Day 10 - crossing border into Honduras

A very early start to complete 100km to the Nicaraguan - Honduras border. 70km to lunch passed quickly with fantastic fast, sweeping descents with amazing views. Eating lunch at about 11am again! Then a long steep climb to the border - luckily the scenery was great - rainforest and beautiful flowers - to try and distract from neck / hand pain. Queue of trucks started from about 1km out and the roads became rutted and potholes with lots of dust and chaotic driving. First up we have to “log out” of Nicaragua. There is a queue if about 10 people but it is so incredibly slow. Every time the guy processes someone he goes off for about 10 minutes. We take the opportunity to change money with one of the money traders (see pictures) - apparently these black market traders keep the immigration centre functioning ! We are warned to insist on change as it’s a good way of the border officials making extra cash. After about an hour we are free to leave. John hands the leftover Nicaraguan money to a teenage girl who looks bemused as he tries to explain that he has no need for it. Then the usual double checks in no man’s land and up to the shack to get passports stamped and pay another fee to enter Honduras. Finally we are off. More chaotic traffic as trucks try and get by trucks waiting to cross the other way whilst negotiating the massive holes in the road. Catharine is hassled by a particularly aggressive dog.
The roads are much worse in Honduras. And the driving is appalling. Several of us tell stories at dinner of being forced off the road - Catharine and John both separately forced off the road by one of the yellow school buses. The scenery is beautiful though and bizarrely there seems to be more wealth - we see a vet / pet store ! And adverts - and there are some more expensive cars around.
The hotel Granada is in a bustling noisy town. The supermarket is clean and well stocked - and guarded by a guard with a shotgun - yet there are no pavements so you are dodging traffic / potholes / dirty puddles to walk the quarter mile to it. We are now down to 16 riders from the original 19 as Kate tests positive for COVID and is forced to isolate at the hotel and will not be allowed to ride tomorrow.Leggi altro