As in most things in life, this is definitely true in cycle touring. It’s easy to take the biggest, fastest road and speed through to your next destination. Or you can spend more time and effort, and take a longer route, linking the places you want to see. This sentiment has certainly been true in the last two countries we have travelled through: Honduras and Nicaragua.
Honduras is known to tourists for spectacular Caribbean beaches on Roatan and incredible Mayan ruins at Copan. Unfortunately neither of these places were convenient for us, so we just rode right through along the Pacific Coast. The road was hilly and in poor shape, with temperatures over 40C. To top it off, all the kids screamed “GRINGO!” at the top of their lungs as we passed, even from less than 2 meters away. Guess what … Honduras didn’t make a big impression on us.
Welcome to Nicaragua (and Japan apparently). Famous FSLN president Daniel Ortega’s pink political billboard is the first thing you see when entering the country: “Christianity, Socialism, Solidarity”.
