Honduras Archives - Iron Roamer

After spending the night at Choluteca, Honduras, I tackled the border from Honduras to Nicaragua at El Guasaule.

Choleteca

Having crossed the border into Honduras, I rode to Choletuca. There was A LOT of construction on the road. I could see why when I road the parts where there was no construction. The road in these spots was littered with crater like potholes that could do serious damage if you hit one. So my eyes were peeled on the road.

I reached the hotel I booked and was pleasantly surprised. It looked new and was very clean. As I checked in the clerk, who was about mid 20s, she spoke perfect English! I asked her where she learned and she said she was educated in a bilingual school and then her mother sent her to Naples Florida for more school.

Anyways, I enjoyed the hotel and a beer on the patio.

It was then time to study for the El Guasaule border. I heard from many that this was the worst border they had encountered on there ride to Argentina. I got mentally prepared for it.

Honduras Border at El Guasaule

Ok …. here is a map of the entire border. My first step was #1 at the Honduran border.

As I rode close to the border people started yelling at me and waving their arms. At one point I encountered a gang of them. One even tried jumping in front of my motorcycle. I didn’t slow and rode straight through them as they jumped back. As I rode past I noticed out of the side of my eye the customs building I had been looking for. I was almost past it.

I quickly made a left turn turning into the exit. The fixers must have been gathering at the entrance driveway to the building. It turned out to be a good plan to enter through the exit ha ha. As I turned I almost ran over a fixer who had been chasing me on his bicycle.

When I parked the bicycle fixer approached me along with a couple others. They said the usual that this was the hardest border to cross and I couldn’t do it on my own. I politely said I didn’t need their help. I didn’t want to be too rude for fear that they may do something to my bike while I was inside.

First, I went to immigration on the far side counter to have them stamp my passport out of Honduras. Easy. While I was there one of the fixers who was following me asked if I had been to Central America before. I lied and said yes. He immediately disappeared.

Next was Customs. Here I presented my passport, drivers license, motorcycle registration and entry form into Honduras. One thing that is strange is that here, like at a lot of the borders, they asked me if the one page motorcycle registration form was all I had. I guess there is a lot more paper to register a motorcycle in theses countries. It wasn’t long and the import permit for my motorcycle was cancelled.

Onto the Nicaragua border.

Nicaragua Border

This is where things took a turn from what I studied the night before.

Step #3 was fumigation. I pulled up and spoke to an immigration official who wanted to see my papers. He then handed me a medical form to fill out. It was then I was approached by another immigration officer who spoke English. I was now singled out for “special” treatment. He took my passport and told me to meet him at Immigration across the round about. I hated seeing him disappear with my passport but I didn’t have much choice.

After he left I paid $3 US, pulled ahead and had my motorcycle fumigated at point #4. I have no idea what was in the liquid but it made me cough.

I then rounded the roundabout and pulled into the Customs building at #5. The English speaking Immigration Officer wasn’t there. Turned out he was waiting for me across the street and came over to talk to me. He escorted me to the Immigration building across the street and interviewed me.

Some of the interview questions were: where was I going? where did I come from? where did I live? how much money did I have on me? how much money did I have in the bank? and what did I do for a living? The money questions concerned me. But nothing came from them.

After the interview he escorted me into the building across the street where I parked my motorcycle. He told me to sit down while he talked to another Immigration officer wearing a white shirt. I gathered that this was his boss. After the short conversation I was then escorted to an immigration booth where I signed a few forms, had my passport stamped and paid $12 US.

As would be normal, I figured my next step was Customs to get a permit for my motorcycle. So I went to the Customs booth. This is where the confusion started. I handed the usual to the Customs officer and as he went through the paper he got this confused look on his face. He spoke to me in Spanish but I didn’t understand what he was saying. The English speaking Immigration officer came over and said no …. everything had been taken care of at immigration. What?! He directed me outside the building where I needed to have some clerk sign the back of the medical form I also needed to fill out.

I quickly filled out the medical form and had one of the people wearing baby blue shirts sign the back of it.

The English speaking officer then directed me to the very back of the building at #6 where there was an xray machine and a tourist booth. There I handed the clerk all my paperwork and the medical form. Eventually, she handed me a completed form and requested $12 US. OK. With that it was on to the the last step, mandatory insurance for my motorcycle.

I exited the building looking for an insurance agent who was suppose to be outside somewhere. Finally, a woman selling drinks came to me and said I’ll show you. She walked me across the street to a courtyard behind the building.

At this point I was somewhat confused. This building, where I was interviewed too, appeared also to be a Customs and Immigration building. There were two?! And it was this building that I had studied about.

Anyways, in the courtyard were some women behind tables. I purchased insurance for …. you guessed it …$12 US.

I followed the woman back to her drinks and bought one and left a tip for her help. I was finally done!

The whole process was somewhat confusing due to my “special” treatment. I have no idea why there were two custom buildings. In some ways having the English speaking Immigration officer escorting me made things a lot easier. In other ways it made it more confusing. But in the end, as usual, it all worked out fine.

Nicaragua!

The first thing I noticed about Nicaragua were the roads. They were unreal good. The best roads I’ve seen since the US. No potholes and so smooth. Some sections were even done in cement.

Besides the roads the landscape was beautiful.

What a great ride to Managua where I would be staying for a couple of days.

My Route for July 18, 2017

It was time to cross the border from El Salvador into Honduras at El Amatillo. I had actually been wrestling with the decision. Many riders cross here and some even do the border into Nicaragua on the same day. The Argentinian rider I met at the Gautemala/El Salvador border recommended this too. I knew I didn’t want to do two borders on the same day. Quite the opposite.

