La Moskitia Honduras (Plus Broken Leg)

That expression is a movie in itself :eek1

Shock, confusion, fear, regret, pain, .....:huh

It's a whole different world in our heads when shit like this happens...

and being in the heart of Nicaragua's "darkness"...

You were certainly having an "adventure".

Your luck with the military is the best thing that could have happened

As you say, El Jefe was the Real Deal, as were his men

Your ability to hook up with your travel insurance company was your second blessing.....Military grade pain killers and Xanax would take the edge off a katana sword

My hat is off to you, sir, for venturing into that coastline with a bike...it would be challenging enough by foot with a small pack.

Great RR! Thanks for sharing the good & the bad. Nice snow on here in KY this a.m..
As a political sidenote to your Honduran experience it seems that country & our foreign aid to them is a major news story last few days. USA has been giving many $millions$ to them for "security" through the state dept and the article I read showed the head of the state police who is also known as a past killer of innocents there,etc., and the million dollar question becomes whats the money going for & is he getting it and so on and that the new Sec. of state John Kerry has another new challenge.
Were all waiting to see where you choose/get to heal?

Subscribed, wow, you have great luck! Good thing the military guys were in the area.

... so when are you going to go get your fucking bike

wow.

Glad to see you are ok and able to post. I am anxiously following. Can you give a link to your Travel insurance company, and did you have any issues with both coverage i.e. the SPOT and your travel insurance, often one will pay and the other not, etc...

Thanks for posting hope you are healing well

Balls of steel

Very glad you're relatively ok...I've broken an elbow and ribs and they hurt plenty, didn't have to worry about where I was at...you were way out there, but good fortune came your way. May you heal well.

Forgot to mention that. they left three soldiers with the bike and then when we got back to the base they sent out a guy who could ride it back to the base. Bike is basically ok except that there is a radiator leak, the key is broken off in the ignition, the instrument panel/housing/assembly is trashed, and the headlight is off. but it runs. So the bike made it back to the base.

Yeah I booked it online through World Nomads. The policy was issued by a company called Travel Guard. I cannot say enough good stuff about how these guys handled this situation. More on the specifics to follow in a second. But man, it was amazing. The policy cost me $286 to book. I can only imagine how much it cost them to evacuate me. Best $286 investment I ever made. No issues with cross-coverage.

The next day I got a call in the morning from the travel insurance company. A plane was in the air and headed to the base. After two nights on the base just sitting there without being able to move around I was really happy when we heard the buzzing of a plane overhead. I stuffed my shit into my bags and was trying figure out how to get to the landing strip. The soldiers heard the plane too and brought a truck to help.

I got my first look at the outside of the base



The plane



It was really cool to see la moskitia from the air, it is easy to see why there are no roads.



The first little plane took me to Brus Laguna, and in Brus Laguna we landed on a little airstrip where there was a second plane waiting. Transferred over to that plane, which was going to take me to Roatan.



One of the most interesting things from the air was to see all the narco plane landing strips. There were SO many of them all over the place, more than I could count. Many had been bombed by the airforce leaving a series of pockmarks down the strip. But many were still in use.



Here's a good example. Look how many landing strips there are! As soon as they destroy one, the narcos just build another right next to it.



The second plane took me out to Roatan, which is a tourist island off the Honduran coast that is known for scuba diving. Here they have a proper airstrip, and the insurance company had an ambulance jet waiting their on the airstrip complete with flight crew and a real doctor. These guys and their jet had been sitting there waiting for me for a day and a half (enjoying Roatan they said!). How much does that cost?? Travel insurance rocks my world.



Doctor was really cool. He handled all my customs BS and then gave me a veinfull of some proper narcotics. It took about 2 hours to get to Miami in this private ambulance jet, although I don't remember it at all thanks to the pain killers. The smile below says it all.





The rest is a bit blurry, but I remember we landed in Miami and there was an ambulance waiting there at the airport and I was shuttled to the hospital pretty much immediately. I live in Oregon so I was still a long way from home at this point, plus the bike was still in Honduras, but at least I could deal with the leg.

I imagine the bathroom routine at the army base was a horrible hop, twist, and bump routine.....no fun at all. :huh :eek1

A bad experience that sure could have been worse....not to say this was a "no worries get-off", but you had basic meds and care w/ the army guys....several days of...

In the hospital in Miami I got my first look at the leg since they splinted it in Honduras. My left calf looked like it had eaten my right calf.



Thanks to x-rays, finally got to see what all the fuss was about. Spiral fracture of the tibia, and a broken fibula as well.



They fixed this with a "tibial nail," where they bore out the middle of the tibia and put a long titanium rod down the middle to hold everything in place. The rod & screws stay in there permanently. The smaller bone, the fibula, will apparently heal up on its own.



Spent 4 days in the hospital in Miami and then the travel insurance company booked me a commercial flight back to Oregon (first class). Again I cannot say enough good stuff about world nomads and travel guard insurance. I used them because my normal travel insurance company wouldn't insure this particular trip due to the length of it, so I found world nomads online and booked through them.

Now I am back home sitting on my ass watching TV, posting this ride report, and hobbling around on crutches until the leg heals up.

Totally!

Sideoff,
It's always good to have a look inside.

I am NOT a doctor (and don't play one on TV), but I would have wanted some metal on that fibula break....yes it would heal....but "in the right alignment?". Your tibia break is a clean one....the fibula not so much...

My x-rays for comparison:

Similar "fragmented" break earned 7 screws and titanium plate:







4 days after surgery:




Good luck w/ the crutches.....and NO weight bearing for 6 weeks.

Yep....several weeks on the couch.....writing a ride report and catching up on afternoon mindless TV... :

Twins I'd already broken it once before


I got all my work done down in Venezuela since I lacked Medical Evacuation Insuarance, seemed to me it doesn't do a whole lot of good if you don't have good insurance back in the States, I had none so I opted to stay in country and save some money.

I would love to see what you actually got for that $286 I'm betting something well past $40K Good deal and glad you got screwed back together

btw what boots where you wearing

All I can say now is Sidi Crossfire

Innocent question: I've never had mx boots, hard ones...do they protect much better than say a pair of leather, soft-ish boots? I can see if the bike falls on your lower leg that a mx boot would keep your lower leg bone(s) from getting crushed.

But in another type of accident i.e. when biker is thrown, the rider might land awkwardly on the leg and there is a break. If riding with hard, mx boots, maybe there isn't a break though. But wouldn't that mean that the blunt force simply travels up the leg to the knee area and this is what would blow out? Tendons, acl and such? I'm sure there are many factors at play and it's hard to say what would happen.

Not trying to raise a stink or anything, just like to learn from others who have had these experiences.

Yep, fair question and good prediction. I was wearing Fox dirtbike boots (Comp 5 or something) when I twisted my foot 180 degrees backwards and broke the fibula just above the ankle....folks told me that I was lucky it didn't create an ACL tear ....

I prefer a sturdy boot for off-roading, and feel a bit naked when wearing "touring" boots when pavement touring.

If it's gonna do damage, somethings going to hurt

I would suggest a good off-road boot for Baja, and a boot with very good ankle protection for paved riding

Excellent report. I have a sister that lives in guaimaca Honduras and I asked her about moskitia and she compared it to the wild west. Land is still free fence it and it's yours but stay out of the way of anything drug related. Hope the leg heals and you get to finish the ride