The thing about really, really, really bad roads is…

Once when my family and I were on a trip, my mom consulted her map and decided that there was a short cut we could take, I sighed exasperated and said “great another misadventure” knowing that a short cut on the map might take us twice as long as the good road we were avoiding.

Before we left Guatemala we were happy to download street maps of Central America on to Greta, and also to find maps of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica.  The map we had been using is the Automobile Club Central and South America and while it gives you a general idea the level of detail got us lost more than once in Guatemala. In El Salvador our new map worked great and with Greta I could verify that we were where I thought we should be so between the two we zipped along down the coast.

As we moved south from Puerto Sandino to Masachapa we discovered that we had to go back in land before returning to the coast at La Boquita and Huehuete, from there we, according to my map could easily drive through Veracurz and then to Popoyo.  We found out in Hehuete that the road was impassable and would again have to drive the 30 K back to the main road go 10 or so K down the coast and then turn it to get to Popoyo.  We checked this as we left Huehuete with the policeman who stopped us and he confirmed what the map said, his directions matched exactly what I was seeing both on Greta and the map, good paved roads from Jinopete all the way down the coast to Popoyo.

We took the road down to the coast and for the first 20 or so Kilometers it was great and paved, a really nice road, what we didn’t know was that it ended in La Conquista about 30 K short of where we needed to be.  We asked the locals (many of whom were toting shot guns) on the side of the road if this would get us to Veracruz and they all said sure no problem, once in Veracruz though we found a dead end, no people and just a few monkeys.  We continued on the track we were driving on and the road got worse, we stopped for a tree in the road and considered turning around but we were 30 K in and only 10 K from where we needed to be, so Fritz removed the tree and we continued on. 

 

After coming to a locked fence, and back tracking we ran in to some locals who told us to take the “rock road” and that we would be in Popoyo in about 5 K… About 20 minutes later we met up with this truck, they stopped and one guy (who spoke perfect English) asked us if we had stopped at the surf camp in Veracruz (we didn’t see it), gave us his card and told us about a great little break we could surf at the next day!  He was a developer of course and traveled with a guard with a shotgun (but we shouldn’t worry about him because now he knows who we are!)

We got to Popoyo, stayed in the worse place yet, but by that time, neither of us cared they served cold beer and we had great rum!  The next day it was back up to the main road (on a better road this time) and on to San Juan del Sur, thankfully on paved roads (after another 30 K on wonderfully just bad roads).  The best thing about really, really, really bad roads is that they make you appreciate any road all that much more!