Hitchhiking and Knife-fighting

Day 175-179 I stayed in Tegucigalpa
Day 180 ta:2009 kt:22.1 gps: N 14 degrees 02.636' W 87 degrees 06.017'

I ended up staying in Tegucigalpa out of laziness rather than because I loved it so much. As much as I love the mountains and the beaches, I am a city boy through and through. I like the hustle and bustle of big cities and their cosmopolitan nature. That said, Tegucigalpa seems to be the sketchiest big city that I have visited in Latin America. There are legions of glue-sniffers and generally thuggish looking people all over the city. The cops seemed corrupt in a particularly aggressive way. This is the only place where cops have ever wanted to search my bags. I gave the cop a dirty look and told him to go for it. He would not have found anything anyway. The cops also wanted to search the other tourists that were staying at the place where I stayed. I mostly avoided walking around at night to avoid the drug addicted and uniformed thugs. Fortunately my hotel had cable so I got to watch a lot of movies.
The shampoo that I got for getting rid of the lice did not work very well so I went with the nuclear option of shaving my head. I have gone from looking like a bum to looking like a satanist since I kept my goatee. I bear a striking resemblance to Anton LaVey, the founder of the American Church of Satan. This probably won't help me with the ladies but it will probably help me stay safe since I look kind of scary. Security is more important to me than getting laid anyway. I haven't taken a vow or anything but I am essentially celibate.
I finally managed to break free from the comforts of the city today. I didn't leave until the early afternoon but I am now officially out of the city. The place where I am camping right now has a lovely view of the pine forest outside of Tegucigalpa.

Day 181 ta: 2995 kt: 63.8 gps: N 14 degrees 01.851' W 86 degrees 34.244'

I committed the ultimate sin today: I excepted a ride from someone. There were extenuating circumstances, though. First of all, I only had another 15 kilometers to go until I reached the city of Danli, Honduras. Second of all, the rear tire that I just recently purchased has a manufacturers defect. The steel wire that gives the tire form separated from the rubber causing the innertube to poke out the side and , hence, explode. I could not continue on like this because that would have destroyed all of my innertubes. The holes that this left were unpatchable. As I was pondering my dilemna, a couple in a truck pulled over and offered me a ride before I even had a chance to flag anyone down. They were going all the way to the border but I just wanted to go to Danli since it was a bigger city and I had a better chance of finding a replacement tire there.
As I secretly suspected, I was not able to replace my tires in Danli but the mechanic had a pretty ingenious solution. He used a needle and thread to sew my tire back together. I was skeptical that it would work but he swore that he has done it before and that it lasted for a long time. If they gave out a Nobel Prize for bike repair, I would nominate this mechanic. When I tried to pay him, he told me that he just wanted a soda. I bought to big sodas for him and all of the onlookers at the shop because I was very grateful. I am going to look for new tires whenever possible but I think that my tires will hold for now.
Since I was having a bad day, I decided to spoil myself by staying at a luxurious hotel for about $12 a night. The place had nice large rooms with private bathrooms and hot water. There was even a large television with cable. I watched Kill Bill in Spanish. My favorite part was when they translated "My name is Buck and I like to fuck." to "My name is Buck and that means fun." I wonder how hard it is to get a job translating Hollywood movies into Spanish because I think I could do a significantly better job.

Day 182 ta: 2620 kt: 57.2 gps: N 13 degrees 37.652' W 86 degrees 28.590'

The highlight of my day, besides crossing the border into Nicauragua, was when two men attempted to assault and rob me. I say that they attempted to do this because they weren't actually successful.
When I was climbing a mountain, about four kilometers from the border in the countryside, the two men stopped me. One of them grabbed me from behind holding my buck knife, which I wear on the right side of my belt, while the other stood in front of me and threatened me with a rock. The man behind me had a knife of his own. I immediately placed my right hand on my knife's sheath and placed my left hand on his arm so he couldn't just stab me at will. I essentially ignored the man with the rock because it wasn't a very large rock. I placed all of my attention on the man with the knife or rather on the knife since this man was potentially more dangerous. We all ended up in what could best be described as a standoff for about a minute or so. We were all kind of waiting for someone to do something to break the stalemate. I lied and told them that I didn't have any money. The man with the rock said that he wanted my bicycle and I told him no. To steal my bike would be to steal my dreams and I would rather die than not be able to complete my dreams of riding to Argentina. The standoff would have lasted longer if a truck didn't drive by. The two would-be thieves ran for cover on the side of the road and I immediately unsheathed my knife so I was better prepared for a knife-fight. The truck kept on going without stopping but I don't think that the two men were ready for a duel to the death. After I brandished my own knife, they kept their distance. After cursing them out, I decided it was best that I didn't stay around and challenge them so I continued up the hill with the knife in my hand, looking back to make sure that they weren't following me.
I think that these men weren't very hardened thieves. They probably expected me to be a cowardly gringo who would beg for my life and give them everything that I had. They were wrong. From now on, I am going to watch my back more carefully when I am ascending hills because these men surprised me. If I were going down a hill, I would have zoomed by so fast that they would not have seen me coming. I things considered, I came out of this situation pretty well. I was unharmed, they didn't take anything, and I didn't have to stab anyone. I still haven't changed my opinion that the drivers here are more dangerous than the criminals.
When I made it to Nicauragua, it started raining but stopped long enough for me to reach the town of Ocotal where I found a room for about $2 a night. It started raining again shortly after I arrived in the city. I saw the sun setting while it was still raining for the first time of my life. It was incredible. The sun was almost a blood red color. I have watched many sun sets before but I have never seen one quite like this one.

Day 183 ta:3670 kt: 78.4 gps: N 13 degrees 05.055' W 86 degrees 21.384'

Today was a delightfully uneventful day. None of my innertubes exploded, I didn't get into any knife-fights, and I wasn't skullfucked by anyone. In fact, a Nicauraguan congressmen pulled over in his S.U.V., handed me his card, and told me to call him if I had any problems. I have friend in high places here in Nicauragua now.
When I reached the city of Estelì, I had drank a lot of water because it was very hot and I ended up hanging out long enough at a restaurant and then an internet cafe that, before I knew it, it was only an hour before sunset. I then went downtown and found a cheap place to stay.
Estelì has some interesting murals and public monuments. There is a statue of a Sandinista holding a machine gun in one hand and a molotov cocktail in the other. There was also a mural that functioned as a public service announcement. It exhorted women to get regular pap smears for early detection of cervical cancer. I will take some pictures tomorrow morning when the light is better.

Day 184 ta: 2658 kt: 142 gps: N 12 degrees 26.206' W 86 degrees 52.535'

I feel like I have been going through my own personal Trials of Hercules recently with the exploding tires and knife-fights and all. Today was no different. Before I left Estelì for Leon, a man told me that there was a more direct route to Leon that was all dirt road. He also told me that the main road to Leon had a lot of pot holes. I told him that I would prefer the road with potholes if there was pavement. I was second guessing my decision after I was actually on this road. It was mostly potholes and not much of a road. Combined with the fact that it was ridiculously hot and I there weren't any places to eat, it was a pretty hard day. I ate mostly cookies and almonds and must have drank about 8 liters of water. I drank another 2 liters of soda on top of that. I used a sugar rush to ride the last 30 kilometers to Leon. I sweated so much that there were salt stains in my T-shirt. On top of the 140+ kilometers in 100 degree heat that I rode, I had to ride about a half kilometer through thick smoke from the fires that farmers set using slash-and-burn agriculture. I am going to enjoy the next few days in Leon.