We have been in Central America for almost three months and tomorrow we leave to return to Mexico (which is not part of Central America but instead part of North America). We have covered about 4000 miles and managed to take 3 separate weeks off plus a few more stints of 3-4 days in one place, so the pace has been slower. These are my overriding impressions of the region having traveled through all 7 countries (some faster than others).

We arrived in Belize back in December for just two nights. We had a great night in a bungalow right on the beach. Unable to access the islands (cayes) that the country is famous for, because of the bike, we saw a different side of the country to most tourists. We were shocked by how poor it is in the north. Nothing seems to have been built since the British left. People seem to have nothing but they are very warm and friendly. It was great to be in an English speaking country.

Next was Guatemala, which we visited twice (as we did all countries except Belize and Panama). We both loved it here. We started in Tikal in the northern jungle. We visited the famous Mayan ruin. It was OK but I would not go back. Mayan ruins are not as impressive or ancient as those in Egypt, which I have visited many times. We then rode across the highlands. We got wet and cold and we saw some lovely mountain scenery and some wonderfully atmospheric Mayan villages, where women still wear traditional dress. We stayed at Lake Atitlan for Christmas. This lake encircled by volcanoes is very special and somewhere I would return. We stayed in the colonial city of Antigua, twice. We loved it there. We also saw the El Fuego volcano erupting at nighttime and we celebrated New Year’s Eve in the main square with new friends. We were shocked by the number of big guns seen everywhere in Guatemala and the stories of locals being robbed at gunpoint. Even the corner shop seems to have an armed guard. This is a real shame. We enjoyed the cooler climate of Guatemala. We found Guatemala more expensive than we expected. Much more so than southern Mexico.

We hightailed it through El Salvador and Honduras twice due to security fears. The capital cities of each have the highest murder rates in the world. In the cities and towns, these countries look just like the rest of Central America but I would not want to be caught on the road at night. We spent a total of 4 hours in Honduras and paid $80 in border fees for the privilege. Crossing two borders in one day (twice) is hard work but doable. We don’t regret not having stayed longer.

Nicaragua is a place to fall in love with. The socialist politics appeal to us. Yes the people are poor-you see a lot of horse and bullock drawn carts in the countryside but everywhere is clean and homes seem well built and people are well dressed. They grow a lot of fruit and veg as well as coffee and people look well fed. There is a slower pace of life there and the weather is very hot. The people are cheerful and welcoming. We felt very comfortable there. We spent time in the northern highlands and also quite a number of days in Granada, as well as a couple of days neat the capital Managua, to do bike business, and two nights is Leon. Granada was one of my favourite places of the trip so far-a place to fall in love with and return to. The grand architecture with an unmistakable, languid, Central America feel was really intoxicating. We loved the local food here. Breakfast each day was gallo pinto (fried rice and red beans) and fried plantain (like an unripe banana). We never got tired of eating it. Nicaragua was cheapest country in the region, from our perspective, but still not as cheap as southern Mexico.

We spent almost a month in Costa Rica all together. We travelled to three of the four corners, northern and southern Pacific coast and southern Caribbean coast and into the highlands. The highlights for me were the unspoiled Pacific beaches (which Dave found a little too unspoiled) and the wildlife. I had a mental list of the wildlife I wanted to see and with the exception of a sloth (which Dave saw when I was not with him-damn) I saw everything I wanted, without having to hire a guide or trek into the jungle. Most was seen from my chair on my porch or from the back of the bike. I saw many hummingbirds; iguanas; howler and capuchin monkeys; a jungle rat; pelicans; scarlet macaws; coatimundis; green parakeets; toucans; huge blue butterflies and many, many other bird species. My favorites included watching two hummingbirds mate (yes really, they do it on the ground); watching tiny capuchin monkeys negotiating their path through the trees in my garden and seeing over twenty scarlet macaws in one tree. I also loved walking along empty beaches, watching surfers at sunset, bathing in tidal pools and watching the sunrise over the ocean every morning for a week, from my bed.

