Nicaragua – Bluefields.

Again the border crossing with Nicaragua is complicated but pretty normal and straightforward. As it is late afternoon we decide to stop for the night in a little town just after the border called Ocotan.Some people at the hotel Frontera where we reside advise us to go for dinner at the Vieja Casa Restaurant. The food is OK but nothing special. The morning after Matthew needs to go to the police station to file a report because he lost his top case and needs it in order to claim it for insurance purposes. The plan for today is to reach Bluefield. Bluefield is a very small town on Mosquito Coast. Mosquito Coast was famous at the time for being full of pirates. Because of its location It is today an arrival point for illegal drugs that make their way to the north. The only way to get there is by boat or barge along the river Escondido. At around noon I stop for a break and when I try to restart my bike I experience a total loss of power. It is an electrical problem. I manage to fixed with the help of Henry, the owner of a hardware store. unfortunately time is still not on our side therefore the is no chance for us to make to Bluefield. Plan B will take us to the beautiful city of Granada. Granada is a typical colonial town developed by the Spanish in the 16th century. It is reputed to be one of the best example of spanish colonial architectural in central america. We stay at the Hotel Colonial and enjoyed a great dinner close to the main square. The idea is to wake up early in the morning and attempt to reach Bluefield by the end of the day. The ride to Bluefield in the morning is beautiful. We drive trough lush green tropical vegetation. The humidity is getting seriously high, which seems to affect me more than Lee and Matthew. We reach El Rama at 4PM and apparently we are late to catch the boat that will take us to the atlantic coast of Nicaragua. With my broken spanish I try to rent a private boat to take us there but because we need a special permit from the military to cruise on the river we are not able to do so. After some negotiation the only possibility to get to Bluefield that night is by traveling by barge. The ride on the river will take 9 hours. Lee and Matthew decide to sleep with their sleeping bag on the barge while i decide to jump on the boat that will pull the barge because the boat is carrying some passenger as well. Every occasion i have to stay with locals I take. We are all resting on hamakas on the rear bridge of this old boat. It really feels like we are cruising on the Amazon River. The true adventure for all of us. People carrying vegetables, chickens and all sort of different goods. All squeezed in a maze of Hamakas. We all loved it.

The captain of the boat suggest us to stay at the Oasis Hotel and casino. Driving trough the town of Bluefield we feel that everyone is starring at us with couriosity expression in their faces. I have experienced this feeling of being a movie star in some countries I visited but this one was somehow special. As soon as we arrive the hotel we soon understand why people were so intrigued about our presence in town. It turnes out that we are the first people on motorcycle that ever shwed up to Bluefield. I dont know if this is true but doing something for the first time that no one has done before in 2013 is very special. We feel a bit like the first settlers. An amazing feeling. Bluefield is certantly not a Central American town. This is because it is inaccessible by land.The people of Bluefield are mainly black and speek a sort of dialect. A mixture of Spanish and English. Many rastas on the street and reaggie is the music of choice.