It's the afternoon of July 14th and I am sitting in a nice room at the Camino Real Hotel in Managua Nicaragua. The last 4 or 5 days have been a bit of a trial and it is a pleasure to have some comfortable surroundings for a brief period. Its also good to be past the question mark of Honduras and now - we hope - definitely on our way to Panama and thence South America.

Friday 10th July

We made a late departure from the water park named Amapulapa near San Vincente, ES. This gave us time to have a last swim and make a last gift of flesh to the those fish.

On the road we headed for the local large town of San Miguel to visit a shopping center, named aptly enough MetroCentro . Norm was unable to resist his favorite Central American fast food joint so we had lunch at a place called Pollo Campero - a take off of KFC. After lunch we spent some time in the shopping mall collecting a few more essentials.

From Sam Miguel we headed towards the Pacific Coast and a well known beach resort town of El Cuco. It was a pleasant drive, and on arrival it did not take long to realize that this was not a resort town in any American sense of the phrase. A small grubby town is the supply center of this resort area. There are places to stay or park for the day spreading west along the beach for some miles. Behind these beach front properties is a very rough dirt road, that in places is being excavated to install piped water for the residents.

Our destination was a place called Las Tortugas Cabanas - which I am sure by now you can all translate. After some time we found it, and it was indeed a nice place fronting onto the beach. We did not need any of the cabanas so we parked and settled in. Norm organized with the ladies that ran the place to cook dinner. We shared a pre-dinner beer and then eventually dinner.

We had heard before dinner that the place had a new owner since Norm's last visit - a gringo named Thomas from new York. After dinner Thomas turned up and we chatted for a while. He is clearly wealthy as he seems to have purchased most of the beach front land for some miles around. And from what I can figure he is trying to change the area into his own private little kingdom. He was full of opinions about how things should be done around here. We also got to hear his approach to negotiating sexual favors from local women, the value of pot smoking in the creative process, his prowess as a surfer, the beauty of the local beaches, and probably more but I had stopped listening by then. My conclusion was that Thomas was trying to be the shining example of the ugly American - and you know what, he was succeeding.

Saturday 11th July

Something in Fridays activities or food did not agree with me as this morning I woke with the start of another Montazuema stomach.

It took Norm and I all of 5 seconds this morning to agree that we would not stay at Las Tortugas for the day - we had both reached the same conclusion about Thomas - his place was very nice, but we could not stand any more of him. So by 7:30 we were driving back down that dirt road seeking another place to stay. After a few failed attempts we found another of the beach front properties where we would park for the day and overnight. This was quite a contrast to Las Tortugas, in no way could you say it was nice. There were two rows of ramshackle cabanas, toilets and showers that would embarrass a Siberian monk, and to top it off on the beach front there was a rabbit warren of palm leave thatched shelters selling food and drink. However, none of this was going to worry me, all I wanted to do and what I did most of the day was sleep - in the hope that my latest malady would depart.

Soon after parking Norm took us for a driving tour of the area. First a little run along the beach.The sand is very fine and the water packs it into a very firm surface so that it will support even the weight of his Ford Excursion. After the beach we headed east along a very bad dirt road that paralleled the beach, and past by a number of dwellings of the poorer locals. We eventually - to our surprise - came upon a residential housing development - the infrastructure is apparently almost finished and in January work will start on the construction of homes on the 200+ building lots that have already been sold. For $35K you can get a house, land, and a share in your own private beach club. Any takers!! - I can give you the website

Back at our camping spot I spent the day sleeping and Nina spent it playing Sudoko on my Apple iTouch and checked out the internet.

Late in the day we talked with Norm about plans. Nina and I were keen to drive to near the Honduran border and check out the state of play. This was eventually agreed as the plan for tomorrow.

Sunday 12th July, 2009

Fortunately I was well enough to travel this morning. Nina and I have been a little anxious to finalize our plans for getting to South America. If we cannot get through Honduras we will have to go back to Guatemala to ship from there. So - todays investigations of the border could be pivotal.

On the way to the border town of El Amatillo, we detoured to La Union a sea port to see if there was a ferry from El Salvador to Nicaragua - no such luck - though in time there might be as work is just being completed on a huge new port facility. If this was next year, maybe we could simply sail past Honduras.

At the first of the Salvadorian border check points Norm talked to some truckies who had just arrived from Nicaragua and they advised that the road was clear, and during daylight safe, but dangerous after dark. So that set the plans for tomorrow - it was too late today to make it through the four border processes and drive the 100 miles inside Honduras.

For tonight we would drive back to San Miguel and spend the night in the parking lot at MetroCentro.

We took a break on the drive back at the town of Santa Rosa de Lima to get the vehicles washed at a small road side stall run by a young lady with some teenage boys as helpers. This helped killed an hour or so and provided a shady place to sit while all this happened.