Costa Rica is more expensive than elsewhere in the region. Petrol costs double what it does in neighbouring countries. Imported food is horribly expensive-US$7 for a large bag of crisps (chips)-but is you buy local and cook for yourself or eat in local cafes called sodas, it is still fairly reasonable. There are some stunning places to stay, both on the coast and in the hills and most seem to be run by expats from the USA; Germany or Switzerland. Although we were excited to ride in the highlands, roads can be quite congested with traffic and we did not really enjoy the riding much. Along the coast, it is very hot and humid and it does feel at times that you cannot escape the heat. Air conditioning is very expensive to run. For this reason, I am not sure I could live there.

By the time we reached Panama, we had a case of travel fatigue. Moving on constantly can be quite wearing and sometimes you lose your enthusiasm. This is what happened here. We ended up speeding through the country to get to Panama City (resulting in a speeding fine and a flat tyre). We spent 10 days in Panama City where we did very little except recharge our batteries, before we headed back. We ate well in Panama City and did a little shopping and also went to the cinema. Eating out was pretty expensive. Most places in Central America add tax and a 10% tip to the bill so the bill is always more than you think it will be. I am sure Panama has a lot to offer but we were not in the right mood to explore it. The heat/humidity was a factor here plus the fact that travel is always via the mind-numbingly boring PanAmerican Highway, with secondary roads taking you into the hills or to the coast. We visited a couple of hill towns, including the famous Boquete-we were underwhelmed.

Other highlights of Central America-sipping coconut juice at the side of the road from a pipa fria (chilled coconut); learning how to really enjoy a hammock; grappling with so many weird currencies like Quetzales, Cordobos, Colones (which we called cojones) and Balboas (clearly name after Rocky); enjoying so many different beers Gall0 (literally Cock beer), Tona, Imperial, Atlas and Belkin (Tona in Nicaragua was our favourite). Speaking terrible Spanish has been enjoyable -Dave still does not know the difference between veinte (20) and treinte (30) and I have more than once asked for cocaine instead of a coconut -and this will continue for another week or so in Mexico.

So Mexico here we come. We are very excited to be back in Mexico and heading north to the USA. We have decided not to go back via Baja California, as we had planned but to explore the northern highlands of the mainland around the Copper Canyon and then cross the US border into Arizona. We should be in Tuscon or Phoenix in about 2 weeks.

We have been in Panama City for the last 10 days, having crossed Panama very quickly to arrive here. Panama is very hot. The locals say it is always like this. The PanAmerican Highway is also very featureless so you have to try to make the effort to get off it if you want anything other than a mind and bum numbing ride. We did not really manage this much as we were keen to make it to Panama City. As it turns out, this was a good move as about 40km outside of Panama City we had a flat tyre.

On further inspection we discovered a complete tyre failure, with the tyre having split badly. This has probably been caused by hitting too many potholes too hard. It is a good job it did not happen in the middle of nowhere. We stood at the side of the busy main road for about 30 minutes trying to flag down taxis and police cars, unsuccessfully. Eventually, and very luckily, a wonderful group of young road workers stopped in their tiny truck. After some deliberation it was decided they would load the bike onto the truck and take us to a nearby tyre vendor.

I just stood back and let the guys take the strain. They then let me sit up front, while they all squeezed onto the back seat and Dave sat with the bike.

Not surprisingly, we could not find anyone who stocked a tyre that would fit our bike, despite our lovely guys driving Dave around to find one, while I waited with the bike and the first tyre man, a lovely young guy from Colombia.

The tyre man replaced the tube and patched the tear and we trundled along the hard shoulder into Panama City at about 20mph hoping it would hold which it did.

On the way, we crossed the Panama Canal which was pretty momentous.

We were very grateful to everyone who helped us out. When we ran out of fuel in California, no one stopped, not even other bikers so this reflects the people of Panama in a very good light (or those in the USA in a bad light).

