200 km that felt like 2000 km !!

First I would like to thank the Sootoday for posting an article about the trip, it helped many people in the soo to learn about the journey.....thanks again !!!

ok I'm in San Jose, Costa Rica.......yesterday I crossed the border with Nicaragua with less complications than in the other places. CostaRica has no “helpers” and the paperwork is personal and simpler, not for that less time consuming as I used almost 2 and half hours to import” my bike.

 The Central American part of Guatemala, Honduras, EL Salvador and Nicaragua went pretty smooth other than the crossing itself. In Honduras there was a lot of military on the roads (police and army) checking papers and people, especially close to the border with Nicaragua; as you know the ex President of Honduras (Zelaya) is trying to enter the Country from Nicaragua and there are some manifestations that forced to close the border between both countries a couple of times.

I never felt intimidated or in danger, on the contrary all army and police guys in Honduras shake my hand and wished me luck.

 El salvador is beautiful, beaches and twisted roads close to Libertad where I meet the first (and only) biker ...Gilles also a canadian

Nicaragua still looks very much influenced by his political past, the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional) is everywhere …...Ortega, the leader of that movement is still the President

After crossing the border into Costa Rica I felt more comfortable and had to choose between the road in the pacific or the central panamericana with mountains and volcanoes, unfortunately the dealer in Panama city has not spare tires and send me an email suggesting to go to San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica) and buy it there. This made my decision easy....go the mountains and volcanoes …..with almost 3 hours of light I left Liberia towards San Jose (200 Km)......big mistake !!!!! the roads are tiny, twisted, full of trucks and clouds; it took me almost five hours to ride those 200 km and the last hour and half was dark.....one important rule I impose to myself is not to ride at night, not very pretty......

 I will try to buy this tires here and bring it with me to Panama for the service of the bike, the plan is to get to Panama in the week end, service the bike and ship it on Tuesday, either to Colombia or Ecuador depending on the probabilities of connections (they do not guarantee).

 Sorry about pictures, it was a challenge to drive and there is no way I can take pictures while driving on that road.....I'll do my best to put more pics next days

 Jorge