Where our story picks up again is in the town of Gracias, once the capital of all Central America and an overwhelmingly unmemorable town. Yes it was slightly colonial, no there was nothing going on.Most memorable of our time here was that there is no bank that will accept any Canadian debit cards or Visa. And after using the majority of our cash at the border crossing, and having the good luck of the Copan Ruinas ATM being broken, we were broke. So tapped out that we could not pay $5 each for a hotel room. Thankfully there was one hotel in town that accepted credit, so we had a fancy ass night in a nice hotel. It's amazing what $60 does for you. Nice mattresses, coffee, free breakfast. All nice things. The next morning, all slightly grumpy we left with the intention of going to Tegucigalpa, the closest BAC bank according to our Lonely Planet guide. 8 kms out of Gracias karma kicked our ass again. More specifically Billy as we picked up an extra bolt. Right through his rear tire. The bolt was long enough to gouge the inside of his rim, ruin his tube and tire and also our morning. Thankfully Billy had a spare set of tires and tubes from the previous owner of the bike and with some quick wrenching we were back on the road.
About an hour from Tegu we had a brilliant stroke of luck. A bank. More specifically a BAC, the one central american bank that will accept Canadian debit cards. A brand new mall popped up like an oasis on the side of the highway and we pulled over to once again have some liquid capital. Having not eaten a real meal for a little over a day, and having Wendy's in the parking lot, we gourged. As a guy who doesn't even like Wendy's, I had no idea a Baconator could possibly taste so lovely. It didn't matter that this was one of our most expensive meals since leaving Canada, a real hamburger and a full belly was priceless.
Finding this bank also meant we didn't need to go to Tegu. A godsend in itself as there is no such thing as a nice big city in Central America. We instead stayed in Comayagua, the former capital of Honduras, and that is about all I can say for Comayagua. It was a real do nothing town and after two days of chilling in our hotel room trying to steal internet from the nearby bar, and walking around the over priced market we'd had enough of Honduras.
At the Nica border of Los Manos we met the largest Russian I've ever met, at least 6'7" and 250-300 lbs. Yes that is him on a Goldwing Aspencade and he made it look like a small bike. He was heading from the states to Panama and back and gave us some good suggestions for roads and which borders to hit.
We also met Christian from Washington at this border. He was riding his KLR to Argentina, familiar story. So he rode in to Leon with us and hung out for a couple days at Bigfoot before moving on.
We arrived in Leon fairly late and were able to set up at a hostel called Bigfoot for the better part of a week. Billy had happened to bend his rim on a pothole so that had to be repaired. Apparently those BMW's just aren't built to the same exacting specifications as the KLR... While we waited we did the typical tour of the city. A very colonial old city with tons of big old churches.
We were happy to find that BAC's are much, much more common in Nicaragua than they are in Guate and Honduras, and also were lucky enough to have a supermarket one block from the hostel. The produce was incredible and lucky us, Nica's like their fruit green. I guess all the fruit is harvested pretty early, so green bananas and mangos are whats sold there. By the time they are what we Canadians consider ripe they are usually on sale. This means that a papaya the size of my leg cost about $2.50.
Yes. That is in fact a papaya. No, it was not the largest one, but yes they were delicious.
Novelty size papaya in tow, we met up with the Quetzaltrekkers, Leon branch, for a day of volcano bording on Cerro Negro. After hiking up this immense pile of black rock we were able to tour the crater of this active volcano. Our guide assured us that we were most likely safe, but Cerro Negro was overdue to erupt....cool. The crater was pretty neat , off gassing steam and sulfur from the rock. A few inches down the earth was hot enough to cook with, if you don't mind a like sand and sulfur in your meal of course. Once we'd seen all there was to see inside the volcano it was time to board down it.
Yellow coveralls and welding glasses in tow it was time to hit the slopes. The plywood toboggans was pieces of linoleum at the back to reduce friction and down the 50-55 degree face of this volcano you get moving pretty damned fast. We didn't have a speed gun, and we were certainly not going this fast, but people have been clocked going 87 km/h on these boards. Tons of fun and crashes to be had. If possible I suggest you check out this lovely video Billy made of our descent.
After a quick healthy snack we climbed the volcano again for a second run and some sweet ninja kick photo ops. Then lunch at the ranger station of some delicious veggie burritos.
A few more stressful days including Billy having his rim fixed with a hammer and proceeding to lose a wheel spacer, we were stuck in Leon for a few more days as the part shipped in from Costa Rica. After talking to the coordinator at Quetzaltrekkers we decided to head to Las Penitas and relax at their beach-front hostel, Quetzal Playa. Just a beautiful little hostel, where $6 a night got us an ocean front room and all the coconuts we could eat/drink, provided we climbed up the trees to get them. The volunteers at the hostel were all really sweet and made the stay really nice. We also met another couple of overlanders from the great white north. Mike and Nastaja pulled in after seeing our bikes and stayed for a few days to enjoy the ambiance.
While the folks at Quetzal Playa made some fantastic suppers, we usually had lunch down the beach at a little comedor. The best thing ever was on the menu. Seafood soup, essentially a giant bowl of fish and seabugs to feast on until you're ready to burst. One bowl would have 2 lobster, 2 crab, a fish or two and about a dozen shrimp. Lunch has never felt so gluttonous. And all for about $7.
For some reason or other there was most often a reason to celebrate every night and with Kendal, Cindy and Natasha, the hard working volunteers there to hang out with it was always a good time. A Canadian favourite, Slam, got real popular, especially with a ten year old boy who played with us. Fresca in hand, of course.
After not enough days relaxing on the beach it was time to head back to Leon so Bill could put his bike back together. Upon arriving in Leon we found out that the part had been held at customs and Billy could either go to Managua to get it or wait 4-5 more days for it to be processed. As Billy went to Managua we were once again stuck in Leon to party with the Quetzaltrekkers. They even invited us back out to the beach to enjoy a traditional thanksgiving dinner. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. I'm not sure I have ever been so full. And then Banoffee pie for dessert, a British delicacy consisting of a graham cracker crust, covered in toffee, then bananas, then whipped cream and finally chocolate.
After leaving Leon, again, we were bound for Isla de Ometepe, an island formed by two volcanoes in Lake Nicaragua. After a short ferry ride we were on the island and headed for the Monkies Island Hostel, where yes, we did see and hear monkeys. On the way the one road turned from lovely brick laid road to this gravel monstrosity that was once something resembling a road.
Once arriving at the hostel, some dainty, gentle repairs were need on Patrick's bike. Some jerk on a BMW accidentally ran into Pat's bike with a pannier and when it fell over the whole front fairing and headlight mount were bent. So there Patrick was, gently convincing his fairing brace back into place with a hatchet. His fairing is now more or less straightish and despite not having a low beam, he does have a strangely offset high beam that works well.
With absolutely nothing to do but swim in the lake, we decided to hike up the smaller on the two volcanoes, where a 180 meter waterfall ends in a small pool where you can swim.
After a long, hot hike the cold water of the waterfall felt fantastic. It was pretty cool to stand under a waterfall.
After dealing with a ton of bees that magically appeared on all our clothes we prepared to hike back down. We arrived at our hostel and Patrick decided to finally deal with his bed mate. You see, Patrick, being the ever giving person he is, had shared his bed the previous night with this little girl.
This proud mama still had all her babies riding around on here back. Dozens of them, and they had resided the night tucked gently between Pat's mattress and bed. Not a nice morning surprise.
Bray
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