We had booked the lovely, new Holiday Inn Express for three nights and luxuriated in the facilities, including a brand new, empty gym two doors from our room, a massive bathroom and silent air con. We ate Thai food and stocked up on cartons of hummus.We were unable to source a tyre anywhere so ordered one from the USA and booked into a nearby, cheaper hotel for another week, while we waited for the tyre to arrive. Then out of the blue one of the local motorcycle dealers emailed to say they had a tyre! Dave got it fitted but as we had already paid for a week in the hotel we decided to stay. We have spent the week working on the thesis and other work related things, working out in the gym and not much else except a visit to the cinema to see The Revenant, which we very much enjoyed-oh and doing laundry in an actual washing machine. We have slept a lot, eaten a lot of tofu and hummus (which we have missed in the last few weeks), got a bit fitter and got up to 35,000 words on the thesis (only 15,000 left). We have also booked flights to Hong Kong at the end of May for a transition visit, paid for by my school.

So the return journey begins. We plan to cross Panama and Costa Rica in 4 days and then spend a couple of days mopping up on things we missed in Nicaragua, before hightailing it across Honduras and El Salvador and in Guatemala. It will take a month to get back to California. We are very excited.

This is the longest gap without posting as the internet has been very poor here and too weak to upload photos…until today.

Everything you hear about Costa Rica is true. It has stunningly beautiful coastlines, there is tonnes of wildlife and it is more expensive than the rest of Central America (although still affordable).

We have been here for two weeks so far and it is hard to leave.

This is also a place that we feel we could live, as it is modern and developed, fairly safe but life is simple and the opportunities for adventure are endless, as most roads are not paved and there are many areas of isolated wonder.

We also like the food. We started on the Pacific coast at Playa Junquillal. A totally unspoiled beach at the end of a gravel road.

We awoke to the sound of the sea crashing and walked on the beach at dawn…just us and the pelicans.

There is a small turtle hatchery on the beach.

We then moved to Tamarindo, a much more developed resort which we did not like as much but we did see howler monkeys in the tree outside our bungalow.

We rode inland through the cloud forest to the volcano at La Fortuna. We nearly ran over a large ctenosaur (kind of iguana) that dashed out in front of the bike at high speed. We also saw a bunch of coatis at the side of the road in the cloud forest. As you can see, they are pretty tame but it is a shame that these people fed them as they are wild animals. We were lucky to see a whole flock of toucans fly over as we walked to dinner.

We then spent another three days riding to the Caribbean coast. On the first day it was pretty but the road was far too busy in parts.

I was rewarded with a great view from my yoga mat in the morning though.

On the second day the ride was also disappointing with a lot of traffic near the capital, San Jose. The best part was stopping at this roadside fruit stall for a coconut juice.

At the end of the second day we stayed in this cool cabin in the Orosi Valley. I saw a few hummingbirds from the porch.

I also had some help with downward facing dog from experts.

On our final day riding to the coast, the cloud forest lived up to its name. We also got wet.

We spent 6 days on the Caribbean coast at Cahuita and Puerto Viejo in two cabins. The first was so luxurious and was located in a jungle garden 3 minutes walk to the beach. We could hear the sea at night.  From our porch we saw howler monkeys with tiny babies attached to their tummies; white paced capuchin monkeys; many hummingbirds, including two mating and one that flew right into the cabin; different kinds of woodpecker and many other birds, yellow, orange and blue.

We were three minutes walk to the national park white beach where we had an early morning stroll.I have never smelled air as perfumed with the scents of tropical flowers.

It took me a week to realise that the plants are just as awesome as the animals and birds and they are everywhere, all of the time.

While we were here, Dave heard that he has been appointed Head of ICT at King George V School, Hong Kong. Well done Dave.

