I start the drive back from Costa Rica, with scorpions, walking sticks and howler monkeys.

A roadside gift store and gardens in Costa Rica 

I left San Jose about 12:30 yesterday after having lunch with Carlos the owner of the house and Jeff the student from Taiwan. The weather was nice all morning and then a heavy rain came in. I had looked at the weather report and it said 40% chance of rain almost every day for the next week. Carlos offered to let me stay one more day at no charge, but I knew I had to get going, and it wasn't like the weather the next day was going to be any better then this day.

So we parted with me promising to call him when I got back to Michigan, I knew he was a little worried about me on my return trip. I gave gifts to everyone including Ana and Jolenis the maids (for all the great work they did), and headed out to cross San Jose one last time. Of course it was as busy as ever and it took a good hour to drive the 10 miles (if its that far) across town and finally get going north and towards the Nicaraguan border. Of course I took a wrong turn once, by the airport, but quickly got back on track.

One of many Iguanas they had in a cage at the souvenir shop.

My plan now was to try to get as close to the borders I had to cross the night before, and then try them first thing in the morning, when I'm fresh and hopefully the border people are too. I was also planning on not using handlers this time and stumbling around all day if I had to if thats what it took to save some money. I wanted to reach Santa Rosa National Park up in the Northwest corner of Costa Rica by nightfall. This would put me close to the Nicaraguan border for the morning. I had not done any camping on this whole trip and wanted to do it at least once in Costa Rica before I left. Costa Rica is warm and wet, and is certainly different then camping in the northern U.S. (where I'm used to camping). But it does have a lot of National Parks and places to camp.

I drove in just after dark to the campground. The entrance information booth was closed, and there was no one to pay. It was only two dollars a night anyway. I made my way in and it was pitch black, and really warm and humid. I was soaked with sweat just getting my tent  up and everything unpacked. After I did though I was able to relax and sit on the picnic table and listen to my MP3 player. I hadn't used it at all on the trip and wanted to see if I could pick up any stations. I got one kind of fuzzy one that was playing a song by The Moody Blues of all things. I just sat there in the now cool wind blowing thru the trees in just my underwear with the moon coming out, and it felt so good. Worth the effort to try and camp, and certainly a lot cheaper then a hotel would have been.

Finally I get to camp out, here in Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica

Of course right on schedule a big storm came in and it rained really hard for a good part of the night. The bike and I were covered and we did fine, though I really didn't get much sleep because of the rain, and also because it was so warm. Tropical camping is somewhat different then what I'm use to.

In the morning even though I wanted to sleep in I knew I had the border to deal with, and wanted to get across Nicaragua by night fall. So I was up at 6, still late for the sun, but...My goal was to hopefully get to the El Salvador coast by Friday night after crossing Honduras. This would get roughly half of my border crossing's over within the first two days and then maybe I could spend a day at the beach before heading north and having to deal with Guatemala and Mexico (I remember that long trip across Mexico!). The El Salvador coast was one of the prettiest places on the trip, and I wanted to get back there, having done almost no beach time on this trip.

So as I got up and started breaking camp I met my neighbor Harold from Germany. We talked for a bit about our trips. He was in Costa Rica for 3 weeks and had rented a car and was traveling around camping. The park has two campgrounds, one up by the park offices where we were at, and another one down the road by the ocean, about six miles. There is a warning sign not to use the road because its so rough, he did anyway and got his rental SUV stuck. It cost him $180 to get it towed out! I told him he was lucky he was in a place he could get one. Some of the places I've been on this trip I'm not sure you could have found a tow truck.

My neighbor Harold at the campground, he was from Germany and touring the country for 3 weeks.

He told me a troop of Howler Monkeys had come thru earlier in the morning making their characteristic deep throated grunts and howls. In fact they were still in trees not far away and we could hear them making their howls. Its funny in Michigan we have flocks of crows that come in and make racket and then move on. Here they have groups of monkeys that do that. As we were standing there talking the worlds largest rodent, I forget what its called came walking into the campground. Harold got all excited and told me it was just the right size for eating. I thought that's kind of an odd first thing to think of seeing a new animal for the first time. I don't think Harold was a vegetarian!

