Meanwhile we, Renate, Bart and I, arrived in Nicaragua.
In Honduras, we were riding a couple of miles off-road. I fell the second time. Luckily it was the same side as the first time. But my pannier did not get away well this time. I had to fix it a little bit with a stone, so that it would stay on the rack. I hope I can find someone in Costa Rica, who can fix that at least a little bit.
In Nicaragua, we got in contact with corrupt police for the first time. Barts first meeting did not go so well. To be honest, the police were right. With the help of a local person, who took advantage of the situation in an unpleaseant way later that evening, Bart got his driving license back about two hours after the traffic control. Otherwise, they would have had to stay in the city from Saturday to Tuesday as there were public holidays at the moment.
The 2nd time we were stopped, it was pure corruption. We were stopped by three officers and charged with an invented offense. First they said, you have to leave at least three vehicle lengths space between each other, later it was a speed violation.
We have also been stopped in Honduras a few times. But there it was just a check of the driving licences. Since Honduras I only show the laminated copy of my driving license. They don’t notice it.
Anyway, we were each fined about 75 EUR for nothing. We discussed with them. Bart got the idea: OK we are traveling in a group. You (the police ) keep one driving license (my copy), we don’t let you keep all three. So we can not leave the country. Renate and Bart took their driving license, I was willing to leave my copy with them. We were almost ready to leave, when a local person stopped and asked in English if he could help us. Yes, you can! He discussed a while with the police and I got my “license” back too. I should have brought more than two copies.
In a few days I am in Costa Rica. As soon as my laptop is repaired, or, what I won’t hope, I have a new one, I will tell more.
Thank you for reading, Jürgen.