At Puerto Viejo, our cabin was right in the jungle. We had a resident agouti, which is like a huge jungle rat but cuter.The ride back was drier and the coast was very beautiful and unspoiled.We saw a lot of banana plantations growing millions of bananas which are shipped from the port of Limon, all over the world.

So finally we arrived at the central Pacific Coast at Estrilla Oeste . This morning I walked for nearly two hours on the beach before breakfast.

I saw scarlet macaws, vultures and pelicans. As I sit here, typing, four scarlet macaws are flying over, screeching. It is truly magical. This beach is three minutes walk from the apartment and I have amazing sea views from the terrace. 

We have travelled to many wonderful places over the last 6 months but there are few that I have loved as much as Granada. The city has everything including architecture on a grand scale.

With huge pedestrianised spaces where people hang out.

Beautiful, single storey, colourful houses.

And grander buildings with amazing details in the windows and doors.

And bell towers.

Even some art deco.

Away from the tourist area there is a lively and exciting, local vibe that reminds me of Cairo or India, where you don’t quite understand everything that is going on.

There is a languidness here that we have not experienced so far this trip. It is hot and the pace is slow. People are friendly and nothing is rushed. The day can just be spent hanging out in beautiful courtyards or wandering the streets, on the shady side of the road, of course.

It has not been all hanging out in cafes and courtyards although here has been a lot of that. Dave had a job interview while we were here. I also made huge progress with my thesis and have completed a first draft of my findings chapter and now have nearly 25,000 words. We have also started to plan our return to the UK, contacting shipping companies to send the bike back by sea. We still have many wonderful weeks left before then though.

We have had a wonderful and interesting week in Nicaragua. We left Leon for coffee country and spent a few days in the hills, riding on some good roads and one great road around Matagalpa, Estile and Jalapa.

Plus a few interesting dirt roads for brief periods.

And a couple of stretches on roads that have been block paved!

This part of the country is much cooler than the coast and it was the first time we have experienced perfect motorcycling weather for many weeks with a temperature of about 27 celsius and clear blue skies.

The volcanic nature of the country means the soil is very fertile. There are wonderful vegetables for sale everywhere. Vegetable photography seems to be my favourite subject after mountains.

This is the season for picking and processing coffee beans. I was surprised by how much of a cottage industry this is with very small processing plants and coffee beans drying on basketball courts and very other inch of available space in small villages. It is hard to see and photograph coffee growing from the bike as there are tall bushes along the road but the few plantations we saw were really beautiful with banana trees planted in between.Tobacco is also commonly grown here and you can visit cigar factories where they make the best cigars outside of Cuba.

The food and drink here is good. The national dish is Gallo Pinto a mix of rice fried with red beans and eaten as a substantial vegan breakfast with fried plantain and delicious home made corn tortillas and usually provided free by even the cheapest hotels.

The beer also comes in a litre bottle for $2 and is pretty good.

Northern Nicaragua is also famous as the birthplace of the Sandinistas who took power in a revolution in 1979 and were later involved in a civil war with the Contras who were financed by the US government to destabilise them due to their left leaning tendencies and ties with the USSR. We have seen both a plane and a tank left over from the war. These were much more exciting for Dave than for me as you can see.

This war was very high profile in the early 1980s and Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista leader, was a household name, even in the UK. He has been back in power for the last 10 years and there are huge posters of him every where in the north.

Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western hemisphere by GDP per head of the population but this does not tell the full story. As wealth is better distributed here than elsewhere (thanks to the left wing government) the country seems to be doing much better than you expect. It is a completely different experience to Honduras or even Guatemala. It is true that we have seen a lot more horse and bullock pulled carts here (usually a sign that people cannot afford anything else) but people are purposeful, there is plenty of agriculture and everywhere is clean and very well maintained.

How the locals travel

Roads are good and people seem to be living fairly decent lives. It is also a much safer country than most in the region and we have seen very few guns.