Back in San Miguel we fueled up for tomorrow and then into MetroCentro. This is quite some establishment and worthy of some description. As a shopping center it is the equivalent of any small secondary US mall, say like the one in Tacoma WA. Burger King, KFC, as well as some local chain restaurants. Clothing stores and a single department store act as the anchor tenant. But the security is nothing like a US mall. The parking lot is two stories, one at ground level and one below ground. The lot is surrounded by a 6 ft steel picket fence. The two entrances are manned by guards armed with side arms, night sticks and either shot guns or light machine guns. When you enter you are handed a card and you cannot exit driving a vehicle unless you can hand back the card. Inside the lot, and inside the mall, are these roving guards armed like the ones at the gates. Those roving in the parking lot are riding push bikes.

As we would discover as the night wore on - once the stores closed, so did the gates of the parking lot. But all the guards remained (or at least a new shift of them) - all night. Norm estimated 100 guards to man it 24/7.

During the afternoon I noticed in the street in front of MetroCentro a group of local policemen also armed with light machine guns and shotguns.

To pass the time Nina and I treated ourselves to a movie - Ice Age III - in Spanish!! Ironically the theater was so cold that we where shivering by the end of the movie - because outside in the parking lot with our motor home the temperature was 45°C - 113°F. Fortunately the weather changed and the temperature dropped into the 80°F's before it was time to sleep.

Monday 13th July, 2009 - Honduras Day

A 6:00 am start for the border as Norm anticipates a lengthy process at each of the 4 crossings today.

At one level there is not much to say about the border crossings. We sit in our vehicle or idle away the time by strolling around while Norm deals with the officials and paper work, only occasionally asking us for some piece of information or some money. And today we did this four times, exit El Salvador, enter Honduras, exit Honduras, and enter Nicaragua. Each time the vehicles are the issue.

At another level the borders are really quite interesting and active. Firstly there are the trucks and busses that are passing through the border. They are all going through the same process we are. Then there are the border helpers always men, generally young, who offer their services to help you do the paper work. Initially they run beside you as you drive up to the border post, once you stop they are persistent in offering what they can do for you only giving up when a better prospect appears. The trucks generally seem to use their services. Next come the cambio men - the money changers. Walking around with a shoulder bag full of paper money and flashing wads of notes 4 inches thick. Then come the ladies and children selling bread, rolls, pastries, cold drinks, coffee - there are a steady stream of them. At the entrance to Honduras I saw a new player that I had not noticed before. The bus hawker - his target are the people that walk across the border with the intention of catching a bus once into Honduras - the bus hawkers role is to get those people into one of his buses.

As an aside I should comment on Central American buses. They all seem to be operated by a team of two. The driver and the hawker. The hawkers job as described above is to bring business while the bus is waiting at its starting point, but also to spot people along the route that might be encouraged to get on and to direct the driver to detour if necessary to get those same potential passengers, to collect the fares, to lift any heavy baggage onto the bus, and finally to push the people in so that everyone can fit and also so that the bus can get going quickly.

At all the crossings today we saw trucks carrying cargo, we saw buses loaded with people, we saw people walking and we saw a small number of caravans of trucks and other discarded vehicles from the US headed south.

We were away from the Honduran entry post by 10:00am, an hour better than Norm had predicted. The drive through Honduras - 100 miles approximately - was uneventful, traffic was light and we were on the other side of Honduras inside three hours. However, it may have been a different story without Norm. We passed through 5 police checkpoints in the 100 miles and each time they took an immediate interest in a big white US registered motor home. Had Norm not been there to shake their hands, tell jokes and get them to crack smiles I am sure we would have had the dubious pleasure to 5 complete strip searches of our Tiger.

Through Honduras the road was in good condition, population along the road was light, the population centers we did see seemed to have a low standard of living as judged by the type of dwelling. There seemed to be less rubbish scattered around - it may be wishful thinking but maybe Hondurans don't just throw discarded stuff on the ground.

The Honduras-Nicaragua border is in the mountains at an elevation of 3000ft - thus a much more pleasant place to do some waiting. The exit from Honduras was surprisingly swift taking less than an hour. Nicaraguan entry was maybe another hour and by 2:30pm we had all the paper work done and only needed to pass that last gate. However that last step was for tomorrow as the plan was to spend the night at the border and take advantage of the cool mountain air.

We passed away the afternoon watching the comings and goings, in stilted conversations with the locals. I spent some time painting the propane tank cover that I had been made for us in San Vincente.

Tuesday 14th July

We were through the border gate and on our way to Managua by 7:00am this morning.

Before departure Norm suggested that we might like to stay in a hotel for the next two nights and do a city tour tomorrow. Sounded like a good idea to me so that became the plan.

The 220KM to Managua was an easy drive, the road was in good condition, traffic was light, population light and the scenery interesting. Like Honduras Nicaragua is mountainous with lots of jagged peaks.

The hotel Norm selected - El Camino Real - is near Managua airport on the entry to the city. We found the place full of US military personnel when we arrived, some type of conference or something. It was strange to hear English being spoken all around us, the toilets clean and wifi available.