Bordering On Boredom

Days 82-84

We've been border hopping for the last few days, although that makes it sound like a quick and fun process which it certainly is not! We had managed up to Guatemala without needing a 'fixer' – basically someone to help you through the process when it's far too complicated to understand yourself. At the border to El Salvador we tried again to go it alone but someone forced his help upon us and actually turned out to be reasonably useful, but we then had an awkward moment at the end where we had no idea how much of a tip to give him. We decided at that point that we should agree a price with a fixer before starting on the (known to be difficult) Honduras border.

We'd been warned that El Salvador was really crowded, with a lot of poverty (it's about the same size as Belize but with 20 times the population!). We didn't really notice this, maybe because we didn't stop in any big cities (except while getting lost in the capital, San Salvador), and the scenery was similarly beautiful to Guatemala. However our one night in El Salvador wasn't one to remember, but this was more misfortune than anything. We were later than expected and it was getting dark and raining, so we stopped at a motel on the outskirts of the town we were aiming for. It wasn't until we'd paid and got into the room that we saw the red-lit mirror above the bed and realised what sort of motel this was... thankfully the décor was the only indication we had though!

We started bright and early the next day, as we needed to get through Honduras (a bid dodgy right now) and into Nicaragua before dark (around 6pm these days). We knew the border into Honduras would be difficult and lengthy, having heard stories of four hours or more waiting for documents to be processed. Indeed, this border was exceedingly hectic and impossible to navigate alone – spread out over many miles and with no official people at all to tell you where you needed to go. The fixer got us to the front of a few queues which was essential for our schedule, but then we started to need money, and more money – whilst the few previous borders had been practically free, everything here cost money! We started to get suspicious as the costs mounted up but there was nothing to do but to follow our fixer round paying whoever he told us to pay. One of the last costs (apart from a few straight-out bribes) was for 'fumigation and sending details electronically'. There was no fumigation station anywhere to be seen yet this was apparently another essential payment to make. The fixer is 'in' with so many people – officials and non – and the processes so confusing that we had no choice but to do as he said if we ever wanted to get out of there. Finally on the other side, within 50 metres, we were stopped by police who started asking about fumigation – they wanted to fine us $10 each. However Ric replied “We have had our bikes fumigated, here is the receipt” (yes, we made sure we had receipts!). They looked a bit surprised (remember there is no fumigation station) but had to concede. It was a small win for us – at least we didn't have to pay for fictitious fumigation twice – but it did very little to lighten our mood or change our opinion of Honduras. The next few police checks happened in quick succession. A few looked like they might want money but we “no comprendo” 'd sweetly enough to get away with it. We made one stop in Honduras, at a bank to get some more cash out since we'd been relieved of so much of it at the border, and then got out of there as fast as possible!

The next border, into Nicaragua, was comparative serenity. It took quite a long time, especially as they called a meeting and all stopped working just as Ric got to the customs window, but there were helpful and patient officials who made sure that we did everything in an orderly, bribe-free and con-free manner. Instantly we liked Nicaragua.

We didn't make it as far into the country as we'd originally hoped, so have had to spend an extra day here. That's no real burden, though – we've been driving on really good topes-free roads through beautiful countryside, the people are all polite and courteous (one exception noted below). We're currently at a lovely lakeside colonial town called Granada and will be heading to Costa Rica in the morning – more border fun!

Run-Ins With The Police (Part 1)

Now that we're around half way through our projected mileage, we thought we'd give a quick summary of our interactions with the local law enforcement along the way...

North America was pretty incident-free, thankfully. Our one substantial chat with a police officer was in Canada, when we were stopped in a lay-by studying the map. A patrol car pulled up and the cop who got out was eager to tell us all about the places along our route that we had to go to (and should have been to!), even saying about one road that “if you don't go there I'll have to put you in the back of the car and take you there myself”.

In Mexico we got pulled over by the police a couple of times (though not as often as by the army checkpoints). The police there had a few standard questions: “how fast does it go?”, “how much does it cost?” and “what is this?” (pointing to the GPS). Yes, they were just bored and curious. Jorge in Merida who rides a huge Victory cruiser has apparently been asked a few times “does it fly?”!

In Nicaragua we've suffered (remarkably for the first time) the major occupational hazard of long-distance motorcycling – getting stopped for speeding. The speed limits in Nicaragua are ridiculously slow, especially considering what lovely roads they have. Fairly predictably the fine started off as a very large official one ($65 each, to be paid at the bank), but with a bit of pleading in Spanglish and generally being awkward, Ric managed to negotiate a “pay now” fine (i.e. a bribe) instead, and got it down from $40 to $20 – result!