We have been stopped by the police a lot but not in a way you would expect. In four or five stops we have not been booked and they have not tried to extract a bribe. They have checked our documents to make sure we own the bike and have insurance and they have warned us to ride safely (they do not like you overtaking lorries across the hard yellow line even though most roads have a hard yellow line). It is irritating to be stopped so often but hard to complain.

After coming down from the mountains two days ago, we spent two nights at a wonderful casita on a gated community near the capital Managua. Lying in a hammock yesterday evening watching hummingbird was a real highlight for me.

Dave had the chance to visit and befriend the Triumph dealer Frank and source some parts for the bike, some of which we have taken possession of and others that we will collect on the way back from Panama. The bike had its first wash in months.

During this time, I have written over 5,000 words of my thesis and I am really pleased it is going so well. I have also been able to keep up my new exercise regime of circuit training. We are both feeling relaxed and healthy.

We have now moved to Granada-another beautiful colonial town but I will write about that next time. Dave has a video interview for a job which he has to complete before we leave the hotel here. We then plan to cross into Costa Rica.

We left Antigua on 2nd January early . It was a pretty quick and uneventful journey to the El Salvador border, passing under  the El Fuego volcano on the way (this was to erupt, spewing lava 7km into the air later that night). You could see a bit of smoke coming out but nothing else.

The border was much easier than we anticipated. We chose a tramitador (helper with the border formalities) on the basis of his good looks alone. I am sure we were not the first.

For God’s sake, calm yourselves (Dave)

He spoke no English but despite that we was helpful in navigating both sides of the border. We were through into El Salvador in about an hour and at our hotel by 1pm. This part of El Salvador is really hot and tropical, full of coconut palms and bananas.

The hotel was right on the beach. The beach was pretty dirty and the pool was full of loud, local families enjoying the last day of the holiday.

Still Christmas here

We ate in the restaurant and did not venture out. Better safe than sorry. The sunset was beautiful though.

The next day we woke to the sound of the ocean crashing outside the room. We lay in bed for  few hours enjoying it.

View from the room

It was an easy 3 hour ride to La Union near the Honduras border. They have built a deepwater port here for cruise ships and then no-one wanted to visit because there is nothing here.

Not sure what this is about

The closest decent hotel was a Comfort Inn. We enjoyed the air conditioning and Wifi again ate in the restaurant. Uneventful, easy and safe. We prepared ourselves physically (organising paperwork) and mentally for the big journey across Honduras and into Nicaragua the next day. We managed to get up on time and left at 6.30am after a quick local breakfast of beans and fried plantain-yummy.

There was nothing on the road except cows and a few carts pulled by donkeys, oxen and goats (yes a cart pulled by goats).

We arrived at the Honduras border at 7.30. We expected queues of lorries and craziness but in fact we did not even realise we had reached the border as it was so quiet.

The border

It was quite beautiful compared to what we experienced later in Honduras.

We were pounced upon by a bunch of guys wanting to “help” us and wanting to change money. We chose one who actually spoke English. He was either on meth or drank too much coffee. He turned out to be very helpful despite trying to scam us a couple of times, unsuccessfully.

Dave and the helper at immigration

He earned his money running in front of the bike to each section of the border. It was like having your own security detail.

The helper running in front of us to the next border

The helper in a tuk tuk this time

And running again

Fortunately, we have detailed instructions written down on what to do at each border and how much each stage costs-thanks to previous overlanders sharing their experiences on the internet.

We were through both sides within an hour and a half and into Honduras. $40 dollars poorer for a temporary vehicle permit which we only needed for the two hour crossing.We have to pay the same on the way back.

Dave and the helper at customs

I waited with the bike and the money changers

The road to the border with Nicaragua is 80 miles and takes two hours to ride. We were told to expect 14 police checks. We only saw three. This part of Honduras is a wasteland. No agriculture, nothing happening.  It reminded me of Malawi where there is abject poverty and people sit around all day doing nothing. Near the end of the road we came to a 10 mile stretch of very bad potholes. Dave was doing a great job negotiating them and just as they seemed to be over we encountered two spanning the whole width of our carriageway. We could not move over as a bus was coming so we had no choice but to go into them. It felt bad but we stayed on and the bike seemed unscathed, although we were a bit shaken.

