Entry by Bruce:

11 days out now and so far it has been fantastic! A few trials aside, we have had great riding, good accommodations and pretty decent food most every day. First day was a standard USA road trip from SG to Phoenix to stay with Cory, Jen and Riss for a night before headed into Mexico at Nogales. Border crossing wasn’t too bad. It took about 1 ½ hours, a bunch of back and forth with paperwork and such but we made it to Hermosillo before dark and stayed with Luis at his apartment. This worked out really well. He should us the nightlife of the town which we never would have found on our own. He was a great host. He spoke very good English and was an interesting person. We spent most of the night parting with him and his friends then had a late dinner, common for Mexicans, at a local carne asada spot – very tasty!

Up fairly early next morning and rode mostly on good highway roads to Los Mochis. Got there as the sun was setting and after a bit of interactional stress we found a nice hotel in town with secure parking for the babies. People told us Los Mochis was a rough town but it seems fairly safe to us. Seems to me that much of Mexico gets a bad rap in the US when, in reality, most everyone we meet is gracious, friendly and helpful. That is probably because most “Americans” only visit resort towns and don’t venture into real Mexico.

From Los Mochis we moved on to Manzanillo ( nice town) for a night then on to Mazatlán and stayed with Lee in his fabulous town home in a private secluded residential area right off the beach. Couch Surfing can have its surprises. A quick swim in the Pacific and on to a local taco stand Lee frequents for dinner. The next Day we rode on an amazing road to Durango. Lunch in town the back to Mat. Unbelievable riding and scenery all day long. Long day, just made it back to Lee’s place right a dark. We tried a new place for dinner because the place Lee wanted to go was closed. A bit expensive but it was ok. The taco stand was better. In Mexico, cheaper is often better.

Next day, on to Bucarios just outside Puerto Vallarta which was a good day. The roads are getting more interesting every day, lots of curves and excitement. Always challenging passing trucks, busses and slower moving cars while trying not to hit livestock crossing the roads and continually keeping an eye out for every present Topes which may present themselves almost anywhere, especially when coming into little villages that come up frequently.

On to Zihuantanejo. Great riding to get to the best town we have yet been in Mexico! Great hotel just off the beach that let us park our bike in the hallway right outside of our room. It was a little interesting getting the bikes inside and out of the hotel, jumping curbs and getting through gates and corners but it worked. After dinner we found a music bar “Casa de Rock” which had great bands playing American and Mexican rock & roll. Real cool place! We partied pretty hard with the locals and the Bands. Rough morning to start out the trip to Acapulco.

Next day on to Acapulco. Crazy city! Traffic is intense and the cabbies and Buses seem to want to take out Moto’s like racking up points playing a video game. Nothing but horns and shouts all through the city puts the stress level up. We made it to Carlo’s gated community for the night. A dip in the pool and another stressful ride after dark to dinner and to bed for to recuperate from parting in Zihuatanejo.

From Acapulco we rode great curvy roads which made for fun riding on into Puerto Escondido. The roads are starting to get a bit more testy with more pot holes and heavy sandy areas. While going through all the small towns is always game of getting around cars, buses carts and just about everything you can think that could be in the way. Yet, I must say the riding is fun and keeps you on your feet.

Puerto Escondido is a vibrant tourist town with lots of bars and restaurants. We took a nice hotel just off the beach for two days. A much needed rest day to play in the surf, do laundry and generally hang out and chill. Riding every day for 7-8 hours takes a bit of a toll after ten days straight. Guess we will get pretty tough asses before the trip is over. All part of the adventure

We have traveled over 4000 miles and are now in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. A nice little beach town on the Pacific coast that caters to Gringo’s. For the most part the vibe is laid back and friendly. I did get some shit from a Rastafarian dude that seemed to be pissed off that tourists are taking over his place in the world. He has that right but since I didn’t do anything to him, I didn’t think his verbal assault on me was quite unjustified. Anyway, it was the first time in 25 days of travel through Latin America I have seen anyone be rude to me or MB, outside of the “Handlers “at each border crossing. While they (the “Handlers”) are very aggressive, they just want to make a buck and you can get rid of them with a persistent NO after 5-10 minutes. Once they know they are going to use them they move on to a more likely target.

