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!