Helpers or horrors?

I'm writing this blog from our room overlooking the Pacific Ocean preparing myself for the next border crossing into Costa Rica. I mentioned my apprehension about these crossings in my last blog. Since then they have steadily got worse until the last one into Nicaragua, which actually was quite calm and orderly.

Before I continue I just want to thank my stepson, Alex, for finally loading skype onto his lap top. This means we can chat and comment on his need for a hair cut etc.


Also, I would like to wish Catherine, Brian's niece, a happy birthday for tomorrow. I'm also going to apologise as this blog is really quite a long one.

Back to the border crossings. As we approached the Guatemala border we were surrounded by 8 or 9 guys all shouting to get us to choose them to 'help us'. We stopped interacting with them and let them just fight it out amongst themselves. Eventually we got through the border in about 30 minutes. This 'helper' then took us through the El Salvador border which took twice as long if not more, during which time I remained with the shed. I chatted to a money changer from El Salvador who told me about all the corruption in the country and was clearly very angry and disturbed by what was happening in the small towns etc. A chap emerged from the customs building and advised me that my husband may be quite some time. He told me it had taken him over an hour to get through. As he had cheered me up I shared with him the information I had been given which was that the Honduras border was even worse and could take 2-3 hours.

I can't tell you much about El Salvaldor as we didn't spend much time there. It's very green and fertile, has lots of volcanoes and some terrible roads. Police have road checks all over the place but we only got stopped at one of them. We stayed in San Salvador and, yet again, despite informing the bank that I was going into El Salvador, found that I was unable to use my debit card at the ATM. This was sorted out - again- following a long and expensive telephone call. San Salvador (as we found out the next morning) is a place with few sign posts and the ones we found didn't have any major information on them. We got hopelessly lost when trying to head out of the city and, for a little extra spice, found ourselves at one point in the middle of a busy market area with taxi drivers stopping abruptly to tote for business. This caused Brian to swear and curse and express his loathing for the city and it's transport ministry. We eventually escaped by being invited to follow a guy from a gas station who was heading in our direction.

The border leaving El Salvador was even worse than when we came in. This time the group of helpers that swarmed towards us were like a pack of predators and were pushing each other into the shed. Try to imagine sitting on a motor bike in fear of being pushed over in their eagerness to get our money. I'd like to say business, but really they did just want our money. Eventually Rene, the guy we chose because he could speak some English, managed to get rid of the rest of them. He and his friend proved to be very expensive but he did manage to get us through without having to queue along with the others. Whilst we were getting the passports checked we gave all the loose change we had left to an old lady who was begging for money. When Brian was sorting out the customs import papers for the shed I went to wait in a fast food place where I could keep an eye on the shed. In there I found this same old lady getting stuck into chicken and chips and a bottle of cola. She was very happy and came over to shake my hand and I actually felt we had made a bit of a difference to her day.

Leaving Honduras was expensive, and though Brian tries to get everyone to calm down and agree how much things will cost before proceeding, they have there own methods, skills and ploys to create mayhem and confusion. However, I was just very, very glad to get out of the country. At the Nicaraguan border we were asked about our health by a nurse and advised what to do should we develop flu symptoms. The first time we had heard anything about the swine flu since leaving the USA. We got through this border with no helpers though I did have the company of a couple of kids. The price of this company -$1 each.

Nicaragua is lovely. Because getting out of Honduras had cost everything we had on us we needed to get to a big town or city to access ATM's. We found ourselves in the capital city, Managua. A dirty place with people begging for money, shanty towns and yet again very few road signs or indicators of where the hotel zone was. Eventually we conceded and stayed in a Holiday Inn (could be worse) The receptionist here was lovely. Her name was Cindy. She spoke very good English and recommended that we go to Granada the following day. She was incredibly helpful.

We were both a bit 'poorly' that night but, as Granada wasn't far away, we were able to have a lie in before moving on. There was a sign to a volcano along the way so we made a quick diversion. This road eventually became just a path of volcanic ash which the shed didn't like one bit and eventually decided to keel over onto her side demolishing a waste bin in the process. We were fine and just stepped away from the shed. The volcano became a no go and we proceeded to Granada being stopped regularly by the police asking to see our papers.

Granada is a lovely Colonial town and we enjoyed a horse drawn carriage tour around the main sites.

The first evening we were there we met Kevin and Julia Sanders and their group of 15 other BMW bikes some of which were being ridden two up. Kevin and Julia who own the company Globebusters which specialises in organised motorbike tours.

It was lovely chatting and swapping stories. We also found an Irish bar who sold fish and chips......... lovely.

So here we are, waiting to go into another country with the help of a new set of 'helpers' I just can't wait ..... to get it over with.