Well, I made it to Nicaragua! What a bureaucratic mess it was, though.
I arrived at the immigration office in La Union, El Salvador, at 6:30 this morning, and was the second one there. There were quite a few people that showed up, not just for our boat, but for other means as well, which I'm not sure about because I researched this quite a bit, and the boat service that I used was the only one I could find. Maybe an unadvertised local boat that only the locals know. They collected our passports and we waited for about two hours before we finally got out of there. Business idea - if some local bought a snack and drink vending machine and sold items for $1 ea, they'd make a year's salary in one month. It took us about 20 minutes to load the boat or so and then we were off by 9:20. It was about a two hour ride on the boat. It was very pleasant, calm waters, and they really packed the bikes and luggage very well. Then, when we arrived in Potosi, Nicaragua, that's when it became quite the pain. We unloaded off the boat directly onto the beach, which I wasn't expecting in my bike shoes, and then we had to line up all of our luggage to fully go through and be inspected. First the drug sniffing dog took a while, and then they literally took every piece out of every persons luggage and asked questions about it. That took a long time. I don't really know what kind of contraband they were looking for besides drones and weapons, and frankly, I don't think they even knew. It was like they were just satisfying some vouyeursitic desires or something. Then we walked a couple hundred meters to the immigration office, handed over passports along with the copies and three copies of our proof of vaccination, and waited for a long time there, too. Another opportunity for vending machines. Why it only took a minute or so at the Guatemala/ El Salvador border, and it takes so long here I will never know. Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras, all share a kind of European Union thing that is supposed to make it easy to cross borders, but these were pretty small stations today I suppose. I looked through the windows at the Nicaraguan immigration office and they were just piles of paperwork everywhere - completely disorganized. I really don't know what they do with it all or how they make sense of it but that's how they do it I guess. It was actually nice having this time to talk to everyone. There was a young couple from France that just graduated (the only other people there riding a bike like me), a couple from north England, a trio of ladies from Ireland, and a group of 5 from Scotland. The young cycling couple from France got so hungry they asked me for some food (since everyone saw what was i each others bags from the inspection). I was happy to give an apple and Oreo cookie packet to each of them. Finally, I left there for about 1:30 and began my 30 mile ride to the hotel.
Similar to my experience when entering El Salvador, I was pleasantly surprised by the road quality. The first 15 km was all concrete - exactly like the entry into El Salvador. But then it turned to asphalt and it was not too bad. The trash situation on the side of the road is much worse then El Salvador so far. El Salvador takes first place for this so far. I had to stop or swerve for several road hazards on the way to the hotel in Apposentillo - chickens, a horse, and several herds of cattle.
My hotel (Las Dunas Surf Resort) is really nice! Big room, close to the beach, and a restaurant, where I'm editing this right now having a veggie pizza. But no TV, and no hot water.
I'll make a video of the day in a day or two, so be sure to check back here. There's not a lot of information on the internet about what this boat ride is like, so I figured I'd share more of that with people who are looking to do the same thing.
This route allows bypassing the long lines at the Honduras highway border station and lots of hills on the bike. That whole section in between is Honduras.
They made a big deal to make sure that my GoPro was not recording video. It was not even on. Here is where they confiscate lots of drones from people. I researched this thoroughly, otherwise I probably would have brought mine (although did not really have room for it anyway).
The last ~7 km of the turnoff from the main highway to my hotel was all this brick! Nice for cars, but bad for bikes. They were fairly even though - not too bad. I can only imagine the labor for those millions of bricks!
