Not every day is a diamond.

We got up reasonably early on Thursday, January 6 to head for the Honduras border. We had a bit of trouble finding our way through town and I decided to ask directions from two Policia in a park. I wasn't paying attention and as I approached this speed bump it looked pretty aggressive but I was focused on the cops. I guess we'd seen so many speed bumps I didn't care anymore. Well, it was a 8 or 9 inch curb to keep traffic out of the park. I went right over it scraping my skid plate in the process. The police were paying attention now. I road up to them and one of them, the young guy had the funniest look on his face. I wish I could have taken a picture. He was speechless, dumbfounded actually. I shut off the bike and started asking directions in my poor Spanish. The older cop was not fazed and immediately recognized an opportunity to practice his English. They were super nice and jumped on their bicycles to lead is in the right direction around the main prison they were guarding. Oops.
So off to the border. As we approached we were met by a small mob of tramitadores. In our reading it was advised to use these helpers at this border due to the crazy long waits. We chose a guy, Darwin, who spoke perfect English and was from Houston, Texas. His brother was the actual helper but his English was not so good. They had a driver who led us in his black, late model Nissan Ultima. We exited El Salvador no problem then began the long wait just inside the Honduras border. The story is that we needed to pay off at least 3 guys to get through the border in time to make the next border into Nicaragua. This was in addition to the fees. Once you decide to use these guys you're committed to finishing with them. They are real pros and managed to fleece us for more than I want to admit. But, it wasn't really a surprise as we had heard from others who did the same thing. After we were done (about 4 hours in the hot sun) we were a little choked but headed for the Nicaraguan border. We had also been strongly advised not to stay in Honduras overnight for safety reasons. No sooner were we on our way when we got pulled over at a police road block. We had to produce our licenses, we figured it was just a document check like the other borders. Nope, all they wanted was money. They wanted US$5 from each of us. I started complaining and while we were arguing this jackass starts putting on my helmet. I pulled out my camera and took a picture of him. He did not like that. So I erased it. He now takes my camera and starts looking through all the pictures and I am telling him where they've all been taken. We are now amigos. Nope. The price is now US$50 each. After some more slide show he drops the price to US$30 each. I pay him. We got stopped three more times. One guy wanted money but I played real dumb and he let us go.
When we get to the Nicaraguan border we were met by Louis, another fixer that had been arranged for us at the previous border by Darwin's brother. We had been promised that we we're done with the fees. Nope. Got fleeced again after a lot of arguing. We were very, very choked now. We got through the border in time to ride for an hour in the dark to Chinandega, Nicaragua. The highlight of the day was a very dramatic silhouette of a volcano at sunset with a large windswept plume of smoke and ash emitting from the top of it. The ride to Chinandega was less than relaxing. The road is full of potholes and there were all kinds of unlit obstacles to avoid. These included cows, horses, snakes, owls and ox drawn carts full of produce being driven on the highway. Good times.

Our Helper. Take a good look.

Grrrrrr

Next morning we headed for the Costa Rican border along some secondary roads. It was a nice ride. Nicaragua was bustling with activity. It was amazing to see all the horse and oxen drawn wagons everywhere. They were hauling everything from sugarcane to building materials.

Nicaraguan backroads

Getting out of Nicaragua

Getting out of Nicaragua and into Costa Rica was no problem. We did it all ourselves and it took about 2 hours and cost US$20 each. We had to put on our game faces to keep the helpers away. There was little patience for them now. All they really do is stand in line for you. *&$?/)@#
We spent the night of the 7th in Liberia, Costa Rica. We slept in a bit and took off to see Volcan Arenal. It's a very active volcano with lava flows and the whole bit. Unfortunately it was shrouded in heavy cloud and it rained off and on for a while. It would have been awesome but for the traffic and heavy fog. We got pulled over by the cops coming into San Jose because we took the bus lane to get around a traffic jam. They let us off after we produced our BC Driver license. And while they had us pulled over the local BMW dealer stopped and asked if we needed help. We are finding people here to be quite friendly.
So, here we are in San Jose, Costa Rica. We stayed in the Best Western last night. It was a good arrival. We practically rode into the bar and parked the bikes. Everybody seemed to think it was pretty cool. Neil got lots of attention while I was getting the room.
Here's some photos and we are off to the the south for a crossing into Panama tomorrow. We have to keep going now as we have arranged for a ride on a catamaran from Panama to Cartegena, Columbia that leaves on the 15th of January.  
Bye for now.