Held up at Machete Point

Ok, so no updates in a while because we´ve been on the beach. And I´m sorry to report that Cara and I were mugged by a masked man with a machete yesterday just before sunset! Neither of us are hurt, but it was a frightening experience. here is what happened as I remember it.

We were at a beach just south of San Juan del Sur, in southern Nicaragua. it was our third visit to this beach in two days, we were there to surf. We packed up the van around 5Ñ30 or so, and started driving down the dirt road, we were the last vehicle out of there.

My guard was down. We´d had a fantastic 3 days there, and we were both excited that Cara had caught and rode her first wave... and then about twenty more! We were flying high.

The dirt road was pretty much one lane, with turnouts every so often. Less than a kilometer from the beach, a very large branch was in the road. Definite red flag, but we were having a great time and I foolishly just got out of the van to move it. I had closed my door, and walked about 15 feet towards the log when I realized that it was a big mistake. I never reached the log. I turned around and saw a guy in ragged clothing and a hood that looked like it was made out of a blue tshirt, eyes cut out, open the drivers door and start yelling.

He was yelling ´dinero!!´ and I could hear Cara screaming. I ran back up to the van. the mugger had the drivers door open and was leaning in. When I came up he waved his machete at me, I was a few feet away. There was lots of screaming and yelling by all three of us. Cara gave him the money we had on the dash, but it was only like 6 bucks which pissed him off and he wanted more. we were screaming we had no mas dinero, I approached again and he said he was going to kill us.

He climbed further into the van a bit, and was looking around for stuff to take. He saw my backpack, and demanded it. Cara smartly turned it right over to him, he put it on and ran off into the shrubs. The backpack had the laptop and about 40 bucks in it.

Anyway, the whole thing probably took a minute and a half or so, but seemed much longer. I locked the doors, moved the log, and we drove out of there. Saw some other people maybe a half mile down the road. Told them what happened.

Went back into town, and stopped by our hotel. Earlier in the day, the power had gone out. For whatever reason, some pump there doesn´t work when there´s no power and then there´s no water. I must have checked this by turning on the sink. Cara had tossed a bikini in there. When we got back, the power was on, the bikini blocked the sink, and there was an inch of water on the tile hall of the hotel, and 3 inches on the floor of the room. Awesome.

After cleaning up that mess, we went to the police station and filed a report. The station didn´t have a functioning copy machine, so the cop let us borrow the report, walk a few blocks to copy it, and then return. When we got back, three american girls were giving their report about how they had been riding bikes to a different beach, and 2 guys with tshirts on their heads holding pocket knives cleaned them out. Just another day in southern nicaragua sounds like.

The whole thing has left us pretty shaken for the moment, and I think we´ll probably hotel it for a couple days, rather than camp in one of the national parks down here. I´ve replayed the whole thing in my mind pretty much nonstop, didn´t really sleep last night. I guess it happened a short 18 hours ago. I remember while it was happening, I was just trying to think of a way to get the guy without Cara getting hurt, and then my next thought was if that she got hurt because of me I would never forgive myself. Those two thoughts repeated over and over in my head, occasionally interrupted by the idea that I could try to slam the guy in the door, and then I´d think about Cara again.

But the real root is that I messed up by getting out of the car to move that branch in the first place. I knew I had messed up even before I turned around and saw the guy at the van. The tree limb just seemed wrong, but I picked up on it too late. Probably because we were both in such high spirits from the great day surfing together, but who knows. Plus I´m paranoid that he had friends on the beach who gave the mugger a heads up, since I saw someone drive past us in the other direction just a few minutes before the event.

I wish I could say the incident didn´t sour us on nicaragua, but it has. I´ve been pulled over here more than anywhere else, got stopped by the police 3 times in 30 miles at one point. I feel much more like a target in Nicaragua than anywhere else. When we copied the police report, a woman there said she´d had two laptops stolen, and it´s the same group of bandits who have been pulling the same stuff for a long time and nothing has been done, no one has been caught. I guess that means there are no or few injuries from these things, which is a good thing. But it seems pretty rampant in that touristy beach region, it´s surprising they haven´t clamped down on it. The cops have plenty of time to pull me over and fine me.

So, we crossed the border (as planned) into Costa Rica. Borders are harassment enough when you´re in good spirits, but getting out of Nicaragua was pure pandemonium, craziest border we´ve seen yet. Glad to be out of there, and glad neither Cara or I was hurt.

