South America Blog

   This is the journey I have always dreamed of,  to ride my motorcycle across the Americas. 

   Follow me as I travel south from Texas to the tip of South America on my BMW GS.   

    Here's a view of the Maps

Ometepe, the Island

I was packed and ready to ride to the Costa Rican border.  I wanted to get an early start in order to arrive at the border early enough to avoid the crowds.  However, as I rode out of Granada I missed a turn-off.  I thought to myself, no big deal.  I will just take a five mile tour and enjoy the countryside.  I rode past the small town where I had the tire repaired.  A few miles further down the road I started to feel that the rear tire was getting soft.  I stopped, checked it, and realized that the tire was loosing pressure fast.  So again I pulled out the tire plugging kit and air pump.  I re-inflated the tire and headed back to the tire repair station to have them check out the patch that they had placed the day before.  Being a return customer they got to my bike quickly.  It seemed that the first patch was weak and too small for the hole in the tire.  So, this time they installed a thick, heavy duty patch normally used on trucks.  I believed this would work.

Since I was now delayed and my plans for arriving early at the Costa Rican border were shot, I decided to take a side trip to the island of Ometepe.  This island was created by two volcanoes - one which is still active.  The steam from the cone could be seen from a long distance.

There were several small boats and a ferry that carried people, cargo, and vehicles across to the island of Ometepe.  Several of the boat captains asked if they could take me and my GS over.  However, since the water was rough and the bike was pretty heavy, I decided that getting the GS on and off the boat would be a handful.  Besides, I could see that the small boats were being tossed around in those choppy waters.  That was too much for my comfort level.  So, I passed on their offers and decided to take the larger ferry which crossed three times a day.

Getting the GS on the ferry was a challenge.  The large trucks were boarded first, and then everything else was squeezed on board.  Getting off the ferry was scary at Ometepe.  When getting off the ferry I had to ride onto the water which was only about one and one half feet deep.  However, while still on the ferry I had no clue as to what the depth of the water was or if there were holes, rocks, etc.  I also had the added pressure of the truck drivers being in a super big hurry to get off behind me.  With a very high stress level I managed to get onto the island of Ometepe.