Day 25 - Belly of the Beast; How are Our Bellies?

We are taking a vacation from our trip. The belly of the beast (Central America) is wearing us out with the constant 3 hour long border crossings, the day to day hazards of riding in Central America and the brain frying constant change of money at every new country from pesos to quetzals to lempira to cordobas to colon….all within 11 days. So we are holed up at a lovely little B&B on the beach in Costa Rica for 3 nights.

We have two goals while here; get to know the orange iguana that lives in the tree outside our verandah and rent a boogie board. Our B&B is located at the junction of a large river and the ocean. We’ve been told it’s safe to swim in the ocean but not the river because it has crocodiles. Where is the line of demarcation we wonder?!!

We’ve seen so much from our motos while riding through Central America! The roads in Central America seem to be the life veins of these countries. So much happens on the highways; Kids walking to and from school; livestock grazing along the road, crossing the road or just ambling straight down the road; friends standing in the road chatting; men walking along the road holding their machetes; vendors selling their wares in stands while their patrons take up half the road consuming or packing their purchases; homes accumulate alongside the roads, grain spread out on the road to dry; people walking; people sweeping; people throwing out buckets of water, kids playing, people riding bicycles; oxen pulling wooden carts piled high; and small motorcycles zooming all over carrying entire families, large old-fashioned satellite dishes, stacks of 10 plastic chairs, long ladders, big barrels of who knows what, large bundles of firewood, big bags of grain, long boards and even a mini- trampoline. Life is vibrant, hectic and in constant flux on and along the highway here in Central America. Keep in mind there are usually no shoulders or pull offs so everything happens on the road.

We have been covering ground so quickly that already our memories are fading. What was the name of that town where we stumbled onto the free, live indigenous dance exhibition? What was the name of that hotel where we had to drive the bikes down a thin, loose, multi-board ramp into the center courtyard in the middle of the hotel? Which country were we in where an elderly local man invited us to share his table to drink coffee with him while he chatted away with us in mumbled Spanish and we could only smile and nod our heads because we couldn’t understand a word? Where was the restaurant where we invited the small boy selling trinkets to have a meal with us and he taught us some words in his indigenous Mayan language called Mam and we taught him some new English words? We can’t remember.

However, because our trip is so focused around motorcycle riding, we can tell you country by country what the roads were like and what the drivers were like. Guatemala- worst ever road conditions combined with insanely crazy drivers. You think driving in Mexico is loco? Ever seen a vehicle passing a vehicle passing a vehicle?....all while swerving around not just huge potholes but entire sections of broken up and missing pavement. Their version of a triathlon. The even crazier part is that we did it ourselves!! Bruce loved it because it was like riding off-road! El Salvador –– some improvement over Guatemala but still dodging potholes combined with drivers who at best won’t give you an inch and at worst are out to get you. Honduras – Roads getting better but drivers getting meaner. Nicaragua had beautiful roads where we never had to give a thought about looking for potholes but did have to watch out for the cows. The drivers were suffocatingly (not sure that’s a word but I like it) conservative and slow but they get so excited about adventure motorcyclists. So far, Costa Rica is being held out for future judgement.

We had our first ‘intentional” off-road adventure ride on this trip. We took a ferry out to an island in Lake Nicaragua and stayed a couple of nights. We circumnavigated the two volcanoes on the island which included about 20 miles of somewhat challenging dirt road…..mud, large loose rock, water crossings and steep hills. Bruce loved it and MB survived it.

We had another first ….bike damage. Off course it happened in Guatemala on the crazy roads. MB was attempting to avoid a bad section in the highway and got too close to large rocks alongside the road and BAM…..she hit her sidecase on a rock. It sent her swerving madly across the road but she managed to keep upright and eventually steady the bike. Unfortunately, the aluminum case was damaged. It was bent up so bad that it wouldn’t re-attach to the bike and has a large 4” diameter hole in one corner. Bruce did some magical hammer “doctoring” and the case now seems to be attached securely again to the bike and we’ve duct taped the hole to keep out the worst of any water we might encounter. Keep our fingers crossed that it will last.

Mexicans and even more so, Central Americans, love loud music and karaoke. They must damage their hearing they play their music so loud. We stopped for breakfast mid-morning in El Salvador at a beautiful outdoor restaurant sitting up on a hill overlooking a lake and hillsides and a volcano. At 10 in the morning, female patrons at the restaurant were singing karaoke. They were screeching totally off-key and off course the volume was turned up probably as high as it would go. What a way to enjoy a lovely brunch with a beautiful view. Or how about the night our motel restaurant played thumping “ungst,ungst,ungst” music outside our bedroom window until 3am from speakers that looked 10 ft tall?! Another night, we stumbled into a karaoke room at a restaurant after dinner and ended up having a romping night dancing with the local Nicaraguans to mind numbingly loud music. The night ended up with multiple sweaty hugs and kisses all around. Latinos are so affectionate.

Food has been one amazing meal after another! Loving it. Countryside is lovely: Green, verdant, smoking volcanoes, tree covered mountains, small farms and ranches, beautiful ocean shores. People continue to be warm and friendly and admiring of our bikes and our adventure. We in turn try to be good representatives of the U.S. by being friendly, smiling, patient and respectful. Patience at the border crossings is the hardest! The paperwork and number of different offices and photocopy shops we have to visit is impossible to keep track of.

So far we’ve run into three other adventure bike groups also traveling to Argentina. Three of the people we’ve met will be on our boat from Panama. It’s fun sharing stories with them over beers and food. Adventure bikers can talk for hours about our bikes. Most of you would be so bored hanging around us! Bruce says it is kind of like the rock climbing scene where climbing route beta consumes the conversations.

We have riden 4380 miles and we have about 660 miles to go to get to our boat. We are looking forward to staying put for three nights here in our B&B in Costa Rica and then we will be refreshed and anxious to get back on the bikes. One more border crossing and we will be in Panama.

Bruce and MB

PS: For those of you who might be wondering about the title of this chapter, Bruce has had a minor belly issue for a couple of days. We guess he got into some unpurified water somehow. Don't be concerned though....he is recovering nicely.

Guatemalan Mountains

Local indigenous dance

One of countless windows at border crossings where we give them our paperwork that we've already shown at several previous windows, fill out more new forms and then wait. We've learned to ask when we first approach a new window, "Should I sit down?" because they will never voluntarily tell you. If they say yes, we groan because that usually means a 1/2 hr to 2 hr wait. Then we finally get the ALL important stamp or signature that we need before we can go onto the next window which is always in another building down the street or around the corner and usually requires us to get back on our motorcycles and drive again. But wait, first we have to run back to the copy shop down the other street to make more copies of the latest stamp or signature that we just got at the last window. It's exhausting!

Bruce watching them fire up the generator for the third time to run the copy machine at the copy shop so that they can make more copies for us.

Beautiful breakfast restaurant with the howling karaoke women