Border Crossing x 2

CN - Friday

We got a 7:30am start as we normally do when we have a crossing and headed to the El Salvador/Honduras border.  Today was going to be a bit different as we were planning to attempt two crossings in one day.  The goal was to be in Nicaragura by nightfall - a bit of a challenge but doable.

The morning was already heating up - daytime highs in the mid 90's with high humidity, and we arrived to the normal chaos of helpers, money changers, etc. swarming us as we got off the bikes.  We again decided to employ the services of a helper since it usually speeds things up and with two crossings we potentially needed to save some time.  Exiting El Salvador was fairly straightforward and went quickly with no issues.  Entering Honduras was a different matter.  The stamps required for Honduras are huge, take up almost an entire passport page and two are needed - one for entering and one for exiting.  My passport only has one page that is stamp free and it was going to be a big problem (so they said) because I didn't have another blank page for the exit stamp on the way out.  Country officials are not really very considerate when stamping passports and don't try to use pages that have been started or even keep the stamps tight.  I have some where the country official put a stamp crosswise right in the middle of a fresh page, when other space was available.  Oh well, what can you do.

I kept showing the official my passport and trying to show that the stamp could fit in several locations (albeit tight), but he kept pointing to the pages borders and stating that it must fit within these areas and not overlap any other stamps.  Possible solutions started with going to the US embassy in San Salvador to get a new passport - terrible idea as it is 250k in the opposite direction to maybe a "propina" could fix the issue.  A tip (bribe) seemed to be the reasonable solution so I was to give the official $40 US and he would call ahead to the other border we planned to cross that afternoon and they would skip the other stamp.

After that was settled we were on our way in Honduras and riding across new tarmac to the southern Nicaraguan border.  We are not at sea level so the temps are stupid hot and humid.  The breeze created by keeping moving made it bearable, but when traffic jams, construction stops, etc. slowed things down it got pretty hot and sweaty in a hurry.  The road also went from new tarmac to nasty potholed crap for the last 50 or 60k.  I slowed it way down quickly after a bus veered into my lane to dodge potholes and ran me through a giant crater and off onto the shoulder.  I came too close for my liking to crashing - barley saving it with a foot stab at the last second before going over.

We arrived at the Honduras/Nicaragua border right around lunch time - when all but one or two officials are on lunch break.  The line to get stamped out was 50 people long so we knew this wasn't going to be quick.  We once again procured the services of a helper and started the unpleasant but necessary process of getting it done.  Each step of the process the helper kept extracting money from us - road tax fees, insurance, bike import fees, immigration fees, etc. and of course his cut on top of it.  This turned out to be the most expensive border of the trip and has us rethinking using any helpers in the future.  It also turned out I was scammed out of the $40 at the last border as there was plenty of room for the exit stamp out of Honduras - corrupt bastards!  We plan to just attempt the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border on our own since we are no longer in a hurry and can slow things down a bit.  We still have until December 6 to get to Panama City.

The most stressful part of the process for me was at the end when entering Nicaragua.  There was a final inspection that included an x-ray machine that you had to run your bags through.  I am carrying a drone that is illegal in Nicaragua and they are notorious for finding and confiscating them in airports.  I hadn't read any reports of x-rays or searches - only agents asking travelers if they have drones with them at the land borders so thought I would be fine.  Ken quickly de-rigged his bike of the luggage while I was slowly doing the same contemplating my move.  I figured that if I run the side cases (where the drone was stored) through they would surely find it.  I also was watching them also randomly opening luggage of other travelers even after the going through the machine.  I decided to bank on the security agents outside not noticing I didn't take all the bags off my bike and only entered with my duffel and some small roll bags that strap to the side bags - then play dumb "no entiendo espanol" if they catch me.  The process took over 45 minutes as after the x-ray you had your immigration form stamped by the attendant and had to go to another window to have final processing done.  I was sweating bullets - literally.  It worked!  The outside security guards and inside security guards at the x-ray machine did not really coordinate what was coming and going so they never noticed I failed to bring the side cases in to be x-rayed.  I will chalk that up to being incredibly lucky and it took all the early sting away of getting fleeced at their every opportunity up to that point.  After getting through at the border exit I seized the opportunity - launched the drone and took a victory lap with it around the customs/immigration compound.  Wait, no, that didn't happen : )

We were exhausted after the double crossing and found a hotel in a town about 60 or 70k down the road, ate some chicken and retired for the night.  Saturday we will head to a town just outside Managua where we will stay with Ken's friend from Virginia.  He is there working at a mission that Ken visited a couple of years ago to help build some structures in a remote village near the Honduran border.

Secured parking once again.

Typical look of our hotel rooms with the mess of gear taking up all the available space,