At the Nicaragua border we employed two helpers. One on each side. Getting out of Honduras took only 20 minutes and the guy did not do much for his tip. On the Nicaragua side though it was much more involved with more queuing and the lovely, young guy who helped us did a great job.

The dog kept us entertained

We were into Nicaragua by Midday and very relieved to be there. It was instantly greener and we saw more volcanoes.

We rode to Leon and arrived just after 1pm. We were very hot, tired and dehydrated.

Dave looking great on the bike.  He’s tall and good looking but approachable yet often misunderstood.  I’m hung like a… I mean he’s… I mean, dammit, dammit, dammit*

We actually managed to find a hostel that cooked Sri Lankan curries and tucked into a dahl and veg curry with chapatis and rice and cold beers. Now we can relax and enjoy the relative safety of Nicaragua.

• Joke shamelessly lifted from Performance Bikes c1990

It is impossible to express or show in pictures how extraordinary this town is. We have so far had 5 wonderful days here and we still have a few more left as we need to wait till the holiday weekend is over before moving on to the border of El Salvador.

Antigua was built by the Spanish about 500 years ago and  was badly damaged during an earthquake in 1773.

The ruined churches and convents still stand today like some out of place Roman ruins.

The cobbled streets date back hundreds of years and are worn and hard to walk or ride on but beautiful to look at.

The town is full of amazing cafes, bars and courtyards. There is also an amazing market where the locals buy their stuff-the best one we have seen so far on the trip.

We were lucky to meet an amazing couple Luisa and Julio who both live here and ride a BMW Adventure all over the Americas. They have travelled widely and we have lots of stories to swap. We are spending New Year’s Eve at their home where Julio, who is a chef, will cook us a meal. We are then coming back into town for the big celebrations.

I went out into town just after 5pm and the festivities were already in full swing with people dressed up in word costumes and others dancing in the street.

Probably the most unique and amazing thing about the town are the volcanoes that can be clearly seen from every street.

One of them Fuego is still currently active and we have seen black plies coming from it more than once. Last night people saw the crater glowing from the town and lava was clearly visible. This is very common. We also had an earth tremor a few nights ago-they get about 70 a year here. Tonight we hope to see the lava too.

Happy New Year to all our friends and family. We are have had a wonderful end to 2015 and are very excited about 2016.

We have had an amazing couple of days travelling from Coban to Panajachel. It is funny how the hardest days are often the best. Yesterday we we riding for over 7 hours, including  getting lost and finding our way back to the correct road. We did not get off the bike for over 4 hours at one point. We were rewarded with a wonderful view of a volcano and a cold beer at the end. We cooked a lentil curry and fell asleep in a very comfy bed.

This morning after admiring the view from our apartment again, we left for the 90 minute journey to the lake.

We expected it to be easy as it is a major tourist route. We went through a town with the steepest roads I have ever seen. Must have been a 1:2 incline. I had to shut my eyes going down so no photos. It was like a fairground ride. The road was very remote, except for the occasional truck.

There were some great potholes and Dave did  a lot of standing on the pegs.

Then really very unexpectedly, we came to a river where the road and bridge had completely collapsed, probably some years ago and we had to ford the river.

That’s not me, it’s a bloke on a moped

That’s me

I got off to test the waters and take pictures as Dave rode through.

Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God (Dave)

I am pleased to say that although I was calf deep in water, my Timberlands did not let in and my feet stayed dry. Dave did a great job getting himself and the bike across. I am glad he has been going on these off road holidays with Jason over the past few years.

Dave’s keen to do more dirt roads; Helen less so

As if by way of reward, we then reached a really exceptionally stunning viewpoint where the lake and volcanoes could be seen in all their glory.