For me being down here is like going to a local zoo in Grand Rapids when I was a kid. Every time you turn around there's something you've seen on television or at the zoo. Leaving the park they have a Armadillo crossing sign, and an Iguana crossing sign, later I was to see a snake crossing sign in Nicaragua. I'm not sure there is anything they don't have down here. The nice thing of getting out and going camping or like taking the tour last week is that you don't have to go far, or look very hard to find them. Harold told me the pond down by the ocean has crocodiles in that as well. Ok, I'm ready for a Python or a Jaguar now..

Speaking of sharks, I got to the Costa Rican side of the border, refused help from the handlers and was able to get stamped out of the country and with some questioning and remembering the building that I got my vehicle permit in, was able to take care of that paperwork as well. It helped that the guy spoke some English too, but at least I was the one who found him by myself. I started out at the Nicaraguan border OK, two kids and the immigration guys helped me. The kids were determined to see me thru the whole process. I got my bike spray' d for what I don't know, supposedly mosquito's, that was $3, and then with the kids help I found the place to get my passport stamped, that cost $7. Then who shows up but the guy that helped me get into Costa Rica. I tell him I'm not paying him anything, but the truth is he's asking me questions about my insurance and other things, and I can tell I'm going to have problems if I try this alone.

We discovered this "hitcher" at the border crossing, ironically right after they spray' d my bike with insecticide. A walking stick over a foot long, reportedly its bite is painful and can cause swelling in the throat. A crowd gathered and in typical mob  fashion, stamped it to death (well one guy did, the others were just worried and told me it was poisonous).

The bottom line is he did help me not have to pay insurance, he did get a good rate on my money exchange for Nicaraguan money, (unlike another guy who ripped me off for probably $25 with a bad exchange rate for Colones a short time earlier) and all the paper work he was throwing at me I ended up just letting him do it for me....... Another $10 for the permit (someone else told me that its free for Nicaragua), another $10 for the police to help get me thru faster, (no doubt more money for him) and then a $10 fee for him. So I probably lost $30's with him, and another $25 on the money exchange even though I try' d to stop by a bank before I got to the border to have it exchanged there. They said I would have to do it at the border. I did not agree on the exchange rate before hand and by the time I figured it out it was too late, he had given me a terrible rate.

I did try to find the exchange rate on line, but Nicaragua's currency (the cordoba) wasn't even listed at the site I was at. I also try' d to find a calculator before I started back, but of course their so overpriced in Costa Rica I didn't want to buy one. But those are at least two things you can do ahead of time. One is know what the exchange rate is, and then either figure it out yourself how much your going to change and how much you should get, and either write it down for the exchange guy to read, or better yet, bring a calculator, figure it out, and then show it to him. This works really well as well going into a store, a hotel, or anywhere you don't know the price or can't understand them. Either have them write it down, or give them the calculator. Some people can't even read, but everyone seems to know numbers. Especially when it comes to money. The other thing to do which I didn't do was call each embassy, talk to someone and find out the exact procedure and how much it should cost. Then ask them to fax, or give you the web site that has that information on it. Make a copy and then have that and the embassy of that countries phone number with you when you go to the border, if you have problems, show them the paper, and the phone number of their own embassy. Granted this takes a lot of time to do, but I think in the case of Guatemala and Honduras it maybe the best way to get some insurance against corrupt officials. However this doesn't solve the problem at the borders of the maize of lines and paperwork you try to get thru on your own in the heat and being pummeled by handlers, all without speaking the language. Eventually its like you end up asking one question or accepting their help, and then your in for it, you can't get rid of them. Its hard to understand just how difficult this situation is, and how hard is to deal with it if you've never done it before. And believe me the handlers know....But having said that you can still try to barter a deal, and state it before they start helping you. If they want your business bad enough they will often take a quarter of what some of the other ones are offering. This still does not cover mysterious charges they keep coming up with as they run away with your license and $10 only to return and say, that's over, now we need to do this. The only thing to do in that case is I get guess stay with them every step of the way.. You get the idea again how hard this is. All these suggestions help, but still don't solve the problem of using handlers, corrupt border officials and not speaking the language.

