Granada, Nicaragua

After crossing the border we decided to make the long haul to Granada a lake side colonial town that has that beautiful Spanish style architecture. We arrived sweaty and faint after a days driving and had some trouble finding a hotel with adequate parking. After driving around for an hour we settled on a fancy place which was nice for one night, but we moved to a cheap hostel after that, which is an affordable $10 per night. There are loads of restaurants and cafes here, which makes things a little more comfortable.

We have been hearing some strange sounds from the bike so we are going to try and get some mechanical assistance in Costa Rica, where we are likely to find good mechanics since they have a BMW motorcycle dealer there. We only hope the bike gets us there safely! Right now we are relaxing in cafes reading English magazines and dosing up on comforts before we head off to explore a small island created by two volcanoes on Lake Nicaragua which you can reach by a car ferry.

It has become clear some time ago that we won´t have enough time to make it to South America without rushing things terribly. In the end we settled on taking our time and enjoying the countries we do get to see, rather then racing the clock and ticking boxes. At first we were really disappointed but we have decided to leave it for a separate trip (Heading South '09, '10, '11...) and possibly extend this trips route with an extra northern leg that leads south to Los Angeles. We´ll decide once we reach Panama City.