The border
crossing wasn’t the shortest but there were no problems. Exiting a country as usual is faster and with my two Spanish speaking friends it was made a bit simpler. We
arrived at the border town of Los Pollos via Choluteca around 9.30am and were through by just after 10am. Our main
hold up in Nicaragua was other people being there at the same time and not enough staff to
do all the paperwork. The immigration took a long while and
I think it complicated things having three nationalities on the bikes and the
other two bikes being US registered. They did our passports together and it
took some time and discussion.
Eventually we
were through just before midday and after a slight mishap with Walter’s bike
being knocked over by a car, things went smoothly and we were on our way.
We
put in a full afternoon of riding to get to Leon, stopping occasionally to get directions.
I would have preferred to
hang around in the north-west part of the country for longer and ride slower,
but I only had this day to spend with the other guys and they were on a mission
to return to Venezuela. It is the way riding with other people.
To most I am
probably painfully slow and I like to stop to take photos and have snacks and
drinks to engage with local people. On the other hand it is fun riding with
another couple of bikes with the later conversations and comparison of kit on
the bikes makes it all a lot more interesting.
Being around other motorcycle travellers
is great because we can talk more technically about the bikes rather than the
same barrage of questions from non-riders about the size, the speed etc.
We passed through Leon and continued to the
beach at Las Penitas where we all stayed in the Bigfoot Hostel on the beach.
With private rooms at $10 a night I passed on the $3.50 dorms and enjoyed a
nice comfortable queen-sized bed. It was a younger hostel but we connected with
a bunch of people there and had a good night and morning. I got lots of
practice with my Spanish, the guys got some exposure to more budget travelling,
rather than $25-30 a night hotels and I think they really liked it.
Mario generously
invited me to stay with his family in Colombia over Christmas and New Years. I
was planning to stay in Colombia for that period before tackling Venezuela in
the new year. He was really excited to have me as a guest and I was really
humbled again to have such an invitation. Another ‘chance’ meeting, another
generous gesture and another opportunity to spend a special festive time with a
local family.
Walter was
concerned that I planned to cross Venezuela by myself especially with the
current political and economic situation. He said solo it was dangerous but if I was with locals I would be fine.
He and Mario agreed to escort me across Venezuela in January. They are always
keen to travel and are happy to take a couple of weeks to ride with me to
Brazil on the southern border of Venezuela, the only option I have of entering
Guyana. I was amazed, humbled, excited. As much as I travel by intuition and
expect things just to work out, I still get floored when such big things happen
from what was a chance meeting. If I had found the road detouring around Tegucigalpa
in Honduras, I never would have met them. You can’t plan for that.
It was sad to say
farewell the next morning. Despite our language challenges we had bonded as motorcycle
travellers and we ensured we had all the contact details.
They headed off and I
settled back for a couple of days of relaxation by the beach in a new country.
There were not so many people staying at the hostel but it was a daytrip
destination for a lot of people from Leon, so the numbers ebbed and flowed.
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