Day 2, December 30, 2008

Puerto Cabezas to Nazaret Uno

The day started off early. Some of the guys were still missing parts for their bikes so Rod had rigged a seat post with PVC pipe and duct tape so that he could ride until the box truck caught up with us with the luggage that would come in that morning. Creativity! It is such a great thing.

The road was muddy and bumpy. We were pretty well covered by the time we got to the first check point. The support crew wanted us to travel in groups of two at least so naturally Aimee and I started out the day together.

From Sea to Sea 2009

As we headed inland we could see the incredible damage caused by hurricane Felix in 2007. Even now over a year later you could see snapped of trees and very little vegetation. Acción Medica Cristiana one of the sponsoring ministries has been very involved in this area. As we passed through the little villages you could see many of the houses on stilts that still had plastic sheeting for the roof. USAID and the European Union had also helped in this area with clean water and housing after the hurricane.

A man on a moto stopped to chat with us while we had stopped for water. He asked us where we were going and when we told him Managua he was shocked. "Wow, that is a long trip." he said. He also told us about the possibility of a small strike in one of the towns ahead. We were thankful for the warning. The villagers had blocked the road and were not allowing vehicles to pass because they wanted to collect a kind of "tax" from the buses and transport vehicles to use to help their community. They told it would be at least 3 hours until we could pass through. Thankfully some of the Nicaraguans in our group talked with the people in charge and they peacefully decided to let us through.

We boarded a little ferry in the town of Wawa Boom and crossed the river. It was a really fun experience to see 24 bikers, a bus, truck, cars, ambulance, a couple of motorcycles and a lot of people all on the ferry.

From Sea to Sea 2009

That night we all stayed in the training center for Accíon Medica Cristiana (AMC). They site is used as a training facility for teaching farmers different methods of farming. It is in the middle of 20 hectars of land. The latrine was recently dug as the first group of bikers arrived on site. Aimee and I were the first ones to cristen it. The shower was a couple of wooden boards with black plastic sheeting wrapped around 4 poles. You had to stay low while you were showering because the plastic didn't go that high. Some people opted for a bath in the little stream nearby. After the muddy day many of us washed our bikes in the river. When I was almost done washing my bike off someone pointed out that I was standing next to a dead bird that was near the edge of the water. Hmmm well nobody got sick from bathing with a dead bird so I guess we're all alright.
Here is a picture of the AMC building where we stayed.

The people from AMC and 3 surrounding communities prepared a special cultural night for us. We had a very special dinner of lamb, rice and beans and Coca-Cola. Each community had a typical dance that they performed for us and then even let us join in on some at the end. Everyone was a good sport and had a great time dancing and fellowshiping. The people were so warm and friendly as we tried to communicate with them. The majority of our visitors that night spoke Miskito and only a little bit of Spanish.

As we laid down to sleep that night we snuggled up close to our neighbors to try and make room for everyone to sleep. We were all pretty tired after biking 67 kilometers in the warm nica sun. Soon after we laid down there was a nice rumble that began to fill the center as one of the guys began to snore. At one point another guy woke up the snoring sleeper and asked, "hey, how do you say 'you're snoring' in Spanish?" He answered and then rolled right over and went back to sleep. Thankfully we all got enough sleep to get through the next days journey.

More to come!