Day11-Crossing into Honduras!, Thu, Dec 9, 2010

How many ways are there to take foreigners money at a border?  Jumping through the hoops at a Central American border crossing.

El Salvador/Honduras Border Crossing #4

Start & Stop: Acajutla, San Salvador to Choluteca, Honduras.

Day’s mileage: 272 miles (437 km)

Ride time:  5:55AM, Acajutla, San Salvador, CA2 along the coast through La Libertad, El Carmen, Santa Maria, 17 north to San Miguel, 18 northeast to Santa Rosa de Lima and finally east to El Amatillo El Salvador/Honduras border corssing, ending the day at 4:27 PM, Choluteca, Honduras.

Weather:  Warm, mid-70 to 80-degree F – Hot mid-day sun!

Lodging:

Fuel:

Money Exchange:  $1 USD = 18.54 Honduran Limpira HNL

Dean: We are a day behind.   Everything is well but we are tired.  The days are much warmer.  With “All-The-Gear-All-The-Time” (ATGATT) we are soaked by the end of the day.

Border Stop Time: 11:00AM to 1:40PM

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We may not realize it now, but we are having the time of our lives!!!

Lisa: We left the hotel before 6am and were treated to a beautiful ride along the El Salvador coast. We went through lush green foliage, dark, damp tunnels on the curving road, meandering through little coastal towns offering Surfer Hostels and sweet oceanfront outdoor restaurants overlooking some of the most beautiful whitewater views. We saw very few other vehicles and it was gorgeous watching the sun come up in the east, directly perpendicular to the coastline. We finally left the coast and went through some congested, crazy cities, uneven payment, taxi lunatics, the whole Central America routine pretty much all the way to the border.

El Salvador/Honduras Frontera: Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. We got “had” on Thursday and the fact that many others have been ‘robbed’ by this guy hasn’t mitigated our disgust. Anyway, no need to reinvent the wheel. The person who scammed us as well as his MO are both well documented here:

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=401681&highlight=jose+border

Whether or not you want to read through that topic, (we didn’t see it until yesterday) the fact is that you need to do your own border crossings, not depend on ‘help’ from anyone else.  I think as Americans we are quite naïve and want to believe that these ‘helpful’ people are actually there to help you.  Nope.  They are there to get as many US dollars from us as possible and they are incredibly skilled liars/thieves.

Just about the time that Dean and I thought we had it covered, we would discover another of their angles, and then another.  It seems to be a defective gene actually as we have had many 8-11 y.o. kids come up, tug hard on our jacket sleeves and say ‘Give me a dollar!’.  Not please, not nicely, no smile, just a demand.  I told the last kid that if he wanted some money he should go find a job and grabbing my jacket wasn’t in his best interest.  Two can play that game and I’m so done with the nonsense.  Being taller helps too!

We’re obviously quite behind on our posts so I’ve had a lot of time to think about the events of Thursday.  Believe me, we knew we were victimized and told them that at the time but it is what it is now.  Dean and I were really down as we left that border and then had two successive police stops in less than 5 miles.  Gimme a break.  Keeping the countryside safe from a short Danish guy and a 54 year old mom must give them tremendous job satisfaction.

Dean: You just never know what’s going to happen at a roadside vehicle stop.  Typically there are 4-6 officers with one standing ion the center line and the rest spread on the on sides.  The head honcho will smile and extend his hand for a handshake (sure sign of impending shake down).  He ask if you speak Spanish and we typically reply “little”.  Then asked for your papers – which includes international drivers license, tourist slip, vehicle customs papers and sometimes they’ll ask for the passport, and country insurance documents.  Every time is a little different.  We park the bike, pull off our gloves and locate and remove our document pouch from the tank bag.

The head guy will look at these document with great concern while 1 or 2 officers walk around the bike with the sole purpose of guessing how much they can get you for.

At the Guatamala/El Salvador border we were told that we would get stopped and fined for not having truck style high-viz white/orange reflectors on the back and sides of our bikes.  I just put on all kinds of reflector on my VStrom to increase visibility.  Lisa has no reflectors so she added a couple truck style reflective strips to her bike.

Our first roadside stop was 5 miles from the border.  We were told we did not have the correct type of truck high-viz white/orange reflectors on the back and sides of our bikes.  I point out my highly visible reflectors and he ignores my points.  He writes $20 USD on his hand.  After 30-seconds of chit-chat, it becomes $10 USD.  I say $10 USD for both Lisa and I and he agreed.  Redistribution of wealth.  It’s not just an Obama thing.

Lisa: At the second one, there were 5 cops, one of which had to be way into his cups.  As soon as he saw Dean he started doing Karate chops and making Hi YA! noises and the crane stance from Karate Kid movies.  Really.  In uniform in the middle of the road.  You just can’t make this stuff up but it still wears on you.  And no, we do not contribute to their slush funds anymore.  We tell them that the previous stop took all our money and they wave us on.

Dean: The second stop didn’t cost us anything but 20 minutes.  The head honcho honed in on my gloves.  He sees the armor on the knuckles and likes them.  He picks up my gloves off the tank bags and holding the gloves he points to my bags Indicating “Do you have more gloves in your bags?”  The other officers now want to hold and touch the gloves.  He then hands a glove to two separate officers and they each put one glove on.  All the time I’m saying, “No, these are my only gloves!”  The other officers are trying to get Lisa’s glove on but it won’t fit.  In the middle of all this, one of the younger officers next to Lisa starts imitating karate moves then pointing at me announcing “Jacky Chan!”  Lisa clears things up saying “No chino, japonés!” and then I became “Mr. Miyagi!”  After another couple minutes of US/Salvadorian roadside culture exchange our documents are returned and waved on.  The circus clowns continue south psyching up for our next performance.

Lisa: So, I have had to compartmentalize the bad parts here (the police on the make and the less than honest people) and remember that most everyone else has been awesome and helpful, friendly and open.  The countryside has been beautiful and we’ve learned a lot.  We are getting a rhythm and a comfort zone finally.  Not speaking Spanish has been a negative.  Clearly it would be preferable to be able to communicate freely but we take every opportunity to engage with people and try to immerse ourselves as much as possible.

Life is one grand adventure and we’re moving on! Sorry for the delay but so much going on – stay tuned!!!