The rest of Mexico was really enjoyable! Oaxaca and Chiapas states were truly amazing and San Cristobal was a fun town with lots to do and great places to see and eat. The only dump (dropping the bike) I have had so far happened in a dirt parking area of a restaurant on the way to San Cristobal. We stopped for lunch and while turning in to park I was trying to squeeze in at an angle downhill and dumped my bike on the right side. It took both me and MB to get it back up while people in the restaurant watched quite amused. Embarrassing I must say! We had a nice hotel in town for two nights and took a day to do a boat tour of Sumiadeo Canyon. A beautiful steep walled canyon with monkeys, crocodiles and lots of bird life. While the scenery was fantastic, it was at times marred by very large section of flotsam, lots of plastic bottles and other trash floating in concentrated sections of the river. While in San Cristobal we met another biker, Robert, on a BMW GS 800 (2009 model) he had been traveling with his bike for the past 14 years, seven years in Eastern Europe through various countries in the Arabic areas, the Himalayan areas and South East Asia. And recently seven years in South and Central America. We shared stories and beta of the areas we have traveled north of there and he shared with us what to expect and suggestions on where to go on the way south. He also told us he was a follower of Ayahuasca. Apparently, some hallucinogen induced spiritual thing that seems sort cool but slightly cult like in some ways. He was an extremely friendly and well-read individual that seemed to have a lot going for him, so maybe there was something to the sixties.

From San Cristobal we crossed into Guatemala. This was our first Central American border crossing. It was a bit of a shit show and gave us a taste of what we should expect for every border crossing in Central America. Believe me, border crossings are mostly nightmare scenarios designed to sap the energy out of even the most patient and unhurried traveler! That said, Guatemala is an incredibly scenic country with highly dissected, verdant green mountains shrouded in a mix of sun and clouds. The roads are the worst imaginable, mostly in total disrepair and very curvy. It also has the craziest drivers we’ve encountered! While Mexican drivers are very fast and aggressive there is a certain curtesy and logic about their driving habits. Not so in Guatemala. Buses, trucks, cars and moto’s will pass on blind curves anywhere. It is kind of an auto Russian roulette. On a Moto, you are always the one the gun is pointed at and that’s the risk you take. If you aren’t as aggressive as they are it might be a worse outcome because they will try to pass somewhere where you have no options other than take the bullet.

First day in country on some piece of shit mountain road that was like an ATV track, MB hit her Side case on a rock off the side of the road and blew a hole in her pannier. We had to tie it down with a tie down strap until we could use some old primitive Pete fix to get it back on track. After we got it to fit back on, which was an undertaking I didn’t think we could pull off, MB duct taped the hole in the corner to help keep rain out. So, we will see what happens. So far so good.

The country is pretty poor with lots of child labor and old people doing very physically demanding jobs. You see grade school aged kids and old men and women hauling large bundles of wood on their backs with tumplines all along the road. Hard living! It seems like in the rural areas everyone burns wood to heat and cook. Certainly a step back in time. We did spent a night in a wonderful city called Antigua. A great spot. An old colonial city with interesting buildings and culture. Great food and a typical Latin vibe with a center square as the heartbeat of the city. Looking back from Costa Rica with only Panama left in Central America, Guatemala has been my favorite Central America country so far.

