C2C Day 3

Well... what I didn't tell you in Day 2 is that the entrance into our accomodations that day was sort of like a cow pasture. It took a steep down hill followed by an uphill. It was wet and muddy so when the box truck drove in it was slipping around pretty badly. On the morning of Day 3 we had the challenge of getting our trucks out. The guys hooked up the 4x4 Land Cruiser to the box truck but it just couldn't get up the hill. After untying it, the Land Cruiser made it up but not without a big push from all the guys. The 4x4 Toyota Hilux was next and it needed a big push too. For the third vehicle we didn't have much hope because it wasn't 4x4. About 4 guys grabbed on to a tow rope at the front and the rest pushed from the back. Might I also add that the women were watching and praying that what seemed the impossible would work. With a few big pulls, pushes, and prayers the truck slowly made its way up and out to the road.

It was a fun ride this morning because we rode through the communities who had put on a cultural program for us the night before. There were lots of waves along the way and my pink horn got used alot. Today was the beginning of our rocky road. The rocks pretty much spanned across the road with an exception of a narrow strip on the side. We would change sides depending on what looked to be the smoother route. These road conditions were not expected and so our days got stretched out much longer than we had anticipated. Many of our days ended up being 8 or 9 hours on the road. Although the road was terrible the landscape was just beautiful; breathtaking really. Along the way we would rest along the side of the road. At one stop a man with a Canada T-shirt came up to us and shook our hand. We chatted for a while and found out that it was his daughter's birthday that day. We gave her a granola bar and got a little bit of a smile out of her. The sun this afternoon was hot and oppressive, but a cloud covering in the afternoon was a welcome blessing. We biked about 78 km today from Nazaret Uno to Rosita.

We had another accident today. All the bridges along this part of the road are constructed from wooden slats. One of our fellow bikers was thrown from his bike when his wheel got stuck between the boards. He landed on his back 8 feet below into the riverbed with just a couple inches of water. His biked followed him in. Although he was stiff, sore, and a bit scratched up he was able to complete the trip on bicycle.

There was always lots of help when someone had a flat tire. I think we had about 25 flats between all the bikers on the trip. Some bikers had 3 in one day. I was lucky not to have any flats on the whole trip.

Rosita would be our destination for New Years Eve. Since we had biked all day and would do so again in the morning we had a little party earlier in the evening. It included a pinata and fireworks. Somewhere at about midnight when I was already in bed the big firework explosion happened.

In Nicaragua there is a tradition to make something like this called "El viejo", which is an old man. At midnight they burn it to signify the passing of the old year and the beginning of a new one. We saw many of them along the road today.