One of the many volcano's in Central America. This one in Nicaragua.

So for the border it came to $40, $30 of it I'm sure went to the handler, and I probably lost $25 in the exchange rate, but I did reduce the damage in a lot of ways, and I had done almost three quarters of the crossing alone. I should have stuck with it, or simply not given him anything for his help, considering what he did to me the last time. I wasn't sure how he would take that, the thing is his service is worth something, just not what he thinks it is. Actually its the governments themselves that allow it to go on. They could seal off the area from non-authorized personnel and also have instructions printed up in different languages and mark things to make it easier so people could find their way around. Like that's going to happen. ( I know, I just need to learn to be the tough gringo!).

I drove all day after getting thru the Nicaraguan border, stopped to eat once and though I spent maybe two hours at the  border I still was only able to put in about 250 miles today. While the roads are pretty good, its the traffic, slow vehicles and a lot of towns that end up slowing you down. I got as close to the Honduras border as I could before dark, now tomorrow I'll have to deal with it and the money exchangers, first thing.

More of the Nicaraguan country side.

The prices in Nicaragua are probably the lowest of anywhere. Gas is under $3 a gallon. I had a lunch of 3 taco's, coleslaw, beans and a drink, and it came to $2. And this was at a gas station restaurant, not a roadside stand. My hotel, while no television or hot water, or screens for that matter, is about $10. As I was unloading my bike a scorpion came walking in the front door (my first sighting in my life of one of those too). A dark brown one, about 4 inches long. I literally kicked it out. I was so ready to just leave after that, like how am I going to sleep thinking its going to come in under the door again. The thing is, where am I going to go? Its dark, I'm at the border, I'd have to drive back 30 miles to find a place. No, people all over the world live with scorpions, and all these other creatures I'm running into. I'm just banking on them not being able to climb! I also sprinkled baby powder all around the door, hoping that would detour it. My gringoness coming out again I guess,

It should be an interesting night as well as an interesting morning at the border tomorrow....

 

Nicaragua by night and by day

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.

Central Central America

Honduras and the beginning of Nicaragua

(and also a night out)

Closing in on the Nicaraguan Border

It was hard to leave the Comfort Inn and El Salvador knowing I had to deal with three more border crossings in the next two days to be able to finally get into Costa Rica.

I stopped at a local gas station to fill up. The guys working spoke a little bit of English and wanted to know about my bike and where I was going. I gave them my card with my blogging site on it. Like most of the people I met in El Salvador, they were friendly, helpful, and curious. And in fairness most of the people I have met along the way have been too. I guess here we just had more ties, both in language and in a little more modern perspective.

As I passed more cattle on the road, I thought back to how early on in El Salvador I passed a couple of funerals. They basically consisted of the coffin placed in the back of a pick up truck with the immediate family, I assume standing around it. Followed by mourners walking behind the slow moving truck which was making its way along the highway to the cemetery. No hearses or long lines of cars here.

The hotel where I staid was not far from the Honduras border so it didn't take long to get there. This was going to be a repeat of the Guatemalan border with the handlers "taking care of it all for me" and it ending up costing me about $330 total. At one point I ran out of cash and we had to hire a driver to take us back to the next town and a bank to get more money. The banks ATM wouldn't take my debit card so I went inside. I wanted to cash some travelers checks and they wouldn't take those. They didn't take mastercard so I couldn't use either my debit card or my credit card. Luckily I had a visa card and I took out $500 from that, something I didn't want to do but had no choice. At this rate both my cards were going to get tapped out fast.

The Honduras Border, another place to just wait in the high heat

I paid the driver $20 for the trip, got back to the border and the handler said one official didn't like the copy of my title and if I paid him $40 he would over look it. More B.S. but again I was right in the middle of it all. At this point I had about $600 cash. By the time I got thru this border, the Nicaraguan and Costa Rica borders the next day, it would all just about be gone....

