Terranova Expedition: Nicaragua

As a result of our corrupt border experiences, none of us was in a very good mood riding in the dark through Honduras.

We stopped at the first hotel that came into sight, got up early at 7:00 am the next day and rode through to the far border with Nicaragua.

We didn't have any further issues in Honduras, the people seemed as friendly as the rest of Central America, but we were through to Nicaragua in a short period of time.

The Nicaraguan border was similar, but easier. Lots of fixers trying to get our money. This time, we paid one guy $10 US. Not so much for his help, but more to get everyone else to leave us alone. The total border (leaving Honduras, entering Nicaragua) took about 1.5 hours. The scam they tried to pull this time was that the border guys were going to lunch, and if we didn't PAY MORE MONEY NOW.. they would be on lunch for 1.5 hours and we would have to wait.

This didn't seem to happen, as our paperwork made it's way slowly back and forth between customs and immigration and back, with a couple photocopies thrown in for good measure, but it all worked out in the end and we got our document.

The last attempt at a bribe was when we had to take our completed documents over to the police yard, and they needed to "confirm" them. Cory bought the cops some Cokes, and we sat down at the TV and started watching the Discovery Channel (in Spanish). Our fixer was frantically telling us we needed to pay him $10 each, or we would be here for hours, but the cops came back with our paperwork in about 10 minutes and we were through.

We rode hard for the rest of the day and made it 95% of the way to our destination of Granada, when it got dark and started to rain.. hard. We were soaked and throughly ready to be done for the day when we finally booked into a nice hotel, tossed our soaked gear on the deck and went out for dinner and some fun to celebrate New Years Eve.