Stage 10 – Condega to Yuscaran | Joachim Löffel

125.1km – 2268m up – 2036m down – 5640kcal – 9:20h

Another 9+ hours on the bike day into our third country: Honduras

It was a long, but kind of easy climb to the border on a perfectly paved road, with a final Coke stop in Nicaragua to get the energy back. you never know what will be ahead of you, thus never miss a chance to stock up! My riding was good, although a bit sour from the last day’s fall. However – have a look at the profile above – we had to carry our bikes over the top, otherwise we would have risk to puncture the tires on that sharp peek.

The downhill to the lunch stop was great, although we are back on gravel again. No rain, no wet stones, no hassles. We are already on the ‘Ruta Colonial y des los Volcanes’. The beginning of the 2nd section of the tour.

I had a great lunch, lots of food, water and social talks. But then I missed something …

It was supposed to be a 125km ride, but I made it 136km since I missed directions at lunch.

Now I know that ‘L @ Police’ does neither mean ‘Lunch @ police’ nor does it mean ‘Lost @ Police’ it simply meant: ‘Turn left at the police check point’.

Nobody saw me leaving the wrong way from lunch, after about 5.5km I was sure, that I was wrong, because nobody was behind me and I was still on good pavement. It was time to check my notes to recognize my error. So I returned to the Lunch stop and was greeted with smiles.

Question: Is this a matter for the UN Human Rights watch?
Canadians, Americans, South Africans and other nations were called back when they did the same mistake. Only ‘Little Joe’ from Germany was left on his own

After the extra 11km I finally headed into the right direction again and was happy to pass Suzette after a few kilometers. If she was right I was right too! I continued strong and passed several other cyclists, suffering badly from exhaustion.

Around the final corner and into town, with real rough cobble stones. Rattling everything into position that was dislocated during the day.