Didn't want to say anything in advance in case it all went wrong, but we did a high-speed run across Nicaragua yesterday with a couple of other vehicles and the services of a local guide. We had seen on line that a few people had done this in the past couple of weeks successfully and with no issues, and at least in the mainstream media the situation seems to have calmed down a bit, so we decided to take a chance and break the rules. UK gov advice is still avoid all non-essential travel, which in turn means our travel insurance wash their hands of us, but I was getting bored in Antigua and the cost of shipping direct from there to South America was just prohibitive - more than 3 times what we will pay from Panama. Plus you miss so much on route if you bypass.
We left Antigua on Wednesday morning and crossed into El Salvador. 1 night in the capital San Salvador - I'm sure Maria will post some pictures soon - and 2 nights at the beach in the south east corner. We met up with Simon, Justin and Tim there on Saturday morning - 3 Aussie brothers who we had met on-line and in person in Antigua - and drove together across the border into Honduras and stayed 1 night. To be honest I had always been far more worried about the Honduras crossing because of the reported levels of crime and in particular police corruption - apparently they like to go through tourist vehicles with a fine tooth comb and if you don't have a fire extinguisher, warning triangles and a whole host of other stuff they will threaten you with huge fines and then "let you off" with a warning for cash. And the border crossings are supposed to be the worst in Central America for complexity and random rule changes. Turns out it was one of the smoothest, easiest border crossings we have done - much better than El Salvador which took 2 1/2 hours (think we arrived at lunch break) and Nicaragua.....and we never saw a cop for the whole crossing.
So yesterday we met the brothers at 6:00 am and headed for the Nicaragua border an hour away. Got there just after 7:00. queued up, filled in the forms, paid immigration, went round to the vehicle import desk, queued up, got copies of paperwork, queued up, handed over paperwork, stood around for 30 minutes while it all gets keyed into the 1 computer. Then they decide they want to x-ray both our vehicles - don't know why, but nothing we can do but comply. Our guide is just the other side of the gate watching this. Finally get out of there just after 10:00 . Meet Byron our guide, and hit the road. Picked up a couple of bikers to join the convoy at the first village - I think they had got through just before us and weren't x-rayed so had gone on the get coffee. The actual drive across Nicaragua was uneventful - According to Byron there were still some clashes going on in a couple of places, and tear gas had been used somewhere on Saturday, but generally everyone is trying to be on their best behaviour as the UN are sending in some inspectors, so both sides are trying to appear blameless and and are pointing the finger at the other side. His personal view is that it could all flare up again at any time as the underlying problems have not gone away, and the government's reactions are antagonising even more people.....hope not as no-one wants more violence, but hard to see a way forward with Ortega being so bloody minded and self serving. Funny how the left wing freedom fighters all seem to come full circle and end up looking like the dictators they overthrew.....Animal Farm, anyone?
5 1/2 hours drive across Nicaragua, another 30 minutes to leave at the southern border and an hour to get into Costa Rica, and an hour on to the first town with a hotel and we were done. Sunrise to sunset - its universally recommended not to drive at night in these countries, so we just made it in the available window of opportunity. And breath a huge sigh of relief - if I have a heart attack now at least the insurance will cover me again....
So now we are back on track with our original plan - ish. We will travel through Costa Rica and Panama a bit quicker as they are expensive, and we will team up with the brothers again to share a shipping container from Panama to Colombia in a couple of weeks time......
We left Antigua on Wednesday morning and crossed into El Salvador. 1 night in the capital San Salvador - I'm sure Maria will post some pictures soon - and 2 nights at the beach in the south east corner. We met up with Simon, Justin and Tim there on Saturday morning - 3 Aussie brothers who we had met on-line and in person in Antigua - and drove together across the border into Honduras and stayed 1 night. To be honest I had always been far more worried about the Honduras crossing because of the reported levels of crime and in particular police corruption - apparently they like to go through tourist vehicles with a fine tooth comb and if you don't have a fire extinguisher, warning triangles and a whole host of other stuff they will threaten you with huge fines and then "let you off" with a warning for cash. And the border crossings are supposed to be the worst in Central America for complexity and random rule changes. Turns out it was one of the smoothest, easiest border crossings we have done - much better than El Salvador which took 2 1/2 hours (think we arrived at lunch break) and Nicaragua.....and we never saw a cop for the whole crossing.
So yesterday we met the brothers at 6:00 am and headed for the Nicaragua border an hour away. Got there just after 7:00. queued up, filled in the forms, paid immigration, went round to the vehicle import desk, queued up, got copies of paperwork, queued up, handed over paperwork, stood around for 30 minutes while it all gets keyed into the 1 computer. Then they decide they want to x-ray both our vehicles - don't know why, but nothing we can do but comply. Our guide is just the other side of the gate watching this. Finally get out of there just after 10:00 . Meet Byron our guide, and hit the road. Picked up a couple of bikers to join the convoy at the first village - I think they had got through just before us and weren't x-rayed so had gone on the get coffee. The actual drive across Nicaragua was uneventful - According to Byron there were still some clashes going on in a couple of places, and tear gas had been used somewhere on Saturday, but generally everyone is trying to be on their best behaviour as the UN are sending in some inspectors, so both sides are trying to appear blameless and and are pointing the finger at the other side. His personal view is that it could all flare up again at any time as the underlying problems have not gone away, and the government's reactions are antagonising even more people.....hope not as no-one wants more violence, but hard to see a way forward with Ortega being so bloody minded and self serving. Funny how the left wing freedom fighters all seem to come full circle and end up looking like the dictators they overthrew.....Animal Farm, anyone?
5 1/2 hours drive across Nicaragua, another 30 minutes to leave at the southern border and an hour to get into Costa Rica, and an hour on to the first town with a hotel and we were done. Sunrise to sunset - its universally recommended not to drive at night in these countries, so we just made it in the available window of opportunity. And breath a huge sigh of relief - if I have a heart attack now at least the insurance will cover me again....
So now we are back on track with our original plan - ish. We will travel through Costa Rica and Panama a bit quicker as they are expensive, and we will team up with the brothers again to share a shipping container from Panama to Colombia in a couple of weeks time......
You've got me re-addicted to a glorious track from a favourite film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5ZLJWQmss . Shows how to deal with bandits at 01:47
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