HD Rally in Nicaragua

February 13 - 18, 2008

We are headed for Tegucigalpa early for a well deserved service for our trusty Road King. The gang is leaving from the dealership early Friday morning. We are pumped for our first Central American rally. Someone told us there should be a couple of hundred bikes at the rally. He then looked at us and said, "doesn't sound like much to you, does it?". We don't care, we've been riding alone for so long it will be great to ride with our new friends from Honduras.

Lito, the owner of the HD shop, led the group of 15 headed for Managua, Nicaragua. Good friends of Lito's, Dale and Peggy from Minnesota are on their new Screamin Eagle Ultra. Small problem at the border. We did not have our permit, which both of us swear up and down we never got. For awhile it looked like we were not going to get across but a 500 lempira note ($25.00) made all the difference. Guess it looks just like a permit! Those that waited for us at the border made up for lost time. The rest of the ride was FAST and FURIOUS!

Arrived in Managua and managed to get a great room for a great price thanks to Guillermo, the owner of the HD shop in Managua. He remembered us from our visit to his shop last year.

Friday night was a group ride through Managua to the Galleria Shopping Mall where the entire upper parking lot was fenced off for the bikes and a party. Locals were paying to enter the area to see the bikes and as we found out, to sit on whatever bike they choose. There was a live band and plenty of free rum and beer for rally participants.

On Saturday we left for a group ride to San Juan Del Sur. No one rides staggered or in formation. Anything goes and it's freaky. We only got run off the road once, with minimal damage to the bike. We now have a scratch on the left hand saddlebag to match the one on the right hand side which we got at the Guatemalan Honduran border thanks to a Mexican on a BMW. Nobody got hurt, that's the important thing. One guy ran over a dog and went down. He was not wearing any gloves or leathers so he had plenty of road rash.

We staggered back to our hotel room after the beach party in San Juan Del Sur. The group is leaving early to ride all the way back to Tegucigalpa. All in all our first rally in Central America was very impressive, alot of fun and we met many new friends from all over CA.