Tires in Nicaragua

Nov 26, 2013
We crossed into Nicaragua and spent the night in Ocotal about 20km from the border.

Border costs were approx:
$12 per person
$1 random fee per person.
$12 for insurance per person.

Trevor took care of this crossing while Kyle watched the bikes and chatted with the Nicaragua tourist promotion people.  Kyle ended up getting a free map out of the deal!  Borders go in the same general steps.
- Exit Stamp on passport (person)
- Exit documents for bike
- Entrance stamp on passport
- Entrance documents for bike
- Insurance or fumigation as required.

Importing the motos took longer than usual as the lady entered Trevor's license number on Kyle's documents.   Pretty straight forward despite the chaos.

Nov 27, 2013
We had shoved 5 plugs in Trevor's front tire and they came out again about 2km from Ocotal.  Fixing Trevor's tire was top priority on the morning of the 27th.   We had two ideas what to do... find a new front tire or find a tube and remove the tubliss system.  We found a shop easy enough and found a front tube.  Then we started asked about a tire out of curiosity.  Kyle headed off on foot with one of the employees.  5 motos shops later he found a 2.75" -21 front shinko 244.  A little bit narrower but basically the same tire we were running before.

Yes, there is a tire shop under that tree.

We mounted it and left the tubliss system in place. We always gather quite the crowd.  In this case the shop wanted to help mount the tire.  We had a tough time explaining that Tubliss system is "new technology" and you cannot use a tire machine on it.

We spent the night in the outskirts of Managua (the Capital).  We needed a break so we stopped early. Kyle got the bikes washed/detailed about a block away from the hotel for $2 each.

As always drawing a crowd.... Trevor's police friend.

Unrelated to the above photo... We were waved over by two different police officers trying to stop us today...  For speeding or crossing a solid line.  We are not sure as we didn't stop to find out we just wave back and hit the gas..   They did try a lot harder than the Guatemalan police but still not enough to give chase.  The police here are very uncoordinated.  20km down the road we would cross through a police checkpoint without arising any suspicion.  We might have gotten different treatment if we were locals.

Back roads of Honduras!

We woke up around 5:30 in order to make the 7:00 ferry and made it to the mainland around 9:00.

About 150 km we turned onto the gravel road which was the "shortcut skipping Tegucigalpa" (very near to olancho). Most of the road was pretty bad... We hesitate to even call it a road.  We had a lot of fun though.

Huge washout section, dont get too close to the edge!

A slippery clay section.

 

 

We had the intentions of making it to Catacamas  but we were forced to stop in the small dusty town of Juticalpa for a 4 hour repair job which involved re-lacing Kyles rear wheel with all new spokes. 5 of the 9 spokes that were fixed in Mexico broke again after the rough road.  Alex had brought new heavy duty spokes to Roatan thankfully!

Just cut the remaining spokes.

Just finishing up as dusk was settling.

The entire time we were at the repair shop there was a crowd of onlookers.  Shop owners to random people passing by.  No less than 20 people at any given time. Kyle followed one of the employees to a welding shop to get a small crack in the rim welded.  There was a lot of trust placed on the small moto shop.  However, in the end the rim seems straight and true.  Not bad for a $25 repair job.  In Canada it would have cost several hundred.

 

We found a hotel in the dark by the time we got the wheel back together.

The next morning oiling our chains.  Still havent been able to find proper chain lube.

The next morning we headed towards the Nicaragua border....  Not 20km down the road Trevor was passing a car and hit something sharp.  100 meters later he coasted to a stop with a flat front tire.

First flat of the trip.

2km down the road the plug came out.  Trevor burnt his hand on the muffler while repositioning the bike.

Thankfully some locals used a natural remedy on it, fresh Aloe Vera.

Back on the road again. 

We crossed into Nicaragua without a hitch.

2 Weeks in Paradise!

Nov 12 - 25, 2013
What a amazing two weeks.  We met many awesome people and saw some extraordinary sights.
Its not quite tourist season yet on the island which means two things, rain in the morning or the afternoon or both and meeting many expats.
First about the weather,  it is extremely humid, clothes dont dry outside and the temperature never seems to drop from 30 degrees.   Good thing the ocean is close.

Chilling on the sailboat.

We discovered a great way to cool off, swim to the communal sail boat anchored in the bay out front of our hotel.  Rumor has it the guy who runs the submarine bought it for $500.  He then sealed it off, modified the mast for a rope swing and added the platform.  There was great snorkeling a short swim off of shore.

