Mark On A Bike: Guatemala to Costa Rica

This is Juan right here. Juan Yang. So he helped me get everything set up here in Guatemala City to get my bike fixed. And we're at Bavaria Motorworks in Guatemala City. This place is awesome. Check out all this stuff over here. Here's the bike getting its stuff all done. New tires. Check it out. I got the new Heidenauer tires. Very nice. Very sweet. I just got on my bike and took off and made it all the way here where I am in El Salvador. Actually, I'm in San Salvador, El Salvador. And now I'm doing a real push south that it should be an adventure because it's, according to the State Department, the most dangerous area in Central America. So I'm headed through the rest of El Salvador, through Honduras, and into Nicaragua. And hopefully what I can do today is get all the way to the border of Honduras, through Honduras, the very southern tip, through another border, and then over into Leon, Nicaragua, and stay there. And that is going to be, I don't know, depending on the border crossings, it could be a challenge. And so today what I've been doing is I've been double-checking all of my route here. So I've got Google Earth because my Garmin doesn't have accurate maps. So I have to plan everything on Google Earth and then put those in as waypoints to my Garmin device here. And then I can sort of see where I'm going on the Garmin as if I was going off-road. I don't know how today is going to turn out. I might not get across both borders. I'm going to try to do some guerrilla filmmaking using my little GoPro here to record what happens at the borders. But I've been told it's pretty dangerous. I don't want to have a GoPro on my helmet as I'm riding through these areas because the tendency is for, according to the State Department, U.S. State Department, if people, the gangs, evidently there are some gangs along the highways, if they see any display of wealth, that's who they target. And so I'm trying to be as low-key as possible. And having cameras strapped all over is just not low-key. So I am headed out, and we'll see how it goes. I'll try to do some guerrilla filmmaking with the little GoPro and see if I can show you what happens at each border. And maybe along the way I'll stick something on my head. It depends on how things go. But off we go. Well, I just got gas, and everybody in this Super 7 is wanting to talk to me or staring at me through the window. This is Roberto. Okay, my friend. My friend. What's your gun there? Escopeta. Hey. Hi, how are you? Good. Bien, bien, bien. Bienvenido, my friend. De Estados Unidos, dice, viene. Bienvenido a El Salvador. Dice, él está recorriendo el mundo. Oh, yeah. Bienvenido. I stick out like an alien in the 50s. It's pretty funny. One of the things that I've noticed is that there are guys with shotguns on about every block or so. Every store has a guy with a shotgun. And then I'm not so sure why, but on the sidewalks, there are lots of guys just walking around with shotguns. I've seen a lot of AK-47s in Central America, but here seems like the old shotgun is the tool of choice. Now, this is where it's dangerous because, A, you can get smashed by a car, but, B, this is where little motorcycles can come in and hold you up, take your stuff, and then just scoot right through traffic, and there's nothing you can do. I've been talking to locals here, and they say it's not common but not uncommon for a guy on a motorcycle just to ride up next to a car, pull a gun, grab something out of the window, and then they're just gone. Here's how that can happen. Boom, there's a little tiny motorbike. One of the challenges in a trip like this, you know, I'm trying to do, I don't know, it's not very much, 300 miles, something like that, but I've been on the road now for 50 minutes, almost an hour, and I have covered all of 1 1⁄2 miles because of the crazy traffic and things like that. Yeah, those guys there, they like the bike. The next challenge is the border, and the borders are the same. You're making no miles, and you're there for a couple hours, and so two border crossings are going to eat up four hours of the day, and I need to get everything done while the sun is still up. It's just very dangerous to be out after sunset. So that's why it's such a challenge. It's not the miles. It's just, you know, it's not how fast you go. It's just how long you're out there, and I'm afraid I'm going to run out of daylight before I get all the way to Nicaragua. Still making a steady 10 miles an hour here. Guy with an assault rifle. On the right, more guys with assault rifles. I think I've seen more shotguns, AK-47s, AR-15s, you