2/11/9 Danli, El Paraiso, Honduras

Woody and Rich studied up on their mechanical repairs in preparing for this trip. I suspect that they practically took their bikes apart completely more than once. They had fabulous guidance from some of the best local resources, who continue to give advice from afar. The major mechanical failure thus far has been having to replace worn out fuel pumps. Accessing replacement parts is something they don't have control over, unfortunately. The fuel pump saga went on for a month, or close, and involved many days of correspondence, me giving my credit card number to a stranger on a cell phone somewhere in Canada, waiting and waiting and waiting. It started simply enough -- with fear that they might run into difficulties in the future, as parts wear out after thousands of miles on rough roads.

"we are holed up in a town called danli, about 30km from nicaragua. we will cross later today. we spent that last 3 days in san pedro sula, honduras. i was told that san pedro was not a place worth checking out--maybe from a tourist viewpoint it is not, but it turned out to be a nice stop. Our first day we located motorcycle shops, (we both needed rear brake pads, and an oil change was close enough to be done as well), of course they were all closed until monday. the only ktm dealer in the country had 5 bikes on display, no parts, no accessories of any kind.

we were directed to a mechanic by the name of xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx--an american married to a honduran. he and his family raced motocross. he pointed us to some shops and also told us that if we were unable to find the brake pads, he could have them sent to a nearby town to be re-done. so i spent the next day stripping the bike down, changing the air filter, checking for loose bolts (after the 100 plus kilometers of washboard, potholes, river beds). i took the fuel pump out to file the points and was a bit discouraged by their appearance. they are worn way down and i am not sure how long they will last. hopefully to costa rica…

that first night we met marcos, a happy honduran in his thirties. he told about his church and said that he would pick us up sunday night to take us there. it was an experience. A celebration of sorts, nothing like churches at home. on monday morning we found brake pads and 15w50 synthetic oil. the shop, vrc motorsports, let us do the work in place, using their tools. very nice.
while there, we met matamoros--a very excited honduran. he has a ktm adventurer and wanted to ride with us. with the work on the bikes done, we left san pedro yesterday morning. at 8:27 am (3 minutes early), matamoros showed up on his adventurer, along with two friends also on ktm´s--another adventurer and a superduke(the sportbike). they rode with us for 2 hours or so, took us out to lunch at a fancy restaurant and made sure that we were planning on returning to san pedro. their homes are open for us upon our return. it was an interesting experience--our first with wealthy folks. the gap between the rich and poor is huge in honduras. they were nice guys--a bit much bravado and machismo, though. riding with them, i felt as though we were looked at differently--alone, we are on big dirty bikes loaded down with a pile of stuff. with them (their bikes were immaculately clean) and their fancy riding suits, it was different."


-- luludilly