Nicaragua or bust!

Location:

Esquipalas to Ocotal

We are at the border when it opens at 6am. Leaving Guatemala is held up because we need photocopies of our Guatemala bike permit and the photocopy man is not there. We should not have worried because by the time we clear here and get to the Hondura crossing a couple of kilometres down the road, the Aduana is not there. We do immigration and then wait. Our guide tells us that the Aduana will arrive at 8am. We sit around until 8.30am before he arrives.

Then it is a little bit of corruption. If we want the permit done quickly we have to pay big dollars for him to push it up the queue. Otherwise he has two other vehicles to do first. (Probably from last night!)

No amount of arguing gets us anywhere and we are caught. We hate paying over the odds - it makes it worse for the next traveller - but we cannot wait here for the best part of the morning.

We pay the extra dollars and feel angry at being fleeced, but leave the border by 9am. We have to try and make a double border crossing today into Nicaragua if we are to catch up.

The day is tedious. We only stop a couple of times for fuel and water. We miss any food breaks. Our only saving is that unlike Guatemala City, Teguicigalpa signs the road straight through for us. We weave in and out of the trucks as the clock counts down. LP says the border closes at 5.30pm.

We arrive at five to five with a sigh of releif only to be have a rising tide of panic when they say the border closes at five. They will process us out of Honduras but will Nicaragua let us in??