Saturday night in Nicaragua, and this seemed like the place to be. I was unsure where to park my bike, I got it as close to the store as possible and went in to buy some water, corn chips, granola bars, and gum for the next day. Often traveling I would just end up eating one good meal a day, and then snacking a little, riding doesn't burn up much energy. And gum helped with a dry throat. It was hard to carry too much water. When I found a place I trusted like a chain gas station (they have Texaco's down here) I would try to stock up.
As I came out of the store and began to get on my bike, a guy came up begging so I gave him a coin. I over heard another group say something about a gringo. In large groups like this, especially at night knowing how much I stick out its hard not to get nervous or afraid a group is going to confront me. While the fear may not be unfounded, I have yet to actually have something like that occur out in front of a large crowd. And I have been other places as well, Morocco comes to mind. One feels vulnerable, and one is, but it just goes with the traveling part of it. You just have to be as smart as you can, and use that old............common sense.
Its hard to see just how big these were, they were huge
The hotel came to about $20 after the exchange, I don't think I paid any less then that the whole trip. The owner welcomed me and I found a place out back to park and cover my bike. He had some small terrier's, the dogs looked healthy and well fed. They also as Caesar Chevaz might say looked quite "balanced". You can tell a lot about a person or situation simply by observing the animals they keep. If the animals seem happy and content, chances are they are being treated well. If a person can be trusted with animals, they usually can with humans. Animals and their reactions, just don't lie.
As I walked into my room I stepped on a toad, an average size one for Michigan. Here it was a small one. Around the corner I found one that must have weighed a pound or more, and was the size of a softball. The dogs just ignored them, they looked quite poisonous.
The air conditioner in the room was very loud, and overall the place just seemed old and not very clean. I didn't even take a shower in the morning, I just wanted to get going. I had come 70 or 80 miles into Nicaragua the night before and had about 160 to go to the Costa Rican border.
I made good time thru most of this country. The roads were as good as any so far and like El Salvador and Honduras, Nicaragua didn't seem to need speed bumps either. A fact that not only improved ones time, but also just made life so much easier. Not having to slow down and come to a stop 6 or 8 times for every little town and navigate a huge bump, often scraping the bottom of the engine was not missed at all. There were some monster size pot holes to avoid, but these were few and far between, and easily spotted. I'm glad I didn't have them to contend with the previous night.
A little perspective in the size of them
The day was fairly uneventful, I did get lost for awhile at one point and stopped and asked a traffic cop. We did not understand each other so I gave him a pencil and paper and he drew a map of the way I needed to go. He was friendly and showed interest in my bike, and at one point reached for the throttle and revved the engine so he could hear it. He smiled, his bike sitting up off the curb was like many police bikes a small enduro. The oddity of a 750 in this part of the world became apparent again.
As I got closer to the Costa Rican border I came upon a dead horse, not that uncommon on the side of the roads down here, though the first one that I had seen. It looked like it had been killed the night before. I debated about taking the picture or not, or even posting it, but it is I think an accurate portrayal of a part of life, and death down here. A reality not that much different from hitting a deer where I come from, except here it seems there's no reason for it.
Apparently hit the night before, this horse was on the side of the road dead
Finally I ran into windmills again. Like Mexico these were huge, maybe even bigger then Mexico's and many of them they were just putting them together. I'm always happy to see alternative sources of energy go up, it seems so logical to use the energy that is already here in abundance, like the wind.
And then finally the border of Costa Rica. It was difficult to say how far I had come with all the turn around's, and getting lost and everything, but give or take two or three hundred miles I was at about 4000 miles total from Michigan, and with maybe another 200 miles to San Jose I figured the total mileage from the middle of Michigan to San Jose Costa Rica, was between 4200 and 4500 miles. I had planned on 2500 to the Texas and Mexico border, and another 2500 to San Jose. As it turned out the second leg thru Mexico and thru Central America might have been a little a little longer then the first thru the states, but I was planning on 5000 miles each way so this was a little less. It had also taken me about 10 days from Brownsville Texas to get to the border of Costa Rica. And I took two days off in El Salvador to rest. So non stop with hard driving from sun up to sun down, and no road closures and average border crossings (average meaning long waits) and not getting lost, one could probably make it from that part of Texas to Costa Rica in 6 or 7 days. Remembering that that part of Texas is a lot closer then any other border with Mexico. I.E. California would probably be an extra day or two at least because its so much farther northwest of Central America.
Ok last one of Windmills for awhile
So on a Saturday afternoon I come to the Costa Rican border. Getting out of Nicaragua with a handler was maybe $20 or $30 total.Getting into Costa Rica with another handler maybe another $60 or $70. I had to get insurance for my bike. I was told that was $58 for 3 months. And my permit would be another $40 so, I only had a hundred on me, the handler took $80 and said that would work...you sort of get the idea. Regardless of how long it takes, I am not going to be using handlers on the way back. Either way I am in Costa Rica finally, almost three weeks after I left Michigan. That place that seemed so far away, and almost impossible to reach except for plane (San Jose) is maybe 3 or 4 hours away. I don't know when or if the whole scale of this trip will ever sink in, maybe when I make it back to Michigan and reflect on it, but for now this trip is a long way from over. I have all my dental work to get done, I have a 3 or 4 week home stay with Spanish lessons to do, while seeing as much of Costa Rica as I can. A trip to Panama yet and the end of the Pan American Highway from the North American side. And finally the long drive home, heading toward snow and uncertainty with not knowing exactly how far I can ride my bike back north. Yes I have a ways to go.
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