Adventures and Safety and Tragedy

Nick and I are here having a marvelous adventure, but it's worth noting that there are at least two major tragedies through which we have adventured thus far:

• Volcán Fuego exploded just a day or so before we got to Guatemala, and again the day we entered the country. Although this volcano is known to regularly burp and spew, it very rarely does so anywhere near this magnitude. Over 100 people died in pyroclastic flows and mudslides, many are still missing, and over 10,000 are displaced.
• Nicaragua continues is major civil unrest that has claimed the lives of 170 citizens in the past eight weeks.

We saw several of these guys with homemade mortars on our quick ride through Nicaragua. Didn't want to have the camera running, though, in case someone took exception to it.
Photo credit: Reuters

For us, these things were little more than obstacles to overcome on our trek south, but these events continue to have untold impact on thousands of lives...life-changing impact...life-ending impact.

On an adventure motorcycling forum I frequent, ADVRider, one contributor local to Nicaragua posted this:

"i am sad to see that people are still crossing nicaragua for their "adventures." as far as i'm concerned no adventure includes risking your life in a known violent area. this is coming from someone that has 14 years in nicaragua. someone that just this week paid an enormous amount of money to evacuate his family and leave behind home, vehicles and possessions for the sake of their safety. all of my friends either have already or are in the process of leaving the country."

He had a few more things to say, describing some of the local atrocities, and ended with: "DO NOT GO TO OR THROUGH NICARAGUA."

It's a somber thing to pass through these areas. Getting through Nicaragua was just a matter of doing it, though had we known the depth of the rancor perhaps we would've looked more seriously at finding a way around. We did lots of reading ahead of time, and came to the conclusion that the dangers were manageable. Although it turned out that we did, indeed, manage alright, we had an excellent stroke of luck to help us along. Not far from us, there was a shooting the night we were there and further skirmishes during the night.

In Guatemala, I couldn't help but wonder what we could do to be of use to the local population. In the end, though, we were poorly outfitted to do anything but stay out of the way, which is why we ended up electing to head north and avoid the traffic fleeing the volcano.

Here's a way to help Volcan Fuego survivors in Guatemala.