Brrrrr… Brrrrr… Brrrrr…
Who invented mobile phones that vibrate their wake up call? It is 5.45am in Tegucigalpa and the sun has not yet made its feeble awakening. We blink our weary eyes and struggle out from underneath our warm blankets. We are in Honduras at the start of Day 28 of our Central American dash.
Downstairs in our hotel, papaya, watermelon and pineapple are being eagerly scooped from the buffet as the crews of 26 vehicles snatch a quick breakfast. Some add scrambled eggs, bacon, beans and fried bananas to their menu to sustain themselves for the eleven hour adventure drive to come. All are cheerful, offering each other hearty early morning greetings. Some have already left, beating the official departure time. We will all meet again tonight, across the border in Nicaragua. Our destination is Granada some four hundred and seventy kilometres away.
The road to the border is uneventful. It is very busy with trucks trundling their burdensome way south. Local drivers are boringly slow and we spend our time overtaking queues of vehicles, belching smoke as the last breath is forced out of their beating metal hearts. We reach Gausale where we will cross into Nicaragua.
And now the fun begins. Money changers holding thick wads of dirty valueless notes besiege us. They are ready to take all our Honduran lempiras and give us an even bigger pile of Nicaraguan oros. Most in demand though, is the Greenback – here it really is gold. We transact and with a fistful of oros approach the customs and immigration officials. Helpers abound, tugging us this way and that. For a small fee they show us what document to present at which counter, in a flurry of useless activity. The final vehicle clearance is typed up on a rusty old typewriter and after a chaotic hour we are through.
Nicargua presents us with flat cattle country and brushland. A long undulating black ribbon stretches ahead and the driver’s foot settles heavily on the accelerator pedal as the country wooshes by. Suddenly we come across another crew held up on the side of the road by the local men in blue. We too are waved to a halt. With the window wound down, we are greeted with a staccato Spanish bark. ‘Passports, Vehicle documents, Drivers licences and ‘Triangulo’’ It seems the money spinner today has been the ‘triangulo’ The other crew, relieved of USD40 because they were unable to produce the ‘triangulo’ are allowed to pass on. ‘Triangulo’ is the little triangle placed behind your car to warn other drivers that you have broken down. Our policeman is dismayed because we can produce it. We are allowed to leave and our grubby little policeman awaits the next victim from whom he can extract another personal reward.
At a square in Nagarote we stopped to try the famed ‘quesillo’ It is a hot tortilla wrapped around a plait of cheese, smothered in piquant onion and drowned in cream. It was certainly a welcome snack and our enthusiasm encouraged another crew to indulge too.
Further on we made our way up to the rim of an active volcano. Volcan Masaya, locally known as “the mountain that burns”. It was bubbling happily away emitting puffs of smoke swirling around its innards. Its bowels could be heard rumbling deeply and its warmth created wafting clouds above.
Finally we arrived at the Hotel Alhambra in Granada. The square in which the hotel is located is picturesque with a beautiful cathedral and surrounded by buildings of colonial stature, although now of rather faded glory. Nicaragua is plagued by power cuts and that evening the gloom in the restaurants and bars was banished by generators chattering away. Our hotel was lit by candles, our room by moonlight and the hot water not hot at all. The sullen air conditioner looked down upon us not able to puff even a breath of chilled air. Sweat dripped from our weary bodies.
But the square outside was awake to a throng of revellers. Tonight the crowd were celebrating the feast of the Virgin. We were treated to a wild and manic fireworks display that saw rockets fired from amongst the crowd to rain down on our mud splattered dusty vehicles parked around the square. Granada may have been dark, but tonight it was set alight.
by Audrey and Ian Perkins
© Copyright 4x4xplore.com
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La Aventura Panamericana - Day 31 blog
Hola Hero!
It has taken this long for Car Seven to recuperate, or at least the non-English member of the crew who had the worst journey in the world, to get from Panama to Cape Town via New York.
Mar 5, 2007
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La Aventura Panamericana - Day 30 blog
Today we drive from San José to El Bambito.
After a short night of rest we got up at 04.15. We had breakfast at 05.00 and left the hotel at 05.45. We drove through a dark and quiet San José. We filled our car up with diesel and drove out of the city into the mountains.
Mar 5, 2007
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La Aventura Panamericana - Day 28 Blog
Brrrrr… Brrrrr… Brrrrr…
Who invented mobile phones that vibrate their wake up call? It is 5.45am in Tegucigalpa and the sun has not yet made its feeble awakening. We blink our weary eyes and struggle out from underneath our warm blankets. We are in Honduras at the start of Day 28 of our Central American dash.
Dec 14, 2006
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La Aventura Panamericana Day 24
It is nearly 06: 00 when we leave the hotel Villa Maya in Flores. Unfortunately because Arnold couldn’t believe that crocodiles are in the lake and he had to cancel his swim…!
Dec 14, 2006
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Day 21 Aventura Panamericana
Today started at 04.45 hrs.in Tulum. We had mislaid the tulips to get the 1.63 kms from Room 6115 in Block D, under Blocks C & B, past the tennis courts on the left and the Colonial Restaurant on the right, avoiding the Tope at 1.34 kms to emerge in the reception area, and all in pitch darkness.
Dec 5, 2006
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