On christmas day rafael explained me the road to Puerto Barrios and wanted to ride half the way with me to make sure i would not get lost in Guatemala City. Around halfway we decided to have a stop for Breakfast and as they were leaving i ran into Steve, Werner and Erik who were on their way to Semuc Champey. As i had one spare day to spend before meeting Evan and Eugene i figured why not and followed them to the unknown destination. I happened to be my first off road experience and i managed to ride the two hours up and down steep hills in the Guatemalan jungle without dropping the bike. Arriving at the idealistic hostal Utopia i was glad to park my bike for the night. Evan told me that they where in the same area and were planning to spend another day before going to Puerto Barrios. At the end i was very glad that i went there with the other guys as it was a nice place to take an extra day of rest and visit the waterfalls. The second night we had to spend in a hangmat in a dormitory where several tarantulas where spotted i ended up not sleeping much and worried more about the two hour ride back to the paved road and the spiders. The morning of the 27th i met with the KLR riders in the village and they told me there was another road shorter to puerto barrios. What i did not know and soon realized was that this was a 6 hour dirt road where i spend most of the time keeping my bike in control. This was one off these days where i did not sign up for if i knew in advance what lied ahead, but i ended up with a very enriching experience of viewing landscape and knowing rural guatemalan country life. Puerto barrios was not much of an interesting city besides an harbor view restaurant and hanging for cigarettes prices at different tiendas.







The next morning we crossed the border with a little trouble as we had to drive back and forth between the different offices that where separated 10 kilometers from each other. As we drove into the notorious Honduras knowing we just got ripped of at the border for our bike permit we decided to stop at the first big city to get some cash from the ATM. I tried 6 different ATMs and in the burning heat walking in my motorcycle gear i could not get any cash. I was so happy having Evan and Eugene around that could help me out with there cards. I let my plan of going to Tegucigalpa that day sail and we found a nice hotel to spend the night in El Progresso. I was happy to get some cash with my card at the hotel as i was worried my card might have been blocked for some reason.




All my doom scenarios where cleared out by the next day on which i headed for the next border on my own as the other guys where going to spend new year on the Honduran islands. Maybe Honduras is notorious for the number one, two ,and three most criminal and dangerous cities in the world i would not know anything about it as i cruised thru the country within a day. Hard headed as i am i decided to cross the border around 2 despite the promise to myself that i would never try again to cross a border in the afternoon. This time i was more lucky and i only had to make it to Esteli doing 1 hour of night riding.

I was in Nicaragua! and had crossed the fearsome Honduras without any problem. How much ones perspective based on stories and internet information can be different from the reality of the actual situation. I am not trying to say that there is nothing to fear but at no point i felt so much in danger that i though people would steal something from me. The fear i had while crossing honduras with Evan and Eugene or alone had only stained my experience. But in one of the conversation with the KLR guys we said that the fear of something less only enhances the experience of living. And thus is taking a risk such as going around the world on a motorcycle such a life enriching experience.


In Nicaragua i headed down to San Juan Del Sur to meet my friend Burcu and spend new years eve on the beach after a day of surfing with one of her friends. Not bad for a last day of the year; drinking cold s and trying to catch some waves.




The first of january i woke up on a concrete floor as i moved out of the hangmat they provided me as the hostal was fully booked. It is certainly not funny to cross a border with 2 or 3 hours of sleep but i was raised to bite your teeth in such a situation. This might be a bad translation from dutch but i think the idea is obvious. In the last office i had to go to the lady told me i was not able to get into the country as my title indicated that the bike was reconstructed which made it impossible to import the bike in the country. With a little bit of patience i got her to give me a permit based on my registration and i was cruising the roads of costa rica just after noon. I decided to have a lunch break at the first AC cooled restaurant and ended up looking for hotel in a McDonalds. It can be comforting sometimes to go dispose of all the luxury of wifi AC and fast food. I found a nice hotel in Tilaran as i was to tired to make it to San Jose and was happy to take a four hour siesta. The prices in Costa Rica are definitely matching the ones in Europe but in exchange it seems a lot more comfortable here. One nice thing here is when you go to the ATM you feel a millionaire as the amount of cash you get is usually a six digit number.