September 27, 2007

The beggars who took advantage of this stretch of dusty, slow-driving road south of the Honduras border to ask for money told us that were no "mechanicos" anywhere nearby.

This presented us with the first real "pickle" of the trip.

For the first 75 kilometres of drive north from the Leon to the Guasaule border crossing the road had been in good condition, and the scenery green and lush.

But about 25 kilometres shy of the international line, with Adrienne making a rare appearance in the driver’s seat, the road turned to dirt with pot-holes the size of moon craters.

There was very little traffic and not much sign of life, save for the small group of ragged beggars who were filling in the potholes with shovels, in the hopes of receiving a little money from the passing motorists.

At one point, we slowed down so much, the van stalled.

And it wouldn’t start again.

Stranded in the middle of the road in what felt like the middle of nowhere, we were at a complete loss of what to do next.

But just as the panic was starting to creep in - perhaps ten minutes after we stalled - an Aussie/English couple we had briefly met in Leon a few days earlier while volcano boarding, pulled up behind us in their SUV with their surfboards on top.

He was more handy than I (not hard), and after jiggling the connections to the battery, he had us on our way in a few minutes.

Given that we had seen only seen three or four other cars with gringo road-trippers during our entire time in Central America, and given that we had actually met this couple before, we drove away speechless. The chances of them coming by exactly when they did were, it seemed, infinitesimal. Angels.

The border crossing at Guasaule is so much quieter and easier to navigate through than the Nicaragua/Honduras border on the Interamericana Highway, which we had gone through on the way south.

But there was still the multiple steps, multiple fees and the general run-around which characterizes Central American border crossings.

Key Facts & Figures:

-Nicaragua immigration: $3/person
-Honduran immigration: $4/person
-Additional fees $12 +$6.75 +$20