We had a very close call with the Honduran Policia today… For the past 3 months, I have been in tune with Mexico motorcycle rules. If you have a space on the road, you take it. When riding on road in Canada or the USA, you ride like you would drive in your vehicle. You follow the rules, don’t weave and wobble around traffic, you simply just follow the car in front of you or pass when it is safe. Riding a motorcycle in Mexico, Guatemala or El Salvador, you fill the void and ride to pass the vehicle in front of you, if that means riding on the shoulder, splitting lanes, give’r… Well, Honduras does not take kindly to riding a motorcycle on the shoulder to pass cars.
Let me paint a picture, I am in front, Allen is following me. We are happily rippin’ pavement towards a town called La Cieba on the Carribean coast. We come up on traffic slowing down, so I weave onto the shoulder to pass cars. It turns out cars were slowing down for a Policia checkpoint. I got waved over to stop, since I just broke the law infront of 5 Honduran cops… The police officer asked for our drivers license and documents. We handed them over. He gave us shit for riding on the shoulder… He didn’t speak english and we don’t speak alot of spanish. So we went back and forth for a while. I introduce myself and forced a handshake on him as my “I’m a great guy- don’t give me an expensive ticket”‘strategy. It didn’t work as well as I hoped. He walked away with both of our drivers licenses and my Honduran temporary permit (Allen didn’t hand his over) He walked up the road a while and spoke with another car driver that was pulled over. He came back maybe 5 mins later and gave Allens drivers license back but held onto mine for a bit longer. I thought for sure I was getting a ticket, but in the end he gave my papers back and we were allowed to leave. Sooo, the lesson learned is, don’t ride on the shoulder infront of a cop 😉
(No pictures taken, so none to post)
World Overland 