The Costa Rica to Mexico and back Tour with Ric Altobellis…

Ric’s my first paying customer as Moto Tours Central America. As you will see, Ric’s happy almost all the time.  We found routes we never expected.  About right since we arraigned the tour as a “no plan except to ride to Southern Mexico and back.  We allowed ourselves three weeks and left my house on Monday morning, the 12th of January 2009 and stayed in Coco Beach, Costa Rica, about 80 clicks south of Penas Blancas, the Nicaraguan “Frontara”.   We stayed a night in Coco at “Pato Loco” (Crazy Duck) on the left going into town.  Dinner and a few beers with the owners, put us in that “on the road” head.  This was going to be good.

We crossed into Nicaragua about noon and were just arriving in Granada in early afternoon.

Ric has been taking my tours for nine or ten years now and it’s impossible to surprise him.   We come to an ocean…. I say, “We have to cross that river”.    Ever the stoic, he just says….”Okay”.   I can’t believe the tours I’ve talked him into.

Well, okay, Granada, Nicaragua, first stop and the second capital of Nicaragua that I know of.  There were three, Leon, Granada and Managua.  Granada is old Spanish architecture …more like Seville then towns in, say Costa Rica.  We stay at the Al Alhambra Hotel.  This too, has the feeling of old Spain and offers an ambiance conducive to quiet conversations, small intimate dinners with a great central park in front.  Please see our video, “Street Dancing in Granada”.  A short walk from our hotel, a cobble stone street with hotels, restaurants and bars…you can get a good steak, drink at an Irish bar if it suits you and see imaginative theater that changes with the moment.   My riders mostly don’t do tours outside of the one’s they’re on but I believe two days here would be well spent.  The town is on Lago de Nicaragua, a huge fresh water lake (sharks and all) that you can take a launch out for a few hours.  There’s a big market off from the park that you can explore.   Enough, there are better written travel books if you plan to go.

On we rode, ever North by North East.  Neither of us had been to Belize and wanted to say we had…so we pored over our maps to find the most interesting route…while keeping the funk factor in check.   Speaking of funk, Ric always takes the “economy package”, and it’s not uncommon for us to stay in an $8 room.   They are always clean, if threadbare and things like hot water are referred to after a few beers, humorously.

To be continued….