name it, in the last, oh, eight miles than I've seen, I don't know, in a long time. I don't know when I've ever seen this many assault rifles, to tell you the truth. They're all over. All right, I'm finally out of the city, so I think it's going to be wise for me to get this camera off my head and then just bust it over to San Miguel. So we'll pick up there. Even though I'm blasting through El Salvador to get as fast as I can to Honduras, I couldn't pass up this scene behind me. It's this massive volcano in a beautiful valley here. Unfortunately, it's really, really hazy, so I can't really see it very much, but I had to take a stop here and just enjoy the scenery because this is indeed a beautiful country, and I don't want to miss it. Just blast in as fast as I can to get to the next place. This is the border of El Salvador and Honduras. Yeah, we're still in El Salvador. They want me to be clear. I'm still in El Salvador. Yeah, he's got the cache right there. Okay, I've got to go check out the bike right now. Cerveza? Agua? Agua, no cerveza. This is where you can get some nice food, some tasty food right here. Oh, he's going to do it, huh? I think I'll help him out. You know how this works. Thanks, guys. Always some friends to help out here. ¿Cómo te llamas? Víctor. Víctor? Víctor, Marcos. Víctor here is the border guard. El Salvador, ¿sí? El Salvador. Policía Nacional Civil. ¿Así es? Sí. ¿Cuántos años tienes en la policía? Quince. ¿Quince? Quince. Nice, he's an experienced. He's not a newbie here. He's got this crazy gun here. Don't point it at me. Alright, let's see how my guys are doing. ¿Cómo está? Good? Everything okay, sir. Everything's good? Yes. What's your name? My name? Yeah, tell these guys your name. Pablo. Pablo's helping me out here. Yes. Gracias, Pablo. He said it's okay. He's a good guy. He can help you. You're going to go to Honduras? Yeah. With a motorbike? Together. I'm riding with this guy to Honduras. And then get the next thing. It's for what? This one. It's computer. Computer? Yes, this frame. Oh, his frame has one? Oh, yeah. Sí. You have to wait here because this machine is not good now. I had to go to speak for you and now you wait here just for now. ¿Cuántos minutos? Maybe 25 minutes. 25 minutes? Yeah. Alright, time for tacos. Okay, you wait here. Alright. The computer's broken. Internet problem. Tacos! Alright, somebody screwed up and look what I'm going to have. Alright, it's time to eat. And watch a soap opera. Or soccer. Same thing. Let's go to the other bus. You follow this bus too. I'll go in this bus. Do they need to stamp my passport? No. No, no, no. Over there. Okay, over there. Alright. Alright, now we're on the bridge to Honduras. ¿Está bien? ¿Listo? Listo. Now we are waiting right now. So, these guys are helping me out over here, I think. This is where we wait while they do the passport stuff. It's very disconcerting when somebody else has your passport and you're not sure where. But, that meal was fantastic. What's happening in there? They want to see you. They want to see me? They want to see you, yeah. Oh, let me get my stuff. They want to see me, evidently. There we go. Ah, sí. I don't know if I have three dollars. Gracias. Buenas. Alright, well now I have my temporary permit to enter into Honduras. But I still have to do some other stuff and there's another, one more station, I think. So, and then we're waiting for copies to be made while we're here. But this is a big first step and I think we have about 30 more minutes. Which means, at this rate, there's no way I'm going to get through Honduras today. Because this is taking about an hour, a little over an hour and a half. So, by the time we're out of here, I'll be at two hours for this border crossing. So, plus two to three hours to cross, plus two more. We're talking five to six hours to get just to the other side of Honduras, which will be dark by then. So, I figured out. Gracias. Dear every border in the entire world. Just buy copy machines for your agents and then charge people that go through. That's all you have to do, just charge people. Save hours. And evidently all the paperwork is done, but I am not sure what the agent's doing in there. These border crossings, you just wait and wait. It's a game of patience, I guess. Maybe I have to wait on their computers to check to see if I'm a criminal or if the motorcycle's been stolen. I'm sure they're doing something, but it seems like it takes forever. If you recall back in Guatemala, when I went from Mexico, those guys told me that the permit was good all the way to Panama. Here, I'll refresh your memory. Permit, yes. Guatemala, Panama. But it turns out, of course, that's not true. It was good to the end of Guatemala, so I'm still having to pay for permits at every single border crossing. We're done. Alright, let me get all this stuff put together here. Papers and papers and papers. It's just expensive. I have one guy over there. He can do everything more fast, just one. He'll give you maybe 60 U.S. dollars. 