Another border crossing (Argh!) and we are in El Salvador. We didn’t take too much time in this country. We kind of blasted through it rather quickly so I don’t have a lot to say about it except the roads, while better than Guatemala, were riddled with potholes and the transitions from sun to shade, which were frequent because of the heavy tree canopy, made seeing them impossible when entering the shady areas. This caused us to hit a number of them along the way – not fun. We had our sights on a town to spend the night which was within striking distance for us to get to before sunset. When we got to the town and saw what the place was like there was no way we were going to stay there! As far as we could see there was only one shabby, completely rundown hotel in town which looked like a complete hell hole. While the proprietor of the place stood out front beckoning us in, we rode past right out of town and hoped for the best. A ways down the road we spied a place called the K5 Hostel. All alone by itself in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. We motored in. It was a blessing we thought since night was falling upon us and there was no idea how far we would need to ride to find something else for the night. They let us park in the kind of lobby area where they had some couches and chairs. Getting in and out was testy, this is becoming common, with curbs turns and a doorway the handlebars of the bikes would not fit through without turning them at an angle. I think I am getting pretty good at these maneuvers! We settled into our room and with no other choice had dinner at the Hostels restaurant. The music was so loud in the dinning are that we sat outside at an open area with a bar. The food was less than desirable and the mosquitos feasted better on us than we did on the restaurant fare. Tired, we retired to bed. Expecting a much needed night of sleep, we were sorely disappointed. While there were only a few guests and not much of a local scene at the bar, the German techno, new wave rock blared until 3 am right outside our window. Why this was with no one around was a mystery. But we came to find out El Salvadorians love very, very loud music! They rest of the country was similar in that the riding was a bit of a challenge and loud music thumped in every corner.

After another night in El Salvador we moved on to Honduras. We decided to use a handler once to see if they really worth the money. This guy said for 5 bucks he could get us through the border in an hour. I told him if he could I would give him 10, if he could not make the hour timeframe he would get nothing. He agreed. We had high expectations from his assured response. It took 2 ½ hours and I think he actually aggravated the border officials and made the time at least as long as if we did it ourselves. In the end just to get him off our backs we paid him the 10 bucks and another 5 dollars for some bullshit he was raving about concerning fumigation of our moto’s. Last and only time I will use a handler at any border crossing! As I mentioned before, border crossing are a bitch and Central America has so many so close together since the countries are small that sometimes it seems that it is all we are doing. Since the part of Honduras we are traversing is only about 100 miles we had two consecutive days of border crossings in a row. While we didn’t see much of Honduras and only spent one night there I don’t have much to say about it. The part we traveled appeared to be much like El Salvador.

Nicaragua was completely unexpected in many ways. First, we were lead to believe it would be our easiest border crossing of all the Central American crossings. That turned out to be not the case. We were detained by the national police for almost 2 hours, questioned extensively about our work history, financial wellbeing, where we have lived in the past and family history. We also had to fill out additional forms beyond standard border crossing forms and email them to some headquarters for their approval to let us pass. All the while an English speaking official of the police sat with us and asked general informal questions in a very polite and friendly way. Eventually, we received a response to our email from the powers that be and were allowed to pass into Nicaragua. Very strange it seemed that they would be concerned about two old farts on moto’s. I don’t think we could much damage to their country.

Once in Nicaragua we were again surprised at how different it is from other Central American nations. The roads were well paved and clean, no trash along the roads at all. While there were no potholes to speak of there were also no shoulders, as customary in Latin countries. However, the issue here was livestock roaming freely everywhere! Cows, horses, pigs, chickens, goats and dogs pop up and freely cross the road at any time. This makes for sudden, unexpected stops and swerves multiple times during the day. The other thing that is so different is that Nicaraguans are the most conservative drivers anywhere I have been. It makes driving in retirement communities in Florida seem like the Indy 500. Frankly, it is hard to deal with after living in “go speed racer” world in which you have become accustomed to while most everything else seems the same, just at a different speed. It is just kind of freaky! I don’t want to dwell on this too much but it is completely strange to me. Anyway, Nicaragua is different in many ways from its neighbor’s. While the people are friendly when you make contact with them, they rarely initiate contact and ten to avoid interaction unless you initiate an exchange. Once you have, you have made a friend. We found this to be common. We even had a late night Karaoke binge with some locals in Granada one evening. Beers flowing freely with folks singing very loud and badly along with music that would make a teenager deaf we partied on – MB loved it! We decided to take a ferry to the island of Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. We spent two nights here in a nice hotel right below the active Volcano named Constitution. We rode around it and a dormant volcano also on the island on dirt roads that were mostly ATV tracks. A bit spicy in a number of places with stream crossing and real boney hills that required our full attention! Quite fun! MB made it with flying colors but was quite apprehensive at times. Nicaragua was my second favorite Central American country for sure.

