We checked out of Guatemala and had the permit for the bike canceled without and incident.  It took less than ten minutes.  I walked over to the immigration office for Honduras and was told the stamp in our passports was good throughout all of Central America except Panama.  No additional stamp was necessary.  However, I still had to pay the $3.00 entry tax for each of us.  I pushed the bike forward to the customs office and was greeted by a friendly young Guatemalan.  I gave him my documents.  With a smile on his face he said I had to have a copy of the documents.  To his surprise I had a copy ready and gave it to him.  He looked at them for a while and said I must have two copies and smiled.  I asked if there was a place to make another copy.  He said not on Sunday with a smile.  I would have to come back tomorrow.  I went back to the bike and retrieved an additional copy (I had about ten copies but didn’t want him to see any of the others).  He seemed surprised again when I returned with two copies.  He looked over the papers again, matched numbers on the bike and said it would cost 540 (about $30 US dollars) and he could take only Honduras currency.  Fortunately, I had just exchanged $50 into Honduras currency with one of the several vendors at the Guatemala gate.  I handed him the money and he was really surprised.  He was out of excuses so he took all the papers and went over to the typewriter and started to type.

Meanwhile I started reading all the signs I could.  I figured the guy was probably taking me for a little money.  I told myself that is the price for crossing on a Sunday.  I was told that most of the time you want to pay an agent ten dollars or so and they will expedite all the steps and paperwork for you.  But here it was a Sunday and nobody was in line.  I did find a sign with fees.  Honduras has a $20 road fee if you bring in your own vehicles.  There were two other fees that were a couple of dollars each.  I did the math and it appears the customs guard only added a few dollars to the legitimate charges.  Within another ten minuets we had all the proper paperwork and were on our way.

I thought to myself that if there had been a long line then it could easily have taken hours if not much of a day.  In a case like that, I would pay an agent who could take you to the front of the line.  Fortunately, all three border crossings so far have been easily handled without the need for an agent.

We rode the next couple of miles into the small town of Copan Ruinas.  The roads to the town were in excellent condition.  The roads in the town were either rough dirt or coble stone and very steep. We rode throughout the town to get a sense of where everything was at.  We finally found a hotel just one block off of the downtown plaza that had a secured parking area.  We pulled into Patty’s Hotel.  Patty, herself greeted us and showed us where we could park the bike.  Before I had my helmet off she had a hot cup of café for me.  She showed us a clean room and I booked the place on the spot.  I asked her how much and she said $21.00.  I started to pay her and she told me to put my money away because she was enjoying her coffee.  Wow, I thought.  No where else had anyone allowed us into a room without having first made a full payment.

We inquired about the ruins.  We were pleased to hear the entrance is only 1km from the hotel, within easy walking distance.

Day 2 Copan Ruinas – 0 miles by bike, several on foot

Today was a planned relaxing day; we ate breakfast at a small café across the street and met four college students from different places in the U.S., one was even from Colorado Springs.  They are here for a semester abroad across Central America.  The irony of breakfast was that we ate at a Honduras restaurant, we had a typical United States meal of bacon, eggs and toast, talked to people from the U.S. and our server was from Holland. 

We thought we saw lots of tourists in Guatemala.  There are many more here in Copan.  Of course, Copan is the location of the largest and one of the four most important cities to the Mayans. 

After our morning meal it was time to go on a hard search for a battery charger.  We went into the first store having no idea what charger was in Spanish, so I am sure that the fly on the wall was laughing hysterically at us while we were acting out what we needed.  There was about 4 or 5 people trying to help us and we got as far as cables, but never a charger.  We said thank you and then Dad tried another place in town after stopping by the computer to see what “charger” was in Spanish.  Unfortunately it was not a success; I guess that we will just have to wait until we get to a bigger city.

