We went out for Chinese food last night, we had just about had it with the local food. I got the size of the portions wrong when I ordered, so instead of normal size dishes we received huge plates with fried-rice, noodles, vegetables and chicken  and ribs. The restaurant was like a Mc Donalds feel inside, including a Jumping castle, it was sort of take away but eat in, no ambiance and bright lights, but the food was great. We had so many food left over that all the street dogs, plus the receptionist and the security guard all got Chineese food last night, and we kept some which we ate at the border, with spoons we made from styrofoam coffee cups. (and you thought our skills were limited to tailoring, suckers.)

But I need to go back a bit, before dinner we went shoe shopping for Pie, actually I had to pay for his new shoes. He has a very ugly pair of fishing-type-sandales, (or should I say “had”such a pair.) He tied these two shoes on top of his panniers, and then yesterday I stole one shoe, he complained that no one saw it fall off his pannier and why did no one have his back and picked up his shoe. But then when I enquired about the shoe last night when he was walking to the restaurant in his riding boots he told me he threw away the shoe as it was pointless to carry the one remaining shoe with. So I had to throw away the one I stole and felt bad, even though I have no doubt that all of his family will hand over to me cash dollars for making this horrible fashion nightmare end, he loved wearing these shoes with black socks, verskriklik !!!! So as I was paying I got him a pair of black Under Armour Tekkies (Tennis Shoes.) I asked if he had socks, he said yes, and sadly he did not understand he needed none short white socks for these shoes, so I am now looking for a shop to buy him white socks just so that his family will be seen walking next to him proudly with his new fashion statement he will be making.

This morning the “Shoe Theme” continued when my left boot were not fitting properly, we leave our boots at the bikes as they smell too bad and Milsy and I have the same boots, but mine is a number larger, so someone switched out left boots, so my gear changes were problematic, and Milsy battled to walk comfortably, we discovered this practical joke at the border when I almost count not get my boot off.

We left at 7h00 and arrived a the border at 8h00. It took is only half an hour to get out of Honduras and get our Import Permits cancelled.

But then the fun and games began, we were shown to park and then the gardener with the Leaf Blower on his back started giving me orders and shouting at me, I wanted to say something to him, but he spoke with a  lot of authority, so I moved my bike. Turns out he is the Fumigation Guy who then sprayed all our bikes using the Leaf-Blower on his back.

Then Rocky decided to have a make over to his face and had some Botox done the Oros way, with the help of a bee:

 

I wanted to help and offered some Antihistamine but when I got to my bike I discovered than my medical kit did not have this, so I gave him some Brooklax, a Laxative and soon he forgot about his stolen face, he had new problems to deal with. No, just joking, I found some antihistamine and sorted him out.

We negotiated with a Fixer as we heard that if we did not do a “Pre-Check” on-line we would battle to get in. I guess that it is the Fixers that paid to have the web-site crash as we did try to fill it in online but you need much more luck and patience than we experienced last night.

But we were confident, we had an guardian angle, with wings:

There were different packages with the Fixer, the chose the Oros Option which meant we had to pay our own Insurance, then pay the lady to do our Passports separate and then he will simply help to have our bikes Inspected and then get our forms to the front of the line. We could go and sit down and eat breakfast (last nights left over Chineese plus some sausages we had to buy to be able to sit in the “Restaurant” and use their cutlery.

This German Couple took the Diamond De Lux option with the fixer which meant they could sit in their truck, air-con running, and fill in their forms, then pass all their papers to Fixer, but as they arrived an hour after us they still had to go to the window to sign, and they were stuck behind the 8 of us, so they could not jump the line as we had another little scrum going and eventually they waited in line for their turn.

It was at this border, watching the Truckers walk past me that I suddenly realised that the Shoe Theme was staring me right in the eye. During a three day ferry crossing from Pot in Georgia to Odessa in Ukraine we were captured on the ferry for 3 days with 60 Russian Truck drivers, and it was there that I 1st got confronted by the foot-wear of choice of these truckers. The prefer woman shoes in the Croc Fashion, but due to their toe-nail problem (actually there would be no problem if they would just clip their toe nails, but they let it grow long, until it curves down and like a crow’s feet, such the ground in front off their toes.) they too take to fixing the problem (like Millsy big EARS,) with a knife and then cut hokes in the from of their female crocs so their toes can hang out over the from of the shoe, and I use the term “shoe” very lightly, and their toe-nails can grip the tiles for extra traction as the shitty shoes is like a Yoga mat on grease, sp they need extra grip. And sitting here today watching the truckers I realised the trucker shoe fashion was a global revolution.

In spite of having fixer it took 4,5 hours before Peens, out angel that scares the people got their import permits into Nicaragua and we sent him and Jorge ahead to find us a nice place to sleep next to the sea. Nicaragua is famous for its beaches and its surfing, so we hoped to explore this.

On the way we found many places selling hammocks, it is a very big thing here, even a truck driver that broke down had his hammock connected and hung between his 2nd and 3rd row of wheels while waiting to be rescued.

Double “Bed” with a night frill.

The road condition was good as we were on the Pan American Highway, a single road with a wide emergency lane, but the 1st half was extremely busy as it was full of trucks going in both directions, but later we turned off towards the sea and the road was very quiet.

We were making good time, so we stopped for a cool drink\water at a small shop. The owner though we wanted food so he sent his son to fan the fire back to life and turned up the speaker blaring local Nicaraguan Music.

While we sat down drinking frozen drinks from the deep-freeze another restaurant peddled past us:

There are many Volcanos here as well and we saw several as we rode today. This one was still smoking.

Peens did find us a Surf Resort. We feel a little out as every guy here is sporting a 6-pack, everyone is talking “Swells” and looking a the board.

 

From the outside it does look like a piece of heaven, but then when you look deeper you find out that the room that sleeps three is actually a room with a small double bed and a bunk bed. There are air conditioners but no toiles and showers, those are communal. They are having a Pizza Evening and we ordered red wine but then discovered they don’t have a cork screw. but that does not matter if you are here for the waves the waves are good, and who needs wine if you can have some of the Devils Lettuce?

There are 20 extremely well built guys here, three girls that are pro surfers and then 8 bilkers who stands out like sore thumbs, but in out defences, wee are three times their age.

I believe these kids are ahead of the curve, just like the surfers that discovered Phi Phi in Thailand 30 years ago were ahead of the curve. I feel sorry for the 3 girls, they don’t know where to look, there are muscles, glistening with sweat under the moonlight on display as far as the eye can see, and then us ugly bikers. I chose to sleep with Peens in a Twin room, but Rocky has many issues with sleeping and sharing rooms, and tonight there is no single room for him, so tonight he will sleep on the top bunk (the air-con’s noise will drown out the snoring he believes, ja right, he has Milsy and Pie with him. I approached him and tonight I will make him clever and teach him how to roll and then how to wet the Fleisch-Ear-Plug, which is pending being patented.

 

Today we had free wi-fi at the border, so we spent that time eating chicken, drinking Fanta and researching our options with regards to storage and how to get past the short period on offer for the Temporary Import Permit, only 90 days, then huge penalties, in US dollar. We can’t return in the 90 days, so other options are considered, like storing at a price in a Bonded Storage. Rocky was sending emails and driving this option. Another option is to push hard and get to Panama City, where there is no such problem as it is at the end of the road, but its another 800km further, and only 1 midnight flight to Colombia then connect to Costa Rica and then try to make our flights home. So solving one problem creates several others. But this is not our 1st Rodeo, and the caliber of guys are of such standard that we will get the best solution at the lowest price within the next 3 days.