The Nomads

Thursday, May 29

No Travel day
SanJuan del Sur, Nicaragua
Temp 26 Degrees C

Tropical storm upgraded to hurricane

I’m unable to get up or eat anything and I feel like I’ve been run over by a Mack truck!

Sue says it’s a good day to be sick as the stron has us stranded here anyway. The bad road we came in on is the only way out and it is now and will be for some time unpassable!

There is no such thing as a good day to be sick like this! Wah, wah, wah….

Sue spent some of the day watching some local kids trying to surf the fifteen foot muddy waves.

This evening I haven’t improved noticeably and still can’t eat or move far from the “facilities”.

Looks like we’ll be here for a while!

Kilometers - Daytrip: 0 km total: 12,434
Gas: $ 0
Lodging: Hotel Casa Blanca $69

Left Esteli, Nicaragua 7:15 AM

Temp: 23 degrees C

Cloudy and light showers

Left early hoping to go to the Canadian embassy rep in Managua to address the lost registration…no luck, just an answering machine asking us to leave a message and they would get back to us…(at our travelling office I presume?) Thanks for nothing Canada!

We were stopped twice by corrupt police trying to shake us down for American dollars in bogus fines. By now I was in no mood to play their games and insisted on their names and badge numbers. The first stop was for “bad driving”. I was following a tractor trailer at less than the speed zone and driving in a straight line…???As soon as I started writing down his name and badge number, his dozen vehement insistences that I pay $25 US immediately changed to an obsequious”Where you from, is that your brother??? Have a good day, bye.”

About ten Kms down the road, same story, different scam…”papers please”….we had everything he was entitled to ask for,,hmmmmmm… oH wait a minute ! this paper say only one person on moto!

This was the driving permit for the bike that we obtained at the border. It states that the permit is only good for one trip. He was insisting that it was only good for one person! I asked him what he expected me to do with my “espousa”??? and how did they let her through the border with me??? He did quite a song and dance with this one and when i started mentioning the embassy, my papers were handed back to me with a shake and a shrug and we were unceremoniously sent on our way.

Little did he know that I might as well as threatened him with a call to MacDonalds for all that was worth!

Interesting little aside:

Quote from the Canadian Embassy under the section “Lost Government Documents”

Most government issued documents such as a driver's licence, birth certificate, health card, or social insurance card, can only be replaced in Canada.

So how do they expect you to get to Canada to replace them. You can’t go into the next country, you can’t go back to the one you just left, you’re in limbo between borders and you’re supposed to do what?

Well one thing you wouldn’t want to waste your time with is a call to your embassy even if you’re lucky enough to find a phone , the local cards (they don’t take cash) won’t connect you, and no one will allow you to use their phone even if you offer them a king’s ransom on your visa! And where are you supposed to wait for the return call, and on whose phone???

( stopping to help a guy who had 'fallen' off the road.)

We decided to try to get through to Costa Rica where there supposedly is an actual Embassy rep in San Jose and headed to the border hoping to finesse a registration photocopy but by now it was late afternoon and we didn’t have time to make the crossing and then find a town with a safe hotel stop, even if we got through seamlessly. So we headed for San Juan del Sur 20 Kms off the main highway and only an hour’s drive from the border(or so we thought)

Once we got about ten K in the road turned into a real mess of mud, gravel, broken pavement and hog wallow, and all one lane. You know who wins out in a contest of bike versus bus, truck, crazy Nicaraguan drivers……?

( the big rocks mean - don't drive on this side)

It took us an hour to get through and just pulled into town when the rain started and it was getting dark.

Found a nice hotel with secure parking, and went for food.

By midnight I was sick to die and spent the whole night shaking, running, etc. Only me this time, everyone else slept well!...????

And as the night progressed (or should I say regressed) the rain storm outside was building to hurricane force…

Kilometers - Daytrip: 306 km total: 12,434

Gas: $ 18

Lodging: Hotel Casa Blanca $69