Our next adventure was the ruins at Copan.  Wow!  This place was much larger and much more preserved than either of us expected.  It was amazing.  The experience was aided by the fact that we hired a private guide to walk us through the facility and share his wealth of knowledge with us.  It turns out that Antonio was quite the archeologist and historian as well as a comedian.  He has worked this and other sites.  He has worked for many universities and has met with a couple U.S. presidents and cabinet members.  He is also in the Genius Book of World Records (for being the best guide and being able to greet people in over a hundred different languages).  He is 69 years young.  Giving tours and walking up and down the many stairs must keep him young.

We took about three hundred pictures but can put only a couple on the website.  Someday we look forward to sharing more photos and stories of this amazing place.  We returned back to the hotel and will make a relaxing evening with the rest of the day.  A stop at the Internet café and then a nice dinner and some sleep for the long day tomorrow.

Day 3 Copan Runias to Tegucigalpa – 264 miles (50 by dirt)

Today was an adventure in itself.  It was nice and cool all day and there were chances of rain, but we seemed to outskirt them just in time.  We left Copan Ruinas early in the morning; of course any time is early in my book.  The best part about leaving early was that it was nice and cool.  We were lucky though and it stayed cool throughout the day, there was a couple of hot spots and slight rain, but overall it was a great day.

The breakfast place across the street where we ate the morning before wasn’t open yet so we opted to drive down the road a bit.  We stopped in Santa Rosa de Copan for breakfast and gas.  The restaurant was next door to a bus stop, so we had a lot of attention as we were pushing the bike down the road in front of two to three full passenger buses.  Towards Tegucigalpa we went, but there was a lot of construction on the road and somehow we ended up on one of the roughest dirt roads imaginable.  This is where the KLR was nice, but I know that my back will be hurting tomorrow.  There were two mud slides that must have happened in the past few hours before we got there because both of them had people standing around, looking at it like they were trying to decide what to do next.  That stuff is slippery as snot.  The two upsides that my dad and I could think of while being thrown around on the dirt road were, no semi trucks to deal with and it looked just like home.  Bumpy, washboard infested roads with pine trees surrounding us; it was just like being back in Colorado.  However, the occasional palm tree put us back in reality.

The dirt road ended outside of La Esperanza.  Talk about an interesting town.  We tried to drive right through, but there were so many people in the streets that we made lots of side turns.  We stopped right outside of the school to figure out where to go next and the students were just getting out.  For our amusement, I’m sure, two boys about 2nd graders, got into a fist fight, it was at about that time that the black market dealers drove up in their tinted windowed Toyota Corolla to offer some goods that they had stashed in a Gift Bag.  Quite the Experience.  Dad asked if I wanted to eat lunch there or at least grab a snack, heck no, I was already sick of that place, so we headed down the nice smooth pavement towards the next town for gas and a snack. 

We stayed in the mountains all day and finally sunk into a valley that held yet another large city, Tegucigalpa.  We said we were done with cities, but we had to get a battery charger.  We found a room downtown in the middle of rush hour of course and then Dad took a cab for the ultimate search.  No luck, but he McGuyvered one up and now it is charging in the bathroom as I write.  Yeah!  Thank goodness, no more parking on hills.

There was a lot of driving today, but Mother Nature helped to make it interesting, never underestimate her.  Hope all is well with everyone, Clara

Like Clara, I found this to be an interesting and adventurous day.  We didn’t know where we were half the day but it didn’t matter.  Other than the last 50 miles, which was more urban than rural, and the 50 miles of dirt road, we were in a motorcycling paradise.  The weather was picture perfect all day.  We were traveling through pine forests the entire route.  We rode along two rivers for a long time and crossed another.  Ninety percent of the paved road was in excellent condition and twisted through the mountains.  We rarely saw another vehicle.

However, we did see many animals on the road, especially horses.  We must have passed over a hundred horses on the road or grazing next to the road.  Cattle and dogs were everywhere. 