Sundowners bar on the beach.  Owned by a Canadian thus has Canadian satellite and Hockey!

Evenings were often spent at Sundowners.  Great place to meet people.   Speaking of people we met Tabitha from Oklahoma there.  She came down on her holidays to run a vacation bible school.  We spent a couple mornings helping her out.  We enjoyed playing with the kids.

Goofy group shot

Dinner with Debi and Bob

Debi and Bob run http://www.made-in-roatan.com/.  We met Debi and Bob at the grocery store on our second day in Roatan and they invited us for supper.  Debi and Bob pastored various churches in Western Canada.  It was great to talk to them and to have a sit down dinner.  Reminded us of home!

One day while heading to the grocery store we decided to keep riding.  Roatan is a 17mile by 3 mile island with most of its population on the west end.  We found ourselves at the far east end where Martina runs the Lost Moose Bed and Breakfast.  You guessed it, she's Canadian.   We were welcomed in for a beer and educated on some off the lesser known sights of Roatan. We started making a list... good thing we have two weeks...  Thanks for the help Martina!

We met Dive Master Justin at sundowners and dove Mary's place (#8 in the world) and Mr Bud (a wreck dive) Great day and great diving!! And yes, he was also a Canadian.

Mary's Place, a earthquake in 2004 created 3 large cracks. Great to swim down.

Mr. Bud a 75ft ship which sunk a few years back.  We explored the cargo hold, engine room and navigation decks. 

We also dove a bunch on the northside of the island with Native Sons (our Hotel)

We explored a 200ft cargo ship sunk at 110ft about 10 years ago.  It was broken into three parts from past hurricanes.

 

While waiting for a safety stop we explored a cave.

 Photos dont do it justice.

We spent a day diving/snorkelling with reefhouse on the east end. Met a cool group of people that had been there for a while and even had the chance to spear a lion fish!!! Tons of fun. (Lion fish are an evasive species from Asia and are destroying the aquatic life and therefore fine to kill)

BJ's! Live music every Friday afternoon and a great time to meet Ex pats that had been living on the island for a while as this definitely was not where your average tourist ends up.

After a great afternoon at BJ's and then dinner at Marble hill farms with the crew we were invited to stay nearby at Paul and Charlene's guest house.  Paul and Charlene have been spending winter on Roatan for the last 10 years, they have a great set up.  They work in the fishing industry in Alaska. The next morning Paul took us out on his boat and we all went snorkeling off of the reef which was different than any of the other snorkeling we had done so far. There were some waves breaking and a bunch of current and cool caves/swimthroughs 15-45ft down. Definitely starting to get used to being under water.  We had some smoked Alaskan salmon for lunch!  Unfortunately, neither of us brought a camera with us (or anything else as we weren't planning on spending the night).  Great times!  One day we will make it up to Alaska!

One of our last days on Roatan was the Grey Cup.  We headed across the island by taxi with two friends from the hotel.  We met up with some the of the ex patriots (Saskatchewanians, Francis and Karen and their friends)  at a sports bar.  It was a strange weekend as the Honduran election was going on and there was a complete ban on liquor sales... Fortunately for us it didnt apply to the gringo sports bar.  We had a great evening. More pics to come...! Off to the mainland tomorrow!

Roatan here we come!!

Nov 10, 2013.  Coban Guatemala to El Progreso Honduras  496km....

We left Dan in the hotel room to fix his rear subframe bolts.  He was headed to El Salvador.  We were anxious to hit the road and to try to make it to Honduras.  We knew this was going to be a long day and wanted to get as far as we could.  Guatemala was still mountainous, wet and cool.  Rain clouds threatened all morning.

Trevor taking off his rain suit in style.

We motored along, eventually it became sunny flat, dry and warm.

Lots of truck traffic.  We made quick work of them.

We passed 3 or 4speed traps.  I hesitate to call them speed traps as they didn't have radar guns.   A couple times they would wave us over but we would just wave back and fly right by.  They didn't even move from the tree/ truck they were leaning on.  A couple other times we passed police cars/ trucks on the road.... double solid line.... no problem.  No one seems to care.

We crossed into Honduras as the most northern crossing near Puerto Barrios.  The crossing was excellent.  There were hardly any people around and no border helpers.  We have read many stories about how bad and corrupt the Honduras border can be... but we were through in about an hour!

Honduras first impressions:  They like guns.  It is not uncommon for gas stations to have 4 arms guards.  We stopped at a mini mall for some cash and the place was swarming with guards.  I guess it makes you feel safer... as long as you are ok with seeing guns.

