So after improving myself with a new mask and after this picture a haircut, it was time to get planning over another beer.

I headed off out of the smog of mexico city and took in oaxaca for a night to look around and prepare for the following day.

That day was to san cristobel high up in the chiapas mountains, a zapista movement cultured mayan traditioned town. The ride was 600 miles of pan am highway through the tightest twisting, amazing scnery i have ever done. It was a beautiful ride and the fresh crisp air was a relief after mexico city. The bus takes 13 hours whilst it took me just over seven. Shows how steep and tight a road it was. Imagine riding cadwell park that extends all day it was that good.


So then i left and crossed into guatemala and headed for antigua. Its a party town for travellers which suits perfectly. Friday i go back to school for a spanish course of two weeks whilst in the afternoons its a case of biking and i need to get up that volcanoe that overshadows the town.

Petrol is 25p a litre, beer is 50p a bottle and everybody is smily and helpful. The bars show the superbike races and the hostel is called the junglebar. Perfect. My new mate mark on a drz400 got in yesterday so at some point we'll head off and venture south for a week before i head for the bay islands to get some sun and try some diving. Its looking like a lovely summer .

At least you guys have a heatwave so i hope theres is some fantastic rides and everybody is enjoying it! Safe riding everyone

First of all, I'm glad you are keeping well and still enjoying your trip. Secondly, I am just one big roll of 13 stone jealousy. I can honestly say, you have more balls than me. I hope you do well in the next stages of your once in a lifetime trip. Best of luck and as usual, try and keep us up-to-date with your trip and yourself.

Astounding. this is just awesome stuff graham. real once in a lifetime trip.

Yep - too cool for school Graham. Glad you are keeping well and the trusty moto is looking after you!

Great pics, a lifetime of hardcore shizz in a few months.

I am sickeningly jealous of you but strength to your arm and health to ride!

So i'm going to try and keep this more updated so i dont forget things!

I left mexico and had a very easy crossing into guatemala, the scenery was gorgeous, they filmed jurassic park here and from the cloudy volcanic regions you can understand why it was truly breathtaking.

Luckily i stopped in a nice town and cleaned the bike up and enjoyed a street festival for the anniversery of their revolution. I just stood back and took it all in




That was a great place to hang out for a few days and i ended up doing some hiking into the various forests and just wandering around taking it all in and enjoying the little tuc tuc taxis shown above!

Then i really had to brace myself for some small chaotic countries and several testing border crossings and a country that only finished its well documented civil war ten years ago. El salvador was an eye opener, people travel in ratty old vehicles belching fumes out of the exhausts, rubbish is stacked up on corners and stray dogs wonder everywhere.

On a plus note the old american buses are painted up in some amazing colours, i found something i havent seen in a long time, a fireblade?? somehwre people must earn good money!

And strangest of all i found an english registered drz, guess i'm not the only silly idiot doing these trips!






Then it was a short hop to the honduras border, its a pretty well known corrupt country and i had a short 70 mile stretch to pass through

Border towns are very exciting, as soon as i arrived at the honduran one i was surrounded by people offering me money and help to get through the border. I fobbed them off and went in to customs and stamped out of el salvador and cancelled my bike permit. So far so good.

Next up i rode the mile down to honduran immigration and through a car park of lorries, i was told they can wait up to four days to pass through the border! Great, the process blew me away though, i can manage spanish fairly well but there was no way i could get in here on my own, the whole process is one giant scam to get everybody as much money as they can!

So one trusty looking helper and we set off on the paperwork trail. Healthchecks, searches, immigration forms, three seperate import permits and even road tax later i had a nice wad of paperwork a throbbing headache and very light wallet!





Yeah they are cows just roaming around on the main highways!

I was a bit worn out from the hassle of the border crossing and this was made worse by the number of police roadside checks at each one. The first checked my documents and pocketed my licence because i had no insurance. Fair enough, funny how five dollars gets you the licence back and no problems with insurance!

I visited some great ruins in copan which was a great stress relief and really was enjoying the scenery


Then it started getting out of hand. Police checks every 5 miles and everything being checked. I got my own back though at the last one before the border. The policeman started pointing at my engine and wiping mud off the bashplate and shaking his head telling me its leaking too much oil. It was an absolute joke, for one it was mud and two most of the vehicles in this country are in such bad states they should be in a scrapyard!

Funnily enough he asks for twenty dollars. I just say straight up no so he writes me out a ticket to pay at the police station and pockets my licence. I take the ticket store it with my souvenirs, smile and leave. The last laugh in this country is mine, the policeman has nothing more than a black and white photocopy of my JIB electriciansc card!! HAHA nice try you smug arrogant corrupt twat. It really spoilt an otherwise gorgeous country

So out of honduras, a nice smile and welcome to nicaragua. Not a country i really knew much about before arriving but its been loevly so far. It was an easy crossing and i could even laugh when the pan am highway (the only road away from the border) was closed and we were prevented from going any further because of the landslides covering the road. 2 hours later and time to move off.



I headed down the pacific coast this time on some very poor roads and had another puncture, i'm getting good at my roadside repairs now and 35 minutes later off we trundle again. I skip the capital managua and head for granada and the hectic market

I spend a few days in granada just enjoying the colonial buildings and hustle of market towns.
I also done something fairly exhausting and incredibly hot on one of this very special hikes.




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I didnt heed the warnings about the heat at first, but on certain rocks my trainers were melting their soles and i singed my arm hair trying to lean over and get some of the lava flow pictures. !!