Entries by allan

Burned Out On Costa Rica!

I didn’t really know where I wanted to go today. With no plan but just to cruise daringly close to the Monteverde Rainforest, Vulcan Arenal and several other national parks I figure I’d be inspired by something when I saw it. But enduring more than a couple hours of pothole avoiding and loaded bike agility […]

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday to my mom Audrey who flew to California to help me pack up my house and get me ready for my trip. I know she was nervous and would rather me home safe and sound, but what a legend, both she and her husband Howard for helping me fulfill my dream!

Keeping Up.

Keeping up with my journals and photographs is sometimes overwhelming. I sit here in shabby motel room. A cheap fan whirs back and forth and the sound of diesel trucks grinding gears sneaks through the slotted windows. My motorcycle boots caked in mud lie on the floor next to my dry bag. Various clothes are […]

Another Border Crossing. Welcome To Costa Rica.

Have Your Papers In Order! Everything I’d heard and read about the Costa Rica border crossing at Peñas Blancas had been negative. Perhaps only overshadowed in notoriety by the Guatemalan/ El Salvador crossing which I unfortunately missed. Weekend border crossings are always a bit sketchy. Stories of long lunches, closed offices and under staffing fill […]

Lake Nicaragua and Ometepe

The recommendations for staying on the island of Ometape (Isla de Ometepe) were overwhelming. I originally planned to spend more time in Costa Rica, but with stories of pot-holed ridden roads, higher costs and lots of rain I was easily convinced to take in the majestic beauty of this island sitting gracefully under two volcanoes. […]

What’s It Mean?

It’s amazing who you just might meet when rolling into a new town. Leaving León was tough. Last night a group of boys in their early twenties approached me in Parque Central. One of them had been hitting the cerveza pretty hard and kept repeating himself. But sans motorcycle they were interested in learning where […]

Hanging In Leon For A Nicaraguan History Lesson!

León has a distinctively comopolitan flair. But not as you find in more internationally famous cities such as New York, Paris, Rome or San Francisco, but rather unique amongst its Central American counterparts. Not gentrified and roaming with gringo tourists as you might find in Antigua, rather still brimming with a traditional culture yet reaching […]

Old Leon Nicaragua.

I find the road leaving Selva Negra to Matagalpa and then onto Managua much different in sunlight than my previous experience in rain. It’s easier to avoid the potholes and I’m quickly buzzing through Managua making my way to Leon – one of the oldest cities in all of Central America. Along the way I […]

Shade Grown Coffee In The Black Forest?

By the time I avoided my 900th pothole and was in the city limits of Matagalpa, Nicaragua’s 4th largest city a worn hand-painted sign welcoming me simply and scribbly stated that the national government was responsible for the condition of the road. Up till then the Nicaraguan roads had been perhaps the best I’d encountered […]