191 miles. 40 miles of dirt. From Rio Dulce headed east to the border. The roads are paved and in great condition. We did, however, ride through a small swarm of bees. Enough to keep you creepy crawly for a few hours. They hit very hard on my knee and face. About ten minutes later, I noticed two still stuck to Steve's jacket and glove so pulled over to do the shake down. Another ten minutes later I got a mild sting on my arm, inside my jacket! I couldnt get Steve to pull over fast enough and get it off. Over an hour later, we found one still alive clinging to the edge of the gas cap. Crazy.
The turn off to the border is a dashed line on our map, but it is paved the hole way and in good shape, lined with banana plantations. There is a good little comedor for breakfast in Entre Rios, the turn off town. Its Yellow and was hiding behind a large pile of pineapples when we passed it.
We drove through the borders as the CA4 allows you to do and took the first dirt road on the right. The only people that wanted us to stop were money changers. This dashed line route goes from Coronito to Quimistan and meets up with a small road there allowing you to bypass San Pedro. We asked a man in front of a shop about the road conditions and immediately I remembered how nice Hondurans are. Good directions, detailed. Cross the little bridge ahead, ... He said it is passable but the main bridge went out. So there is a bypass and we should be able to make it. He gave us lots of info. In Guatemala and Mexico, as directions, people just sort of give a vague whip of the arm that I could never quite interpret correctly.
So we continued through the town and into the woods, up the mountains, and missed the turn he told us to take. I didn't even see it. Crossed a river. Saw a man on a bike huffing up a hill. So, at the top I asked him and he told us to continue ahead and take a left. We continued. And we missed it.
We sat at the big river for a few minutes contemplating the possiblities that I was not up for. Back out to the road and the bicycle man was right there, telling us we missed it. Again he offered to show us the road. No, no, but thank you. so nice.
So we turn around and realized the scale of the roads we are missing. They look like seldom used drive ways. So we took it this time and it went up, and got very rutted, and went steeper and got worse. At this point Steve couldn't stop so he just made it happen and we got to a flatish apot and said Holy Shit.
This was a dirt bike trail, a horse track, not a road.
So I decided to walk up the hill a while to see what was in store. After discussing the possiblities, I walked and Steve went for it. And went for it. And then the bike had enough of the steepness, stalled out, slid back a few feet and slowly leaned over onto a big rock. So the aluminium boxes are very strong if you were wondering.
More discussion, more refusial on my part to turn around and encouragement to go on. It seemed almost more dangerous try and turn around and go down that beginning bit. So the boxes and tank bag came off to lighten the load. Steve road the bike up to the top, and we carried it all up. We brought straps for the boxes and they came in big-time handy.
When we got to the top, dripping with sweat and starting to put the boxes back on, a family came by walking their enormous pig on a leash - staring at us strangely. But the man still smiled.
So the view was great, and off we went hoping it would get better and not worse. We came across an intersection of a small rocky road and figured it was the inital left that we had missed meeting up and I asked a group of boys about that and the road. More interesting is that these three boys ages 4-10 all had machetes on their waists or in their hands. I cant imagine the outcome of giving machetes to a group of young American boys ....
The road evened out and became a pleaseure. great views. small villages. small scale agriculture. and about 100 river crossing, most very small. The road still went up very steeply but was manageable. We asked quite a few people if we were still headed for Quimistam and eventually we made it - with no Limpera for a watermelon juice. what tourture. no ATM. Hadn't stopped to change money at the border.
The bridge should be back in order in the future. I would definately go this way. People were super welcoming, Waving even before we waved to them.
From Quimistan it was a straight shot to El Progresso and up to Tela. The whole day took 9.5 hours. We drove past all the trucks waiting in line at the border.
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