Trouble down Mexico way

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Trouble down Mexico Way
We arrived at the Mexican/Guatamala border just after 9.00am. Got all our exit papers for us and our bikes done, BUT not before the entire border crossing was invaded by thousands of people protesting about education in Mexico, they swarmed onto the bridge effectively closing the border. BUGGER. No amount of negotiations by us was going to get us through so we just had to sit it out in the stinking sweaty heat. Finally around 3.30 pm we were able to make our way across to Guatemala with the 'help' of our fixers that literally screwed us!!!
The customs official would not accept our NZ registration papers as real, so we HAD to pay a fine for that!!! We had to Pay US$150 per bike to ride across Guatemala for one day!! Well I hope it will only be one day. We never made it to our pre booked hotel but found one on the way in a small town called Coarepeque. So a BIG day tomorrow to try and catch up our lost day.
It was an early start as we had 460km to Copan
On the road before 7.00am we sorta bypassed Guatemala City, which reminded me so much of La Paz and as I was the leader I was wide awake, as I sure didn't want to make a mistake here and send us into the mire and jumble of that city.
On the way to the border with Honduras we came upon a huge oil slick on a curve that literally threw String down the road,lucky nothing was coming towards him as he departed from his bike that ended up in the bushes beside the road. His good riding gear doing what it's designed to do and he only suffered some bruises. We finally arrived in the dark at 7.30pm to our hotel.
The following day we went to visit the ancient Mayan ruins. This a was treat for me as I have had such a great interest this ancient culture for many years,so I did enjoy the opportunity to walk amongst the old ruins. This site is set in the jungle and is a full time job keeping it clear.
String stayed at the hotel and rested up and sorted things after his fall yesterday.
We returned to the hotel and loaded our bikes up and headed to our next overnight stop and last night in Honduras at Comayagua.
Comayagua to Estell in Nicaragua. 370km
We left before 7.00am but I took them a 50km round exit the wrong way outa town,dah!!! I sorta thought the road was a bit too familiar.......
We finally reached the border just as sky's opened up and dumped torrential rain on us.
It took two hours to make the border crossing and we arrived in pissing rain and darkness. Rain stopped for our unloading at the hotel, then we parked the bikes undercover,just down the road.
Pizzas for dinner and I to bed with all our wet gear trying to dry.
We had a relaxing day today as we only had 170 km to ride, so we left soon after nine am and arrived at our hotel here in Granada for our last night in Nicaragua.


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Photos

Our bloody robbing fixers.
Tres Bandits

Strings corner.
Note oil slick far left in photo.

Comments

[Rob Mueller]

Carnet de Passage
Rosco, the HOG HK club ran into a similar problem when we shipped our bikes to Jakarta to ride from there to Bali. We had to pay Indonesian Customs Officials a "special payment" to let them into the country. After that debacle I insisted that any time we shipped our bikes to anywhere that the participants obtain a Carnet de Passage for the country we were going to. No problems after that. Regards, Rob

[D MJ Binkley]

Politics
Travelers are always an easy target. Hope the ride was worth it. Be safe.