I entered Nicaragua on September 25 and by the time I had paid all the fees necessary to enter, I was completely out of money. It was all downhill to the first major town of Ocotal but I decided to camp outside of town that night as I had no money and it was getting dark.

         The next day, I arrived in town and started the search for a bank but found that none of them had banking machines. I was forced to use my credit card to get money. I went to the grocery store for food and water and to the outdoor market for vegetables and fruit, attracting the usual crowd. I made my way to the Rio Coco River and sat under a bridge eating lunch. Further along the road, I came to an intersection and turned left to make my way to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. At Condega, I started to look for a place to camp. I set up the tent in a field and cooked dinner in the dark while I watched a lightning show on the horizon.

         When I woke up, someone was sitting beside the gate watching me. He left after while but a group of people across the Highway watched as I made my way through the gate. I started a long climb along the Esteli River and the mountains started to encroach on the Highway. I reached a peligroso (dangerous) section which was cut into the side of the mountain and zigzagged away from the river. I stopped there for lunch when the rain started to come down in torrents. I carried on in the rain and soon drove out of the dangerous section into rolling hills. In Esteli, I found a hotel, had dinner and went to a movie.

         In town the next day, I looked for somewhere that had a fax service so that I could receive a copy of the bike ownership faxed to me but with no luck. I spent my two days there doing some laundry, replenishing my supplies and trying to send e-mails on an internet that kept disconnecting from the server.

         On September 30, after two days rest, I was back on the Highway. I stopped in Sebaco and shot some video, picked up a juice at the gas station and then went to a bus shelter to eat lunch all the time attracting large crowds of people who didn't seem to work or go to school. As I continued down the Highway, the rain started to come down so hard I could not see where I was going. That evening, I set up the tent in the dark again. I had done 90 kilometers that day as the terrain was either flat or downhill.