We are both well if a little tired, and we´ve rented a beach house for a week with some friends so hopefully that will let us unwind some.

Dave

Meet Cara

Going a little out of order here! I realize not all my friends have met my wonderful girlfriend and travelling companion Cara, which is really too bad! We are down in Nicaragua, and I shot a 3 minute vid of her yesterday if you are interested.

I should also add that she has an excellent blog, which can be found at www.cararoams.blogspot.com

Cara's blog is different than mine, features more pictures and extensive writeups on what we are up to. My own mother has let me know she prefers Cara's blog (Thanks mom!), so if you'd like to read more about our adventures in Central America, check her blog out! Ella es muy linda y divertida!

Pulhapanzak Falls

We visited these great falls in central Honduras. Very quiet on a weekday, very beautiful!


I paid a local guy 5 bucks to take me behind them... by going through them! I used Cara's camera to make a video of me walking out of the cave in back and through the falls to the front. Really fun!

Lago Yojoa

Next stop was the Lago Yojoa, in central honduras. I just have a couple photos, but the area was truly beautiful and there were TONS of birds which was great.

A shot in some nearby caves. Really cool cave, but most of my photos didn't turn out so well
Up in Parque Nacional Cerro Azul
Us at a waterfall in the park
Cara visible at the far end of Sherry.
Bananas! Not too ripe!

Roatan and Tela

A couple more images from Roatan island, and Tela:

Thought this was cool
West End: A diver's ghetto. Fun spot!

Stayed one night in Tela on the mainland, on the way to the airport. Hotel Maya Vista was really neat, perched in town on it's own hill and overlooking everything. Airy and spacious.

Underwater on Roatan

Cara has a sweet digital camera which is waterproof to 30 feet!! Of course, her scuba dives go deeper than 30 feet, so I got to take it on my snorkel outings. Lots of fun!!

Cara on her way back to the surface

Susan in the foreground, Cara behind her
Cara is excited. She is crazy for Scuba!!
I shot some vids of me dorking around with the sweet camera too!!

Pico Bonita National Park--Honduras

Cara's mom Susan flew down to see us. We picked her up in San Pedro Sula, and headed to La Ceiba. We were planning on going straight to Roatan island, but it was raining, so we took a detour into the jungle for a day for a hike and some whitewater rafting.

Everyone loves a swinging bridge!
Neat waterfall



Here we are about to take the plunge on our raft trip. I forget the name of the river, but it is crab in spanish. Class 4, really fun. We hit a big one that swept all three of us out of the raft a little lower down.

Me and Susan goofing off in the raft
pretty river
We had to set up a third seat in the van. Cara rules from the new throne

Copan Ruins, Honduras

Cara and I had a great time wandering around the Mayan ruins of Copan. While not as impressive as those at Tikal, they were relatively deserted.

Honduras

After El Pital, we crossed into Honduras at El Poy and spent a night in Gracias.


The hot springs outside Gracias. It was a sunday and was packed with kids, one of whom cannonballed us. We didn't stay long. He then cannonballed 3 really old ladies!

Camping on top of El Salvador

For our last day at night in El Salvador, we went to El Pital, the highest point in the country to camp. You can drive right to the very top! Lots of fun up there, cold, and my brakes were smoking on the way down.

Cara crosses a log bridge
Cara tops out El Salvador
Dinner! groovy plates and gloves courtesy of my pal Brian!

Suchitoto

One of our favorite places on the trip so far is Suchitoto, in the mountains of El Salvador. It's a quiet little town with cobbled streets and friendly people. Very reminiscent of Antigua, but without the gringo hordes. hardly any gringos there at all actually!

lake suchitoto

Kids on their way home from school
Cara using the internet in the square
A dry waterfall outside of town. It's a pile of hexagonal basalt columns. It was bone dry... so I climbed it. Fun!
Cara and I enjoying some fancy homemade artisan popsicles on a hot afternoon.

Ruta de Los Flores

Ok, I'm way behind thanks to moving a lot and scarce internet, but here we go:

Town on the Ruta de los Flores, a beautiful 30 mile drive through the hills of El Salvador:

I just thought this was kind of funny. Inject yer goat!

Some neat falls outside of town
Ok, this one is actually in Suchitoto, next post.