60? Yeah, because you have to pay him. What's his name? Salvador. He has one cycle. Salvador. He works for you. Adios, amigos! That was expensive. So that was 40... It was about $100 to get across that border. That was a lot. Alright, I've got to kick some ass to get over past Honduras and into Nicaragua. So, here I go. Well, clearly the sun is going down, and so now I have to make a choice. I have to choose if I'm going to push through and get to the border, or if I'm going to try to find a hotel here in Honduras. And I know myself, the answer is always going to push through. So I'm going to keep going. Yeah, I've got to get to the border. I've got to get out of Honduras tonight and get into Nicaragua. So I think I'm going to be driving at night based on how long it took me to get to the first border. But I think I can do it. I think I've got, according to my computer, the sun's going to go down in an hour. So I've got an hour to get to the border. And then if I find any hotel over there, that's going to be fine. But for now, I've got to get out of here. All right, I'm at the border of Nicaragua. It's me, amigos. Hola. So at the last border, I was told that this guy named Salvador would meet me, and there he is right here. Hey, man. Yeah, it took no time at all to get here. These guys are just watching me over here. They're just like, hey, what's up? Hey, man, what's up? They keep trying to get me to, I don't know. I don't think I should say it on camera. I'm going with Fresca at this border crossing. They didn't have any Sprite. Give me $41 for the permit. How much? $41. $41? He said it was going to be $60. What? $60, $70. Yeah, so you already have, you owe me $13, right? Okay. Yeah, so you still have the $13? No, the permit is $52. $52, everything, including $3 for the exit. I'll give you $40. $40, $40, $40. I'll give you $40. He's already got $60, almost $70 from me. It's going to be expensive. All right, I have to go in here. I don't know if you can see me anymore, but the sun has definitely set. Some money? No, I don't need it, thank you. Mexico, Guatemala, Portugal, Nicaragua? No. Got it. I don't need it. The camera? Yes, of course. Really? Yes. Did we buy it? No. How much? Yes. All of it? All of it. So last night I pushed on. In fact, I kept riding well into the night at dark when I probably shouldn't have, but I made it all the way to Managua, which is where I am right now. Now I'm headed to the Costa Rican border to hopefully get over that and just get to a hotel tonight and catch up on some sleep before I push on to central Costa Rica and then even down to Panama. But today is just get across one more border and then get some rest because I'm getting really, really tired. Last night I rode way into the night and I shouldn't have. I almost smashed into a cow. Luckily, my brakes kicked in, but the roads are just covered with smoke from some fires or burning fields and I couldn't see anything and it's really dangerous. So I'm going to try to avoid riding at night tonight because it almost cost me my life. I don't like that. So here we go. Let's check out Managua. All right, I made it to the border here from Nicaragua and trying to get into Costa Rica and again, getting through Nicaragua, you've got to bribe everybody. So it's just part of the deal, but it really hacks me off. So this is my guy over here. He's helping me out. Evidently, Salvador had called everybody at the border. Javier. He promised to do this for $10, right? Yeah. Well, evidently Salvador, who was called by, there's like a chain of people at every border here. And so every time I've crossed a border, a horde of guys comes running out to greet me because once they help me across the border, they call the next border. And then we have this now. This is marijuana. No, this is... Marijuana? Yes, marijuana. A cream of marijuana. All right, well, I'm out of Nicaragua almost. My friend charged me $20 instead of $10, which is fair, I think. Now it's off to Costa Rica to see if I can get in there. All right. This is Aaron. He wins the award for the least amount of bull**** getting me through a border patrol. And we're done. Into Costa Rica we go. This is what it looks like. This is the scene. Aaron next to the bike.