De Montreal a Buenos Aires en Moto: Days 54 to 57

I've been struggling lately to keep up on the blog. I must admit I've been procrastinating a little, as we stayed in a few cool places, where it was much easier to party or to just hang out in the evening, instead of sitting down in front of the notebook. On top of that, my broken keyboard is painfully slowing down the writing process. Fortunately, I will be able to sort this out in Panama City. Mihai's mom is flying in to Panama early January for a short vacation, and she will bring the spare part, which I have purchased on ebay and shipped to her place (thanks to Mrs. Michaela and PDubbs for the help).

Laziness disclaimer: I've stolen some material (pics and text) from Josh, the American rider we have been travelling with for the past few days. He's writing a trip report as well, but on a motorcycle forum, and his stuff is a little more up to date than mine. Just like many of the assignments back in university, it was too tempting not to copy...partially at least :)

Day 54: Coban, GT to Copan, HON

Pretty diverisifed day of riding. We left Coban in the morning under light rain. The first half of the day was still enjoyable. The roads were entertaining, crossing through green mountains. Around mid-day, both the weather and landscape changed drastically. Within 30 minutes, we went from 20 to 30+ deg. C, and from green mountains to dried up plains. We got to the border around 3 PM. Crossing into Honduras was once again slow (took us 2.5 hrs), but not much of a hassle. So far our strategy was to avoid major border crossings, and it has been working out quite well. Once in Honduras, we rolled another short 8 km to a small town named Copan, and quickly found the Via Via hostel, which has been recommended to us by Andy, the British rider we hung out with in Coban.

Who would have thought that a dirty DR 650 can be a pussy magnet ;)

Day 55: Copan ruins, HON

On day 55, we did the short 1 km to the Copan mayan ruins, probably the biggest touristic attraction in Honduras. It was nice, but this is the fifth mayan site we have visited, and at this point it was beginning to be old news. However, the ruins in Copan are probably the ones with the most elaborate sculptures and details. We have also seen there some beautiful birds, the Macaws. The pictures don't to them justice, but they are quite large and truly spectacular.

Day 56: Copan, HON to Lake Yojoa, HON

We did a 200-something km loop around Lake Yojoa on that day, a ride that was recommended us by the owner of the Via Via hostel in Copan, who's a belgian expat and also a motorcyclist. The destination was the D&D Brewery, a small and hard to find microbrewery/hostel in the area. We had some great food and beers the previous day in a genuine german brewery in Copan, and the idea of another spot with quality beer was a logical choice for us for our next destination :)

Quoting Josh:

So I was sitting at D and D brewery and Hotel near Lake Yojoa trying to get a signal on my spot and in rolls the 2 canadian guys on DR650s that I meet briefly the night before in Copan. They unload and we have dinner. The funny part is that in our brief conversation the previous night neither I or them had planned to end up at D and D. Over dinner we decide to ride together tomorrow and head for Yuscarn

Explanatory Note: We briefely bumped into Josh in Copan the previous day (he was staying at another hostel), but at that time neither him or us had set our destination for the following day... We were actually thinking about heading to the coast, but changed our mind at the last minute the next morning.

Day 57: Lake Yojoa, HON to Yuscaran, HON

We started off the day by looking for a good spot to take a few photos of the lake. We briefly stopped by a nice small hostel with a great view and a couple of interesting vehicles on the property.

Retired 2 1/2 ton truck. I drove one of these in the Army back in the days.

I've retired from 4x4 off-roading, but I still have a soft spot for them. Highly modified Toyota Land Cruiser.

Lake Yojoa

Vintage Ford tractor in need of some TLC...

Josh and his BMW 800 GS

We rolled into Yuscaran in the evening, where we had planned to stay for the night.

Quoting Josh:

We pulled into the very small town and expected just a sleepy little mountain town. It was not! It was Saturday and some festival was going on with people everywhere! We has to drive right through the center of the action to get to the hotel. Our room was huge and had 3 beds. The hotel was a really nice cool place.

We dropped our gear and went off to join the party. Lots of food stands, kids running around and big fire works from a guy that should not be allowed to have matches!

There was also a lamp post with a bad ground. It was hours of entertainment for the kids and they showed us the game too. Hold on to each other and the post and metal fence and first person to break the chain because of the shock is the loser. The entire scene was an experience! We all had a great time and tried to go to sleep at a reasonable time to ride some dirt tomorrow but the town kept the music cranked until 4am. Central America likes stuff loud!!!!