Leon, Nicaragua

After a hot night in the van, we headed out early. Today was going to be a full day. We were going to try to shoot across the rest of El Salvador, blaze through the corner of Honduras, and then move on to Nicaragua, all in one day.

As we got to the El Salvador/Honduras border, things seemed like they were going to go smoothly. The first person we interacted with spoke a bit of English, moved quickly, and had us processed in a few minutes. It all went downhill from there. Getting into Honduras was a complete cluster$#@! It was hard to tell who was official, and who was just a hawker, wearing a fake badge. We were immediately swarmed by folks, wanting to help us get through it.

There were enough people hanging out eyeing our van that I locked myself in while Noah went to navigate the arduous process of getting us and the van into the country. Within two minutes I was taking a bath in my own sweat, nervously watching as different people would lean up against the van, rattling off Spanish with ‘colorado’ thrown in here and there. I would occasionally see Noah pop in and out of different office doors, head out into a neighborhood (to make countless copies I found out later), and then come back to a different office, all the time following his ‘hired help.’ After about an hour the large group of folks hanging around the van got bored and wandered off elsewhere. I quickly climbed out of the van, dying for some relief from the heat. Suddenly something caught my eye. Another Westy!

While I was sitting in the van, another Westy pulling a trailer had pulled up behind us, and the Canadian couple was going through the exact same headache. I immediately noticed that they weren’t alone. They had kids and a dog in the van! Now that’s an adventure. We hung around for a while, keeping an eye on the kids, while the parents went through all the hoops. Eventually we felt like we were losing time, so we headed off. About 200 yards we ran into our first checkpoint. Of course the guy wanted ‘copies’ of everything we just got at the border. So back around we went, to get more copies, ignoring the pleas from the kids around the guard to do it for us. Frustrating!

So with copies in hand, we go through the checkpoint and think we are on our way. Not! Another ¼ mile down the road, another road block! This time, Policia. They start rattling off Spanish and saying ‘Triangle’ in broken English. We mistakenly hand them our international driver’s license and they all huddle up behind the van and consult one another. Then they start making gestures about a fire extinguisher. We proudly show them our extinguisher, but they insist that we need a triangle, and that they are going to write us a ticket and we’ll have to once again go back to the border to pay at the bank (probably right into their account!) Luckily we had read that we should expect this, so we refused, and Noah got out and started yelling at them, demanding that they give us our papers back. After about 5 tense minutes, they got sick of the game and gave us our papers back and we were on our way. Ten minutes later, we were in the exact same situation. This time one of the gentlemen kept making gestures like we would be arrested, cupping one hand over his wrist. Then they show us the rule book, which said nothing about a triangle. We take the same tactic, telling them that it’s not true, and being careful only to give copies of our documents this time. Again they make a ruckus, making it seem like we are in big trouble, only to change their attitude five minutes later when they get bored, and eventually just ask us if we have a cigarette instead. We of course don’t, so they smile and shake our hand, and send us on our way. Bizarre! Time to start looking for something we can use as a ‘triangle’ just to make the checkpoints go faster! Another mile or two down the road I spot the perfect solution–an old road cone sitting in the ditch! I back up, Noah pops out, grabs it and yells ‘Go-Go-Go’ as if we just pulled off a bank heist…

All in all we drove through Honduras in probably 3 hours and got stopped six times, with another four or five stops that we just rolled through because the police were busy hassling someone else. Of course once we had the road cone, the triangle scam was never pulled again. Damn! I really wanted them to say triangle so I could pull out this gigantic construction cone!

By mid afternoon, we thankfully said goodbye to Honduras and crossed into Nicaragua, and once again had to produce many more copies of our paperwork. We skirted Managua and headed east towards Leone. After trying to get into Leone twice and getting spit back out onto the road that goes around town, we finally pulled over when we passed what appeared to be an American. To our delight Nadji was from Arizona, and admitted that she wasn’t good with directions, but graciously offered to jump in with us and show us the way to the town Centro. Many twists and turns later, there we were, in front of the big cathedral in the square. We took Nadji back to her house and thanked her for helping us get our bearings. Next up, find a hotel! Noah had stayed in Leon the last time he was down here, so we started by searching out the little house he stayed in last time. We eventually found it, but to our dismay, the old lady that used to run it was no longer there, and now it was just a private residence. Time to move on… We drove around for a bit, until we found a little sign on the front of a nice looking residence that said ‘hostel’. As we entered the courtyard we were enthusiastic at the possibility of what we found. This little gem was clean, new, and relatively cheap! Score!

We got settled and soon thought to ourselves ‘we’re hungry!’ During all the craziness of getting across the borders and dealing with the police, we neglected to eat anything. We headed over to Via Via, a popular destination for travelers. As we were sitting there, a couple walks in, and Noah and I both look at each other as we both notice the Colorado State University T-shirt that the girl is wearing. A minute later they are stopped by an English couple, and from the conversation, it sounds like an unplanned reunion! We let them finish, and then butted in and asked where they were from. Sure enough, Colorado! They introduce themselves as Dave and Kacey and it turns out that they are also driving to Argentina! They turn and introduce us to Tim and Amy, who are from the U.K., whom they met earlier in the trip in El Salvador. Dave and Kacey had just arrived, and hadn’t found a place to stay yet, so we offered up the info about our hotel find. They leave us to go book the room, while Noah and I discuss just how nice it will be to have more than just each other to talk to!

Today started out early. About 4:45 a.m. early. We were startled out of bed by what seemed like all the church bells in the city being hammered non-stop for about three minutes. This is then followed by a barrage of fireworks that lasted for about an hour, making the city sound like it was under attack. Add to that all of the roosters in the area crowing and a McCaw next door squawking and we soon realized that we were done sleeping.

After all the craziness of the borders the day before, we decided to just relax, see the city a bit, and get some work done. In the afternoon we bumped into Dave and Kacey and had a few drinks with them, sharing stories about our Hounduras crossing experience, and our overall travel plans. They were planning on meeting up with Tim and Amy, and invited us to tag along. We spent the evening getting to know everyone over drinks, and ended up having a great time! Tomorrow we head over to Grenada!