And then there was the other ten percent of the road.  Turn after turn on the nice pavement would gradually affect the right wrist and you just had to go faster and faster.  Then, without warning, a mud slide would close a lane and a half and what was left had mud flowing across it.  Or, there would be giant potholes in the middle of no where.  I mean giant potholes.  These things would shallow a KLR whole.  I think I saw the top of a car in one of the potholes but wasn’t about to stop and find out.

Again, I thought how much more fun this would have been on a bigger sport bike.  Then a sudden “gotcha” would make me realize I would have been tempted to ride a bigger bike faster than the road would allow.  The riding here is awesome but you have to be fully alert 110% of the time.

We came to an area of heavy construction and somehow took a wrong turn.  There is no signage down here!  We ended up riding a dirt road for about 50 miles.  At one point we both commented that the wrong turn took us all the way back to Colorado.  We could have easily been on one of the many old mining roads in that beautiful state.  We eventually came into a town.  We looked on the map and found that we rode what is called a “trail.”

Okay, this is now officially a dual sport adventure tour.  Also, the KLR now has more miles on it south of the border than it did north of the border so it is officially a “south of the border” motorcycle.

Honduras is another beautiful, mountainous country with lush tropical growth in the valleys and pine forests in the mountains.  It is less crowded here, except in the cities.  There is lighter skin here than we have seen so far.  We have had decent food here but we have liked the food better in Mexico and Guatemala.  People here are less likely to wave back or smile.  Perhaps, culturally, they are more reserved or hesitant.  If you stop and speak with a Honduran they are very nice and try to be helpful.

Tomorrow, with a charged battery or not, we are heading toward Nicaragua.

Day 4 Tegucigalpa to the border crossing at La Manos – 80 miles

Clara thought the heavens shined upon us.  The battery charged all night long and there was no more pushing, which was very handy later in the day. 

We got an early start to see if we could get out of the big city before it became too chaotic.  We eventually got out unscathed and headed toward the border.  We were in and out of light rain all morning.  We could see the clouds building and knew we would have to face that later in the day.  Fortunately, the sun came out just as we came up to the border.

There was a long line.  As I’ve learned in the past, if you’re on a motorcycle you can go around the line and to the front.  We did so and were immediately surrounded with people trying to get a closer look and others who wanted to sell us services or products.  This made Clara rather uncomfortable.  

It was about 10:00am.  Nothing was happening.  I went up to the Honduras immigration desk and nobody was there.  Several people waiting around told me the office doesn’t open until 1:00.  Great, three hours to kill and Clara is already as uncomfortable as a cat in water.

A teenager approached me with an official looking badge telling me he could be an agent for me and expedite the process.  I had heard about these agents but had no reason to use them thus far.  I asked him about his price and he said whatever I wanted to pay him.  Sounded fair enough.  The earlier he could get me out of there the more I was likely to pay him.  He then asked me for all my documents (passport, license, bike title and registration).  I was a little concerned but he had me follow him through the process so the documents were never out of my sight.  First thing he did was go up to the window where I had been and started yelling to several different people all over the place, inside and outside the building.  Within five minutes a lady came to the counter and took the documents from Nolan, my agent.  She never looked at me.  A few moments later and the bike permit for Honduras was appropriately cancelled.  The lady disappeared and the others in line continued to wait.  It didn’t cost me anything.  Nolan walked me over to the Nicaragua offices.  I was glad to have his help.  For some reason I had to go through two processes with immigration and two additional processes for customs to get the bike cleared.  This would have been hard to follow without Nolan’s help.  Within a few minutes I had my and Clara’s passport cleared.  The entry fee and tax came to $10.00 each.  The bike permit was $12.00.  Customs and two different police crews had to check all the paper work.  However, unlike Honduras, they didn’t carefully examine the bike.  They got the VIN number and license plate number off the paperwork and this seemed fine to everyone.  Within ten minutes we were done with the Nicaragua side.  It wasn’t 10:30 yet.  I looked around at everyone else and just wondered.  I paid Nolan $20.00.  He was happy.  I was happy.  Clara was happiest.  Into Nicaragua we rode.

Click here to read about our adventures in Nicaragua.