We then moved on to Costa Rica. While it wasn’t as hard to get out of Nicaragua, it wasn’t easy either. The other thing about border crossings are they are costly both in time and dollars. There are always fees, tourist visa fees, Motorcycle import fees, insurance fees, Aduana fees, copy fees, fumigation fees, and some countries even charge exit fees to get out. All requiring different people at different windows or buildings to stamp this or sign that or approve the stamp or signature you just got at a different place. All accept either their local currency or US dollars. However, if you pay in dollars, change will always be given back in local currency. This usually means you go into the next country with local currency from the last country which is worthless to you now. This became a new form of “money management” in which you try to get out of each country with the least amount of their money going into the next. I think Tony Soprano could make a good living here in Central America. Costa Rica is pretty used to gringos. They are all over the place and the price of goods and services reflect that well. Everything costs what you would pay for it in the US. Don’t get me wrong because the beaches are beautiful and the countryside is extremely pretty but it is very much “gringoland”. After Tamarindo (called Tamagringo by the locals) we spent the night in a through back, 60’s kind of hostel in the jungle that caters to the surfing crowd. It was a cool place that played 60’s and 70’s rock and roll for twenty something aged surfers. It had thatch type cabañas with mosquito netting around the beds with communal showers and toilets with a bar and common area. MB was in seventh heaven. She is an old hippie wanna be for sure.

Next day on to Panama. First we had to exit Costa Rica. While this process wasn’t any more difficult than other countries, what I found interesting was that the exit fee had to be paid in US dollars. They wouldn’t even take their own currency (Colons) to let you out! Panama, we had been told was just like the US. This is not true. The roads are good with a lot of two lane roads in good repair. The rest of it is Panama. The people are not as friendly as we have become accustom to over the last month, as a matter of opinion, people in the US are way more friendly than Panamanians! It is also fairly expensive here, especially in the tourist areas of Panama City. The worst of it all was the rain. We got hammered for two days, everything got soaked. We rode up to a mountain town named Bougete from David (pronounced Daveed) and the rain was so hard we couldn’t see and had to stop in a gas station to wait out the worst. I asked the attendant if we could wait it out for a while and pointed to a spot out of his way and never talked to us again. After 40 minutes we decided to take off even as the rain continued. I gave the guy a couple bucks and said thank you, he grunted and walked away. We rode through the rain to Bougete to find the town was completely out of power from a lighting strike and had to ride all the way back to David, in the rain, to get a hotel room. Next day we decided to bypass an intermediate stop in a beach town and go all the way to Panama City. Within 30 minutes form the town we bypassed it started to rain hard all the way to Panama City. Totally soaked again we rode through awful city traffic only to find the road to the bridge we needed to cross was closed to southbound traffic and we had to go ten miles out of the way to go over another bridge. This may not sound far but it took us over an hour in nightmare traffic that would make people in LA pissed off! I also would note that LA drivers are way more courteous and less aggressive. After eleven hours of riding in rain and traffic and we are spent. Arriving at the hotel we find we don’t have a room for the night, our reservation starts the next day. Another hour of finding and settling in a new hotel and we are done. So far Panama is my least favorite Central American country. We still have a couple of days left here so I wait to confirm that opinion.

After two more days in Panama, my opinion hasn’t changed. There are interesting this to do here. We visited the old town, Casco Viejo, and the Miraflores locks of the canal and it was fun and interesting but it remains low on the list for me mostly because of the coolness of most of the people and the heavy tourist presence in the city. I must admit, rain may have tainted my judgement in that regard.

Tomorrow, on to Carti to set sail for Cartagena, Columbia!
Bruce