The Tire

We headed back to Granada, for some great adobe oven pizza on the main strip and to pick up our long awaited tire.
KLR´s use 17 inch tires and all bikes here are 18. So finding a tire here would have been really really difficult if even possible. A friend in Denver bought a tire and two friends brought it down for us in a checked bag on their trip to Nicaragua. Thank you awsome people! They left it at the hotel oasis in Granda and we picked it up about 2.5 weeks later.
We didnt really need it at the moment. We have altered our plans of going to the moskito coast unfortuanately, due to heavy rains and the redirections taken in Honduras, now it was a 24 hour out and back instead of a loop. We also got hung up for 3 days dealing with our passport issue entering Nicaragua. So we just decided to enjoy the time we have and not push it on the weather and rush our trip. After one day of rainy dirt road riding in Honduras, we saw how bad the conditions can get and how big the rivers can get.
At the beginning, Steve bought a good tire that would last the whole trip but that tire had to be retired in Texas before we left because the bead broke. So we got a tire the next day and off we went with a run of the mill 50/50 knobby tire. it was excellent for all of those Honduras roads that kicked our ass but where the KLR rocked. But Steve didnt figure it would last after a couple weeks in the moskito so our friends brought a replacement.
Even though our tire probably had at least another 600 miles on it, Steve was ready for a new tire that would roll better on the pavement we were heading into for most of the way back. Since every one down in the neck of the woods rides tires till they are paper thin and smooth, we figured changing this tire would be a problem with lots of scoffs from people thinking we were crazy. Since we had no way to prop the bike up we brought it to the best looking mechanic/ tire shop around and paid $1.60 to have it changed. The mechanic just did his job quickly and didnt say a thing about trashing a new-to-central-america-tire.
But now we are off - on a Avon gripster. not as good on those muddy roads we may come across but great on dry gravel and smoother for the paved roads we have ahead.
we put 3,768 miles on the first tire.

Isla de Ometepe

10th of May
Isla de Ometepe is a magic little island is the middle of lake Nicaragua. it has two big volcanos and lots of monkyies and jungle.

it took about 40 min to get to San Jorge from San Juan. The ferry was $2 per persona and $2 for the bike. it took 1.5 hours on the ferry, pretty slow goer.
We drove over to Santo Domingo and a little beyond to the hotel istiam. it was great. across the street from the lake beach with great breezes! constantly going and cooling you off. hamocks, good food and $15, but if you ask for room 14 it is huge and you can explode all of your stuff and you have a big porch too.
Either kite surfers just dont know about this island or there is some other reason they dont ome here, because the wind is the most consistent i have felt out side Tenerefe spain.
Ometepe has two large volcanoes which you can climb or take horses up. we saw some great forest and lots of monkies. We also drove around the Volcan Maderas it too 1.5 hours and had a bunch of small villages allong the way. some traditional housing.
its a very low key island with few resaurants in Santo Domingo and a small store for basics like water and ice cream.

San Juan Del Sur

May 7th, our southernmost point.
We are taking in the good life for a couple days. An old family friend is part of a nice resort in San Juan del Sur, so we went to stay at his house for couple days. First hot water shower in at least a month.
2.5 hours away from Granada (with a stop in San Jorge to check out the ferry situation for the island.)
you can see the volcanoes on the ride before you turn into the road for San Juan. San Juan has a big bay but not many people swim there. it is very pretty surround by cliffs on both sides. But we drove out to Maderas Beach about 20 minutes from town on a bumpy dirt road with one steep section. the beach has one place to eat and stay, pretty basic. its a nice beach with no shade and fun waves. you can walk down the beach at lower tides and get to some other places to stay inlcuding matildas camping.
hung out for three nights and met up with some friends.

To Granada through the mountains

6th of May.
We met a man at breakfast who gave us very good directions to San Rafeal del Norte. He even told us to follow him for the first mile of dirt. pretty nice. So we got going on the road we probably never would have taken on our own and decided to pass the ´Reserve´ because it looked a lot like the others, burned in the past, full of cows and villages.
it took 2.5 hours to get to San Rafeal and a few minutes to find the museum. This area, especially Esteli suffered badly during the Sandanista movement of the 80´s. nice museum with historic photos of the 30´s set in the original telephone building for the movement. I wouldnt stay in in San Rafeal if i didnt have to, finding places to eat in the small towns at night seems to be the biggest problem.
we continued on to Jinotega and matagalpa for ATM, lunch,and email just long enough to escape the rain.
it had started raining in the mountians before Jinotega. the fun curvey paved road barely had any visibility through the fog. lots of jungle trees and nurseries.
it clear up a bit for the ride between jinotega and matagalpa, which is supposed to be one of the pretiest in the country. it might be, but not as pretty as Huehuetenango to Coban in Guatemala!
three hours later we were in masaya and much drier. We decided not to stay there after looking at 5! hotels. either they were awful with no window or there was noplace for the bike secured. We also thought it was on the lake but it is very much above the lake. its a pretty town, but we moved on 25 minutes to Granada.
Granada was a very nice colonial town, a bit crazy on the traffic with all oneways and no signs to tell you. We happily crashed in our bed after a full day.
the scale was smaller than i thought for getting through all of these towns in one day. it really can be done pretty easily with a little time to do a drive through tour in jinotega and matagalpa.