We have arrived into Managua

Hi Folks, Carolyn and I have made the easy part of the trip, we have arrived into Managua...last night in fact. We crossed the border into Mexico on Monday afternoon (Aug. 18) at 4:30pm, and we crossed into Nicaragua at about 4:00pm (local time, 5:00pm CST) yesterday afternoon. We arrived into Managua last night at about 8:30pm (local). We had many occasions to test our skill at backing up a 32' long travel trailer. We had many tense situations that led us to doubt the wisdom of making this journey, while pulling this trailer. I believe that, so far, the most challenging leg of our journey was the trip through Guatemala. The streets through the cities in Guatemala are phenomenally narrow. We had serious doubts as to whether or not we would make it through, a time or two. We survived the trip through Guatemala with only two major instances. As we were passing through the city of Aguacatlan, we managed to "swap paint" with a Toyota Hiace that was passing through in the opposite direction. We broke his rear window and he scraped a small protrusion off of our trailer. We met on the other side of town, with the police attending interestedly. After an hour or so it was agreed that I should pay for the window to be replaced. God was with us in this encounter. Those of you that have traveled in Central America know that it could have turned out a WHOLE LOT worse. We were a bit anxious until the whole situation was resolved. I really didn't want to spend any time in a Guatemalan jail cell. You really have to SEE the narrowness of the streets to understand how this happened. We were passing through to the east, and the other guy was passing through to the west. We were passing fine, I had clearance of inches on the right and maybe a little less on the left. The other guy wasn't pulled as far over to the right as he probably should have been, but that is perfectly natural...we drive on the left side and most of us aren't as confident in our depth perception on the "far side". Anyway, as we were passing, the trailer rolled over a small pothole and took a slight "jog", a tilt, to the left and right. That's when his window broke. We were traveling very slowly of course, creeping along. The second incident in Guatemala happened coming down the mountains just before the town of Sacapulus. The mountains are incredibly steep! We lost the brakes partway down the mountain and had to pull over. We had just enough brakes to come to a stop on a somewhat smaller incline. The brakes were "roiling smoke". We let everything cool down, waited about two hours, and then got back on the road. We had intended to park overnight at that lovely little spot, but the local people gathered around and asked questions like, "how much is this worth?", and "how many people are in there?". We didn't have a warm, cozy feeling about the spot after that. Those questions really are rather innocent, but we felt it better to move on. We limped down the road past Sacapulus, and even further. Though we didn't have confidence in the brakes, we did have enough to make it work. I'm afraid we may have abused the transmission on the next couple of hills in order to not build up any speed. You just haven't lived until you've crawled down a Guatemalan mountain, in the middle of the night, doing 20MPH with brakes that are worrisome...hahaha. God was with us the whole way. He provided a spot for us to pull over when we needed to pull over badly (coming down the mountain, with almost no brakes), and He also provided the perfect policeman to attend the "swapping paint" incident. The policeman that came to the scene was really on our side. Telling the OTHER driver that the damage wasn't that bad, and that since HE knew the roads better (he was a local) that he should have been more careful, etc. I could've hugged that cop! It cost us $205 dollars for the window, cheap! Other than getting lost a few times in major cities (a part of driving down here) while pulling a 32' travel trailer...nothing much else happened. I was offered the opportunity to bribe a border official, we were pulled over by a policeman in Managua and offered the opportunity to bribe a local police officer, and silly little things like that, typical for Central America. We still need your prayers folks! The hardest part of the journey is YET TO COME. We are planning on leaving Managua for Puerto Cabezas on either Tuesday or Wednesday. The roads are plenty wide, in most places, but extremely BAD. THIS is the part of the journey that I have been dreading. Keep us "prayed up", please! Richard and Carolyn Becton