12-1-05
Wow, December already. It is the Christmas season down here too but it is really hard for me to even relate to it with the warm weather and all. There are trees decorated and at the last hotel they had out a display of small Santa and reindeer knickknacks. Quite a few of the street sellers even have Christmas stuff for sale. We saw one lady the other day that had little strings of lights flashing on her street stand with an extension cord hung from a tree to the building.
We headed out from our hotel after a nice little breakfast and hit the road. The road traveled up through the mountains and in about an hour we made it to the border with Nicaragua. That border crossing was wonderful compared to what we had gone through a few days before. It did cost us seven bucks usd to get our visas but it didn’t cost anything to get our bikes in. How can there be such a difference in countries from free to over a hundred bucks?
The road that we traveled was absolutely first class and there was hardly any traffic on it. There were from time to time small donkey or horse two wheel carts on the road as well as pack burros. They must be moving corn or maybe coffee beans to market. I saw several large centers that had large either paved or tarp covered yards where they were drying coffee beans. The mountains were really pretty and the vegetation was somewhat open with grazing done extensively. I could see a lot of places where the trees were trimmed by animals grazing underneath. They make such a nice field with open shade places for the animals to rest.
We went by one herd of cows and I noticed that they happened to be in excellent shape and were almost fat compared to the other cattle I have seen. Not many miles down the road I saw a couple of milk cans along side the road and realize that those cattle must have been milk cows. They are not normal milk cows like in north America but must be ones that are adapted to this area. There was a long stretch in south mexico that I was not able to get bottled milk at the stores and I figure that they don’t have milk cows anywhere near. The only milk was in boxes on the store shelf.
About mid day we stopped for lunch at what is a local fast food chicken place. It was the first time I have had food served as fast as that in a long time. Most times the food takes for ever to get to you and no one seems to be in a hurry. It was good and helped us get back on the road quickly. I checked the gps for elevation at that spot and it was 2700 feet I think which was much lower than what we had been across that morning. It was really nice up there in the cooler air but it wasn’t cold at all.
I am having a really nice time riding with Dan and Bonnie. They are such easy and gentle people to be around. I think we are pretty much like minded about most things and our speed on the road is about the same. I have been following behind and that suits me just fine. Dan has really good sense of direction and is a very careful rider that doesn’t take chances. I like that.
We finally made it to a fairly large town called Granada and we all immediately liked it. It is clean and the people seem to be friendly. We had to stop at a bank and get some money and Bonnie said that the atm machine was new and easy to work. I had given them one of my hundred dollar bills I had stashed for reserve and they paid me back in the local currency so I have not used the money machine yet.
We headed for the middle of town but were stopped by a funeral procession so headed a ways away and parked the bikes and decided to walk to find a hotel. We checked out one that was near but its rooms were too big and expensive and then checked out another near by. When we walked in the tv was playing cnn news in English. I asked the guy watching it if he spoke English. He told me a little. He is an American that bought the hotel, bar and restaurant two years ago. He didn’t have a room or a place for the bikes but he told us about a german guy he met the day before that might have some. He had his bar girl call and found out that he did so gave us directions to get there.
When we got here we found a really nice little hotel with plain rooms with fan, tv and bath. Everything is very clean and the rooms only cost eleven bucks a night. We are parking the bikes next door and I think the cost is about a dollar or two a night. We both bought our rooms for three nights and I think I will really like it here. We went for supper at the first place we went and it was great. We walked by many restaurants on the way there and I don’t see food as being any problem here. There seems to be a lot of anglos here too and the streets and sidewalks are clean. That is a big difference from where I have been lately. There are some really nice big beautiful buildings here too.
I went up town this morning with dan to get a cup of coffee while Bonnie tried to sleep in a little. They had a room on the street and I guess it was very noisy all night. My room was fairly quiet except for someone coming in late. After some mix up in meeting them for breakfast I picked out a nice little restaurant and made myself comfortable. Not long after my food came, they walked in. it is so strange to be so tuned in to the same frequency as they are, that we both chose the same restaurant. After coming back to the hotel so they could change rooms to one in the back, we headed back uptown to get haircuts. We went into a rather large barber shop and we both got really first rate haircuts. I had Glenna give me a haircut before I left so after more than two months I had to fork over two bucks to look somewhat more presentable as well as much cooler.
We had been walking by a couple of klr’s parked at a little hotel on the way uptown and Dan and Bonnie finally met them. They are a dad and his daughter and they are from Ontario, Canada and are on their way to the end of south America just like I am. We met with them around lunch time as they and some friends were going to take a boat trip out to a little island in the lake near here. We started walking toward the lake and the discussion of how many kilometers it was. I had noticed that I was getting a blister on my foot from my sandles I guess and at that point decided I really didn’t want to go on this boat sightseeing expedition anyway. I aint much on the tourist shit anyway and was glad to have the excuse to bail out of it.
I went back to the hotel and had a nice nap and later walked up town to see the market. The market is pretty dirty and much like others in that it is a bunch of rabbit trails through dark narrow isles. I did stop at a real-estate office on the square and visited with the dealer there. He said that there are lots of property being sold and prices are rising all the time. Sounds like a housing bubble to me. I took this photo of a nice little house just a half block off the town square.
House for sale X

There were quite a few horse rigs out on the streets today and I took this one of some guys that I think were going to pick up something at this house. The guy drove the cart up there and backed it up to the curb just a quick and simple as a little truck. Wow, these horses are really well trained and the traffic doesn’t bother them at all. They are a little small but they look rugged.
Work cart X

There were a lot of taxis at the market too and they go all over town. Some are pretty fancy and cater to the tourist trade but these are just regular taxis for regular folk. One we saw today had the front floor board stacked with firewood and we wondered if the guy was selling firewood on the side as a taxi driver.
Horse taxi X

As I was walking back to the hotel I passed this interesting look at the make up of some of these buildings. This is the oldest continuously inhabited town on the mainland of the Americas, since 1524.
Building construction X
Here is that photo of Estuardo’s bike, or at least I hope so.
Esturado-bike X


A cool little side car rig that a couple of guys that were working on a building must have come to work in. a Jawa.!!!!!!!!
Side car rig X