I was wrestling with how much time to spend in Honduras. I really wanted to see a bit of the country. Roatan was high on my list but way up north. I even had an invitation to stay at a place in Honduras.

On the other hand, I only had 30 days left on my C4 permit. On the C4 permit you have 90 days to visit Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. That wasn’t much time and I had a lot I wanted to see in Nicaragua. I could try to get an extension in country but I heard that that was a real pain to do. Or I could go into Costa Rica and then come back into Nicaragua for another C4 permit. But I wanted to go home for a couple weeks while it was still summer. Ahhhhhhhhhh …. what to do.

I decided to skip Honduras, except for a night at Choluteca. It was a hard decision in many respects. Perhaps one day I will see Roatan on a cruise.

San Miguel

The first step to crossing the border was getting close to it. I had a really relaxing ride to San Miguel, El Salvador.

Once there it was time to study the border I would be crossing around the pool with a beer :-).

I like to study so I know what to expect and can visualize the buildings and steps. Just takes the anxiety out of the crossing. I heard that this and the next border were the toughest I would experience. So I really wanted to be ready for them.

#1 Cancel El Salvador Entry Permit

After a night of study I was ready. As I got closer to the border I saw a gas station and pulled in. A man came running up to me. He introduced himself as Orlando. I thought maybe he was just a friendly local. I didn’t realize I was close to the border. He said he helped lots of Canadians cross the border. It was then I realized he had an ulterior motive. Soon another couple guys showed up. For a donation they would help me cross the border. I said no thanks and left.

It wasn’t that easy though as they followed me on a motorcycle.

Here is the overview of the border and the places I needed to stop.

#1 was a booth where they cancelled my motorcycle entry permit into El Salvador. The following border pictures I have taken from other blogs that I studied.

As soon as I stopped I was surrounded by fixers saying I needed their services as it was the hardest border to cross and I couldn’t do it on my own. Orlando was there too. He chimed in once in awhile to say that if I hired him everyone would disappear. I told everyone no and to leave me alone. They didn’t.

The Customs Officer approached me and said no I didn’t need any help. Luckily I was prepared for this onslaught and knew I didn’t need their help.

The Customs Officer checked my bike and directed me to the booth where another Officer cancelled my entry permit. I knew I needed copies and a photocopy store was right next door to the booth. I got 5 copies. Orlando was following me all the way and said I only needed 3. I knew that but like to have more just in case.

As I arrived back at my motorcycle my “groupies” were waiting for me. This time they wanted money for guarding my bike. I said no. The thought crossed my mind that maybe they did something to my bike. But it started fine and I rode off.

#2 and #3 Immigration

It is 2 and 3 because I made a mistake on the map 🙁 There is actually only one thing to do.

At the fork in the road keep left and you reach the El Salvador immigration office.

The window I had to go to was at the far end. So I rode under the canopy and parked right at the end.

I lined up, handed in my passport, the woman stamped it and that was it!

#4 El Salvador Permit Check

I left the El Salvador Immigration office and started to cross the bridge when another officer stopped me. He wanted to look at my cancelled motorcycle entry permit. I showed it to him and he waved me on.

#5 Honduras Immigration

Across the bridge was the Honduran Immigration and Customs building.

Upon entry to the building on the right is immigration. The officer took my passport, as well as my photo and fingerprints.

I then paid $3 US for a tourist permit.

That was it for that window. Now for the hard part.

#6 Honduran Customs

Across the hall is the Honduran Customs window. This is where it got frustrating. Patience is needed. I lined up and waited and waited.

While waiting I met a nice Mennonite family from Costa Rica.

I also met a family from Illinois. He was a retired US Armed Forces member. They were in a Nissan Pathfinder. He said he had been waiting 40 years to do this trip down to Argentina. We had a nice talk.

Now …. as the system works I would see these people several times during my processing.

The Customs woman was quite nice but didn’t speak any English. This presented a bit of a problem as my Spanish was ok for everyday conversations but not for this.

I handed her my passport, drivers license, registration, and cancelled El Salvador entry permit, along with a copy of each. I waited and waited as she filled out forms.

In the meantime, the Mennonite family was sent off to make photocopies and returned. She looked after them and sent them off to the bank. The Illinois family returned from being sent to the bank. She looked after them and they got their entry permit. Meanwhile, the Mennonite family returned again and were sent to the photocopy place. She continued with me until they returned with photocopies. They then got their import permit. This is what I had to look forward to.

Eventually, she got my paperwork done and directed me to get copies. The copy place is just beside the building at #7 on the map.

Back I came with my copies.

When I arrived back she informed me that my next step was to go to the bank down the street but it was now closed for lunch! Now what? Turned out this was great. She could do everything there. Why they can’t so that normally beats me.

I needed to give her $40 US and she didn’t have change. Of course I didn’t have exactly $40. Fortunately, there were lots of money changers around. She came out of her booth and found one that would change a $100 US bill at no cost.

She took the $40 and filled out a lot more paperwork.

After awhile she handed me back a bunch of paperwork including my motorcycle import permit. That is what I had been waiting for. I asked her if that was all and she said yes. As I took the paperwork, she started saying something to me that I didn’t understand. I apologized and she tried again but I still didn’t understand. Eventually she got frustrated and motioned for me to leave. I was hoping what she had to say wasn’t important.

#8 Checkpoint

A ways up the road is a Immigration checkpoint. The officer wanted a copy of my import permit. I never made a copy of it. Maybe that is what the woman was trying to tell me. But I had asked her about copies and she said no. Of course my Spanish isn’t that good.

After a few minutes I discovered that the Customs woman had made a copy of the import permit and had stapled it to another document. YAY! The officer at the checkpoint took it from me and I was off to Choluteca Honduras for the night.

Crossing the Border from Honduras to Nicaragua at El Guasaule