Guatemala Border

March 10, 2011

Border day again. One of my tire plugs leaked overnight and had to replug the tire to start. Put us behind schedule, but Juan takes us to the Ruines while he finishes emails because the hacienda's power was out. Take a tour around the ruins, pics and then on the road.

We arrived at the border as the lady processing our passports leaves for lunch. 3/4 hour later, she arrives back and stamps us out within 5 minutes. Get the bikes stamped out, then we get stamped into Guatemala. Everything is going smoothly until Juan has a problem that his bike can not be let back into Guatemala because of a 3 month import rule. We get stamped through and Jaun has to wait for the administrator to come back from a meeting. We have lunch and the guy does not show, so Michael and I leave Juan. We ride for 2 hours and the sky is darkening and threatening rain. Find a nice hotel and email Juan. He was able to enter, at about 5pm and rode for an hour. Michael and I have decided to ride hard tomorrow as Guatemala is a dirty shit hole. Meaning they use the sides of the roads as dumps. Garbage everywhere….We feel that we can make the Mexican border.

March 9, 2011

Juan wanted to check out this little town so we got a taxi to the central plaza. Nice, clean, like many central plazas we have been to. Down the road to the Copan Ruines. Juan knows of a beautiful hacienda on the hill overlooking the Copan Ruines town. Had dinner and early to bed.

March 8, 2011

On the road for another border crossing into Honduras. The border was quiet and with Jaun and a helper's help it only took 2 hours to immigrate and only $100+ dollars. These border have fees for everything…. Off down the road.  Honduras is very dry, with many trees leafless and grasses burnt because the rainy season was 3 months ago.  Towns and people look like people from Peru and poverty is more evident, but people on the sides of roads have smiles, and we get lights flashed at us and waves and thumbs up as we pass. Got into Tegucigalpa where we were warned by one of the guys on the boat that this town is the most dangerous town in the world. Do you know how many people have told us about the most dangerous city in the world and they have all been different? Needless to say, we still have to be on guard. We entered town and Juan asked for directions as I was trying to decipher my GPS map route because the GPS doesn't like this town, it draws straight lines in basic directions. Juan takes off after a car that gave him directions and we loose him. After trying to find him and then waiting in plain sight at a gas station, we head off on our quest to find the Copan Ruines. After about an hour and a half of driving on CA5 that is currently under construction in a major way, we are far enough out of town, we pull over to make plans for where to stay for the night and who pulls up…Juan! To the next town of Comayagua and pull into a hotel with great parking, negotiate a room price, look outside and it has a welcome looking pool. After riding in 99.8ºf heat for most of the day, this pool was the first priority right after our first beer as we were checking in….Got another delivered to us in the pool. This is the life!

March 7, 2011

Border day.. Didn't sleep well as normal. Got to the border around 8:30am and took until about 11am to be immigrated into Nicaragua. Had helpers again help us and had to go hear and there, pay for this and that and 2 1/2 hours later and $130 dollars lighter, we are into a new country. Road for most the day in 90+ºf heat. Arrived at a junction and got gas. My bike would not start. Pushed it over to some shade to do a quick check and found nothing, but was able to push start it. Michael then noticed my tire was low. Had another nail in it. Fixed. Just about that time, Juan, a Mexican on a GS650 rides up and we chat. He is heading the same way and suggest the Copan Ruines border to be a much better place to pass into Guatamala from Honduras, instead of going through El Salvador. As a motorcycle tour operator scoping out new routes in Central America, we believe him and ask to ride with him. Rode to the next town for the night and proceeded to rip the fairing and tank off the bike in the search for the elusive electrical problem. Found it in the handlebar starter switch and repaired, all the while its 93ºf with high humidity. We were soaked.

Coffee plantation education

March 6, 2011

Up normal time, about 8am and type some blogs. Michael is up later. Arrive at the coffee shop for the coffee plantation tour.  Jen, her friend/roommate and her mother arrive later. Tour begins about 1:30pm and are taken to the coffee shop owner's farm, where he explains the coffee history, the growing process, the 5 step cleaning process and the growing process.  Aliandro explains that their farm won the UN's 2008 award for being the most sustainable coffee farm in the world. They make their own sugar from sugar cane, make methane for cooking and compost all of the coffee bean parts. I will never drink another cup of coffee without thinking of all the work that people do to bring this drink to our lips. Very fascinating and informative. Then back to the coffee shop for him to show us the roasting process. Can't remember the numbers but the roasting process is very precise. Michael and I both agree that this is the best coffee we have ever tasted. Then a quick clean up and off to Jen's for a wonderful dinner. Very much enjoyed seeing Jen Boss in her little part of heaven..

Traditional Coffee cart to take the beans to market

Aliandro, Jen and the sugar extractor

Rendering pot and molds for sugar

Coffee cherry with the beans spit out

Digests the miusula (sticky sugar around the bean inside the cherry)

Machine to remove the cherry and miusula

Machine to remove 2 layers of skin from the coffee beans and size them.

These skins are like what you find around a peanut.

Aliandro and his roaster

Roasted coffee beans. They double in size after being roasted.

500 lbs of coffee cherries yields about 70-75 lbs of roasted beans.

Panama to Costa Rica

March 5, 2011

Got the the Panama border and its a zoo. A helper and watcher find us and they are welcomed. Got our bikes checked out relatively painlessly, then they put us in a linkup that wraps around the migration building almost 500 meters long. We told them that we are paying them for "rapid service" and this is ridiculous so they butt us into the line up near the front and it still takes over an hour to get near the front of the line, pushing with the other little ladies doing the same thing. Then we find out the line to the left is for people with vehicles to check out of Panama. Virtually empty, I push into line behind a family of 4 who is exiting their vehicle as well. The bullshit that they had to do (as Panamericanos) was ridiculous, but after 1/2 hour they were through, then us. Gave our passports, the customs had to take video pics of us, stamp our passports and we are through the exit  of Panama. Then we had to be checked into Costa Rica. done. After this, we need bike insurance, photocopies of our registrations, passports (every page), pay the $17 per person fee and then back to the aduana to import the bikes. Basic guy fills out the import forms using 1 or 2 fingers, then passes the forms to another guy who writes our info on a small piece of paper to give to a control guy when we drive 50 meters down the road. Finally into Costa Rica, 3 hours later at 33ºc. Both of us dripping in sweat.

Down the road to blow dry, we are heading for Monteverde to visit Michael's teach, Jen Boss, who has taken a year sabbatical to teach here in Costa Rice. Arrive, find a cheap hostel, call Jen, pick up beer, ride to her place, hang out, and go to dinner with her. Big day! Boy am I bushed.

March 4, 2011

After saying our goodbyes to Toshiro and Bjorn, we rode to David. Nice to be on the road again. After arriving, found the hostel, then located a place to do an oil change on the bikes and back to the hostel to drink cervasas with Americans and Canadians. Tomorrow a border crossing day, sleep eludes me on these days as the anticipation keeps me awake most the night.

Miraflores Locks, Panama

March 3, 2011

Toshiro, Bjorn, Michael and I rode to the locks in the morning. Got there and ships were just moving through the locks. Quite impressive. You could just see the new canal excavation in the distance. Went through the movie and Museum, very informative. Then off to pick up the Mac computer. The tech could not recover my info from the hard drive so gave it back for me to try when we get home. Now with a new hard drive in my computer, its so nice to use again. Tech said it was damaged due to all the rough handling. He just doesn't know how right he is. The roads in Pategonia, were obviously murder on it… Back to the hostel for beers and setup, installation of programs required on the new drive.

Toshiro, Bjorn, Michael and Me