This whole crossing took about 3 hours, in high heat with throngs of people, trucks and cars all going thru the same process, hurry up and wait. There were also 3 wheeled cabs, which were basically motorcycles with three wheels turned into cabs. Two or three people could sit in a protected area behind the driver. Often they were well painted and with decorative emblems and some had political leaders faces on them.It was a dollar to get ferried from one customs to the other.

Honduras, climbing the mountain road to the Nicaraguan border.

With the whole distance across this part of Honduras to Nicaragua about 150 miles, I was hoping to make it to Nicaragua and cross that border by night fall. The roads were good in Honduras, and outside of having to ask directions a couple of times I didn't get lost, and I made good time. I also had one police check point that checked my papers and waved me on, and another one that a young kid was minding that gave me a little more trouble. In fact they were the first ones on the whole trip that asked me to open my bags.

Not far from the Nicaraguan border I came upon the police check point. There were two officers,an older one and a young kid that looked to be no more then 18 or 19. He seemed to have a bit of an attitude, not to mention a gun. They checked my papers, the young one looked at my map I had spread out on top of my tank bag closely perhaps to see if he could find an ulterior motive for me being there.

I unzipped all my bags, they looked at my clothes, toiletries and electronic stuff like my cell phone, headset, mp3 player etc. I was glad they didn't look at or find my laptop. There was a young kid also there watching it all and asked for my gloves, a mirror, my watch, anything I might want to give him. I just smiled and said no, and smiled at the younger officer. Not speaking Spanish I was not sure how he was taking that exchange with the kid, or when they were done checking everything they wanted. As suggested by others in these circumstances, be polite and cooperative, but not overly friendly. I did not like the younger cops attitude, but the older one thru gestures, told me I could leave.

A truck heads up the high mountain pass towards Nicaragua

I arrived at the Nicaraguan border as it was getting dark. Still in Honduras I had to fill up with gas using U.S. dollars, and was given change in dollars, which surprised me. Gas in all these Central American countries was running between 3 and 4 dollars a gallon, about double from what I was paying in Texas, and a third more then in Mexico. By the time I actually got thru all the paper work and into Nicaragua it was dark. While I didn't pay nearly what I had to get into Honduras (either this handler wasn't out to get me as bad, or I was getting smarter, or a little of both), I paid the guy $20 to pay a $3 fee and a $7 one, and that was it. One was for the stamp and maybe another one for copies, I don't remember, I just know he told me one thing was $3, and the other $7. He then asked for his money. I did the addition for him and said he still had $10 left over from what I gave him. He didn't argue and we were done. I am sure that that was just to leave Honduras. And then it was time to deal with the Nicaraguan side. I don't remember what exactly what was charged here (remember this is my 4th crossing of the day, leaving and entering wise) but I know its nothing like entering Guatemala or Honduras was. I am sure there was a handler charge for maybe $10, and a $20 charge for my permit to drive in Nicaragua, and that was it. So the whole process, leaving and entering two countries with two handlers was maybe $50, a far cry from the $300 or so I ended up losing at the other two borders. Still too much no doubt, but better.

So I was now one country away from Costa Rica, and it certainly looked like one way or the other I was going to make it. As I drove away from the border check point into a starry Nicaraguan night, narrowly missing a horse as I saw its behind on my left go by after it suddenly showed up in my headlights standing in the middle of the road, I thought here we go, more night driving. As usual the first town of any size and hotels are miles from the border and also as usual I found myself having to drive at night for awhile after getting thru a border. I seriously considered the possibility of driving all night just to get to the border of Costa Rica and be done with it, having been told its open 24 hours. But I must be getting older because common sense took over at some point, and I realized even if I was able to drive the 240 miles thru the Nicaragua at night, I would be in no shape to drive the next day after pulling an all nighter. It made no sense from any perspective that I looked at it from, but until I could find a town and a hotel, it was still going to be, a night out in Nicaragua.