Leaving Honduras entering Nicaragua

ok blog update time. I have trouble starting these. I mean I like doing them once I get rolling but they are pretty difficult to start, I mean there is so much cool stuff going on right now that it is difficult for me to focus on typing and computers etc. Clay is much better at getting the blogs done. Anyways I digress.

We have had a couple of pretty awesome days, well the whole trip is pretty awesome in fact there hasn´t really been much that hasn´t been awesome. I am actually a little worried about going back to my normal life, because after an amazing journey like this, all the usual work and day to day stuff is going to seem pretty mundane. Pretty easy to understand how some people go on the road for a few months and just never return. Don´t worry parents I don´t think that will happen to us. Although I´ve been thinking seriously about picking a place to live for a month or so after this trip to attend a Spanish school, not sure yet we´ll see how the rest of the trip pans out.

So Copan Ruians was completely awesome, there is an amazing Mayan site that was excavated in the early 1900´s today it is over 2000 years old yes that means BC. The whole village and grounds is very extensive. The rulers had built mulitple temples some with extensive tunnel systems. There was an area for scarifices, that is human scarifices and they had built a special court where they played Mayan ball games. Oddly enough the winners were the ones who were scarificed, it was considered an honor and they would be made into gods. Pretty wild to think about those beliefs and how religon played such a major role in peoples lives. As Clay mentioned we spent some time at the Red Frog, pretty cool little gringo hangout in town and we also went to the hot springs, I felt kind of gay going there with Clay but whatever it was cool. The spring water is really hot, I mean H.O.T. hot. well over normal hot tube temps, the operator has to introduce some cool water to make the hot springs withstandable. Also as you move further away from the hot spring source the water loses some heat so the springs further down the hill tend to be a little cooler.
The following morning we had breakfast and got a somewhat reasonable start and made it to Danli approximately 20km from the Honduras Nicaragua boarder. Danli was recommended to us by the owner at Reg Frog, but to tell you the truth. I´m glad we didn´t really have to spend any time in Danli, not for touristas. To start it looked like a pretty rough town, then the hotel selection was slim, it was getting dark so we settled on one we had seen on the way into town. it was big and clean and all the empolyees were strapped with pistolas so we figured it was safe too... go figure. Honduras, aside from Copan Ruinas was really the first time on this trip I felt a little uncomfortable. We didn´t have any problems, but I just got a couple weird vibes were my intuition told me some bad stuff probably goes down after dark. You see a lot of civilans with pistols unlike Guatemala and Mexico were there are just a lot of security gruards with shot guns. Either way Nicaragua is pretty mellow. So this morning we got to the boarder around 9:30 and we were into Nicaragua before 11am. Same usual boarder antics. The whole thing is a sham and completely unorganized. You have to make trips back and forth between offices to make copies of documents and pay money and then go back for signatures and stamps its all a lot of choas and in the mean time you have little helpers trying to extract money from you for keeping an eye on your bike or for showing you were the copy machine is. But you just kind of laugh once your through. So today is the first time we have been stopped by police. It was a check point inside the Nicaragua boarder, they want to see your documents and make sure that you have purchased insurance, Nicaragua is known for these checkpoints and sometimes they can be a problem were police shake down motorists, but we made it through just fine and the cops were really friendly even giving us directions to our next intersection, CA 26 which is the road we took from the Panamerican HWY down to Leon. And man did the Nicaraguan roads live up to there reputation. Deep pot holes all over, some big enough to sallow your whole front wheel. Most of the traffic is diverted to a side road which is mud and dirt but is in far better condition than the pot hole ridden road. I had a little get off today in some slipperly mud. I escaped completely unharmed but my Pannier rack is a little bent up, no problem though it is really just cosmetic and has zero impact on the funcationality of the bike. Not to worry, we will continue on.
I really can´t begin to discribe the scenery we have seen on this trip, it is truely unbelievable. I don´t think it can be captured in photos or discribed in words, it just needs to be witnessed first hand. I´m really glad we decided to do this whole thing, because it know I will have memories of these places forever. I´m a little bit worried about our pictures though, There have been so many times were we should have stopped the bikes to take pictures, but most of the time we are just trying to put miles behind us so we keep riding.
So it is around 7:30 pm local time and clay and I need to explore the local cuisine and nightlife in Leon. Tomorrow we plan to make it to Granada and San Juan del Sur the following day. I believe our boat to Columbia is scheduled. check it out! its called fritz the cat http://www.fritz-the-cat.com/ (clay says) for those who need help using the internet click on the union jack for the english version. It leaves Panama on march 12th. props to Ben Spies, 1st world superbike victory this weekend. go USA!