Latin America Collection

We checked out through the Honduran border wihtout any problems.
It was just 1:15 p.m. when we arrived at the Nicaraguan border check point.
When we went in to clear customs, we were told that they closed at l:00
p.m. and we should return the next morning at 7:00 a.m.

We were just getting ready to go back to Choluteca and have a relaxing
afternoon by the pool, when the same Americans (Spanish speaking) from
California who had pushed in front of us at the Guatemalan border, drove
up. We told them what we had been told. One of them said it would be
easy to get across the border and he would bribe us through. Even though
he spoke good Spanish, he got nowhere. After being turned down at every
department at the checkpoint, he came back to discuss the situation with
us. There were three in his party--himself, his wife and his wife's sister.
They were driving the sister to Panama in her Toyota long bed pickup with
a shell covering the back. They had driven from El Monte, California.

They asked us what we were going to do. We told them we were
going back to Choluteca and stay at the motel where we had lunch. They
said they would follow us back. I was sure that we got registered and did
not let him slip in front of us again. We got to our room with time for a
good rest before dinner.

We all joined for dinner, where they told us a story that made us thank
the nice Mexican man at the ice cream parlor in Tapachula, even more than
before.

We had originally intended to take the coast road through Guatemala,
but this wonderful man talked us out of it. This group who had cut in front
of us at the border, and who we last saw at the customs having their load
checked as we were waved through, took the coastal road.

At the point where we had turned off to Guatemala City, they took the
coastal road for a few miles when they came to a village. The locals were
all lined up along the main street waving at them. They thought it was a
nice welcoming gesture, so they waved back and drove on through.
Just a couple of miles down the road, they were stopped by a tank in
the middle of the road. They heard gunfire and discovered the Guatemalan
army was on one side of the road, and an army of guerrillas was on the
other, and they were caught in the middle. They were using everything--
rifles, machine guns, bazookas and artillery.

These poor people were scared out of their wits. They were hunched
down in their car, and had just about given up hope of getting out alive.
A soldier was shot right in front of their car as he ran across the road. They
could see where the bullet entered his back, and the blood spurting out of
his chest where the bullet left his body. He took a few steps, then fell down
forward, presumably dead. Suddenly the tank pulled off the road into a
field so they started their car and raced safely away from their near demise.

If not for the good advice from the man in Mexico, we would have been
there, too.

The next morning at 6:00 a.m., we formed a two car caravan and headed
for the border. We were cleared with no problem, but the customs officials
made our friends completely unload their covered pickup and the luggage
rack on the top. We wanted to get through the Nicaraguan exit border before
10:00 p.m.--just in case they also closed early.

We bid our new friends farewell and raced across Nicaragua non-
stop. We crossed over into Costa Rica well before 1:00 p.m..

Please make a note, if your plans include driving through Nicaragua,
get through the border crossings before 1:00 p.m.--just in case.