Advertisement
Published: December 1st 2008
Edit Blog Post
Here's a long-in-the-making update to the final couple of weeks in our trip...(for those who don't know we are back in the states and returning to bellingham soon...after some more thanksgiving leftovers)...
We began our drive into Nicaragua by leaving the town of San Lorenzo (Honduras) after spending a couple of days in the company of our friend Luke and his friend Cindy. We all rode together for about an hour before we split off for different border crossings. The Honduras-Nicaragua border was pretty relaxed and it was one of the first times we didn't find ourselves beating down termidors trying to "assist us". After waiting about an hour or so for the border aduana to get off his lunch break, we got the motorcycle stamped in the country and were off..... unfortunately as soon as we left the border the heavy rains began. Trying to wait out the rain, we found ourselves at a gas station where we were greeted with a couple of drunk Nicaraguans..who proceeded to try and talk (in slurred drunken spanish)with us and serenade us with a guitar and beer breath.....welcome to Nicaragua!
We eventually made it through the rain and into a small
i love detours...
and posting pictures of really annoying roads to drive a heavily laden road bike on... town called Estelli. Estelli is a truely authentic Nicaraguan town that is filled with cowboys, cigars, and lots of leather shops.....and not many tourists😊 We stayed a couple days in Estelli and after much debate decided to splurge and get sized up for some good ol custom made cowboy boots. After picking out the color, style, and stiching for our boots we paid a small deposit and told the guy we'd be back in about a week to pick them up.
From Estelli we headed for Leon...however the "shortcut" we decided to take ended up being hardly a road and instead it was a series of potholes and broken pavement. This was also where we had our first encounter with kids pulling ropes across the road on us. We had heard stories of this sort of thing from our friend Dave, but had yet to experience it. Kids hold a rope across the road in hopes you will stop so they can demand money from you. Unfortunately for them, we had been briefed on this trick, so Nathan just aimed the motorcycle for the kid on the right-hand-side and he ended up jumping out of our way....This happened to
she just loves rolling in the mud
or having my bike go down on a muddy road... us twice along this road which ended up being about a three hour drive of constant back-breaking potholes.
Finally we made it to Leon. Another clonial town full of cute colorful buildings and tourists. We ended up staying a couple days in Leon where Nathan was able to learn how to play Nicaraguan pool and I finally made it to a beach with some sunshine. We also met a new friend, Kevin, in Leon who we ended up going dancing and drinking with. Although a little under the weather from too many tequila shots with Kevin the night before, Nathan and I were able to leave Leon the next day and made it on the final ferry over to Isla de Ometepe in Lago de Nicaragua.
We camped on the Island (one of the largest fresh-water islands in the world) for about 3 nights at a cheap Finca (farm) on the lake. We were able to find our friend Luke staying on the opposite end of the island and convinced him to drive with us to Merida, a small town located off a dirt road. When we arrived to Merida it seemed awefully lively for a sunday afternoon,
ride that shrimp lindsie...
the san lorenzo (honduras) camarone is about to crush luke but we just assumed it was how these people spent their sundays, so we ordered a beer and Nathan and Luke ordered a plate of the local dish...which they found out later was a nice juicy plate of horse. As we were sitting there (me enjoying beer and the guys enjoying horse) a couple of the locals came up trying to tell us something...but we had no idea what they were saying, so we just sort of ignored them. Finally a gringa walks up to us with another local and explains to us that they want Nathan and Luke to move their motorcycles. Confused, the guys moved their bikes and within 30 seconds a raging bull came charging down the street with ropes and cowboys on horses tugging at him from every direction. The bull knocked down a food stand and charged right where the bikes had been parked. After watching the cowboys struggle with the angry confused bull for a bit, we quickly realised that we had been sitting right next to the towns "rodeo grounds" and today was the final rodeo of the season. So, we promptly bought some tickets and packed ourselves onto the rickity stands with
the rest of the town. Lets just say that a Nicaraguan rodeo pretty much consists of a lot of drunk men tying their feet around a bull and shocking them with a tazer gun in order to get the bull aroused. There were literally guys passed out in the stands and cowboys drinking liters of beer while mounted on their horses. It turned out to be a random, entertaining day (minus the tazing part) in the town of Merida.
After leaving Isla de Ometepe we stayed in Granada for a couple days and made a quick day trip back to Estelli to pick up our custom cowboy boots....and let me tell you....they turned out pretty sweet!! We bumped into our friend Kevin again in Granada and enjoyed his company over dinner.
Our last stop in Nicaragua was San Juan del Sur, a cute surf town on the Pacific where met caught up with Luke again. We stayed here for about 4 nights and ended up celebrating Halloween with Luke and a Mackey (a girl Luke had met). Since it's hard to come by halloween costumes while travelling, the guys dressed up as chicks, Mackey dressed in 80's, and
I dressed up as a trucker (using Nathans daily wear). Lets just say it was and interesting night and it was really weird having guys hoot and holler at my 6'3" boyfriend.... a little creepy. The next day Nathan and I headed for Madera Beach a beautiful undeveloped surf beach just north of San Juan del Sur. We camped here for one night and enjoyed the various beaches just laying around, looking at sea creatures in the tidepools, and collecting shells. We headed for the Costa Rican border a day later after staying in San Juan del Sur for another night..... more on Costa Rica in a bit.....
-Lindsie
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 15; qc: 63; dbt: 0.0533s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Bill
non-member comment
Sweet!
Hey you two, I look forward to your posts. Those little fuckers with the ropes should be dragged by your bikes over the pot holes for a few miles! I am glad neither of you were hurt. Good job Nathan! Bill