We hit Honduras' largest city, San Pedro Sula right around dusk.  Streets were flooded in places so we rode on the shoulder, in the grass medians, and random fields/anywhere there wasn't a foot of water. Also earlier Kyle had passed a bunch of cars in the ditch on the right side and soaked a guy on a bicycle,  whoops!  We motored on to El Progreso, a much smaller town thus easier to navigate.  A word on navigation... our GPS quit in Montana and we have been unable to find a map for Guatemala and Honduras.  This sometimes makes things interesting.  We have resorted to writing city names on a scrap piece of paper and using that as our guide throughout the day. So far between our Spanish improving and just guessing what people are trying to say and point at we have been doing alright finding what we want/need to find.

In El Progeso we stopped at Burger King for supper, first fast food since the states.  It was pretty dead so we approched one of the girls on her break to ask if there were any nearby hotels.  Pretty soon there was a Burger King staff meeting going on in the dinning room.  Shortly thereafter we headed out with two of the girls.  We rode our bikes while they walked/ ran.  They didn't want to ride with us!   We found a fancy hotel (only option) for $26 a night.

Nov 12, 2013  El Progreso to La Ceiba Honduras. 170km
Kyle's 27th Birthday.  What better way to spend a birthday than on a tropical island. 
We woke up at 4am, packed our bikes and hit the road.  We wanted to catch the 9:30am Galaxy Wave ferry to Roatan.  The other option was to catch the 4:00pm ferry which would mean finding a hotel in the dark... again.  It was dark so we followed a pick up truck the entire way.

Sunrise around Tela, Honduras

Around 7:30am Trevor's rear tire goes flat.   No problem.  We noticed it was soft when it sat @ Lake Atitlan for a week. We topped it up at a gas station and kept driving.  We were only about 10km out of La Ceiba.  5 km down the road it goes flat again.  We notice a large hole in the side wall.  Trevor has been carrying a spare rear tire since Las Vegas.  The current tire had at least 11,000km.  Trevor started unmounting the tire as Kyle drove on to find some soap and water for mounting the new tire.   We worked quickly and by 8:30am we arrived at the ferry.   We pull up and the first guy we see says "Are you going to Roatan?  Yes  Do you want to take your bikes?  Yes  Follow me".   Turns out it will cost us each $75 per bike and just over $20 per person.  Good deal!

Trevor's bike on the deck of the Galaxy Wave

Cruise ship in Coxen Hole Roatan.

Unloading the bikes

Our parking spots next to the dive shop.

We stayed at Chillies/ Native Sons and dove with them as well.

We got a room with two beds for $20 a night.  We have access to a communal kitchen.  We booked it for 2 weeks!

View from the hotel.

We wandered around town, visited Alex from Edmonton.  Alex brought a few much needed parts down with him.  Thanks Alex.  Later on we had some food and drinks.  Much later we swam out to a communal sail boat in the dark.  Good times.

Crossed the 10,000km mark today!

Dan's account, Rivers, Rocks and Mud....

Dan's account,  Rivers, Rocks and Mud....
http://placesbeyond.com/rocks-mud-water-riding-semuc-champey/

Dan is a great storyteller.

Semuc Champey

Semuc Champey is a natural monument in the department of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, near the Q'eqchi' Maya town of Lanquín. It consists of a natural 300 m limestone bridge, under which passes the Cahabón River. Atop the bridge is a series of stepped, turquoise pools, a popular swimming attraction. Although it can be difficult to get to.....

Little cottage at Oasis where the three of us stayed for the night.
We had alot of fun with the cook trying to talk our broken spanish and her broken english.

Giants do exist....

This picture might not look like much but when we pulled in the night before in the dark we were stopped by a kid that was running towards us. He warned us that the hill was very slippery but we were all tired and we could see the cabins from the bottom and definitely didn't feel like walking all our stuff up there. Anyways after another bike ended up on its side we just parked them where they ended up. Solid 7-8 hour day on the bikes and definitely feeling it.

Tires after going up the hill. Tough when that clayish mud gums up your tread.

Felt really good chilling in these pools relaxing and getting a pedicure from all the little fish picking away at our feet.

Its rained for the last three days.... all the water rushing below!

The road in and out of Semuc champey was similar to a hard packed snow back road. It was small round river rocks with a nice film of wet slimy mud on top. Between the two days of riding and the three of us bikes went down around 8-10 times thankfully with no injuries! Good challenging riding though which was fun.

Made it to Coban Sunday night safely!