Welcome to the site for Michael and Derek Expeditions where our motto is "We Take You Places You Won´t Go Yourself! Please enjoy the website and feel free to leave comments or vital information such as where we should go next or if you know anyone along the way who is willing to give us a floor to sleep on. THANKS!

Most people only have the opportunity or desire to experience life through events that are directly around them where they are safe and a daily routine provides comfort. While these people are content viewing the world through a magazine, book, television or internet, Derek and Michael are not satisfied with this. We require a much more personal interaction with the people and cultures of the world. We require an ubiased and honest view that can only be obtained by experiencing the world ourselves. We are obligated to answer the internal call of adventure which tells us to go out and experience places and situations that are both good and bad but never the less help us grow as human beings. We also desire to leave a lasting impact and positive view of our own culture upon the communities we visit and change the way the world views us. If you have comments or questions about what we are doing feel free to post or comment!

Our expedition will be approximately 6 months long starting in Mexico and flowing down as far south as Tierra Del Fuego in Argentina, the southernmost point of South America. In between we will be visiting as many countries as we can at a pace that will allow us to enjoy the trip. So keep reading and keep us company on this grand adventure! For a complete chronicle of our travels, click on the Journal menu tab and associated archives in the right column.

Hello Everyone! My name is Michael Francik and I grew up in Pasco, WA in the USA. I´ve been working hard my hole life to save up enough money to go to Washington State University where I met Derek and succesfully graduated in 2008 with a B.S degree in Chemical Engineering. I have always had a mandatory need for adventure whether it be backpacking in the wilderness, climbing mountains, or training for and completing an ironman triathlon. During college I devised a plan to travel Patagonia for a year and then met Derek and with his desire to travel as well, our trip expanded to the entire South American Continent. It has been 8 years now since Derek and I thought up this great adventure and only now is it coming to fruition. After working in the Petroleum and Nuclear Clean up Industries for 3 years right out of school, I decided that this was a now or never kind of situation. The stars have aligned and we have both the time and resources to make this trip finally happen. There is soo much more to life and this world than we know and rather than working a standard 40 hour per week or more job with only 2 weeks of vacation, I am out to experience all of it!



Hola! Derek Here! It’s been a long time coming, that is to be on the road. What was once a year plan to travel the world with Mike has digressed into a 6 month adventure in South America. A pretty good compromise for now considering all the other places we could have chosen. After graduating from Washington State University with a B.S. in environmental science, the past two and half years have landed me jobs all over the country from DC to Alaska. Since then, those jobs have given me the opportunity to clear all the standard worries of home; debts and possessions that would otherwise have me locked down are now taken care of. My freedom has been earned with a little sweat traded for cash and cash traded for immunizations and travel gear. I guess you could call this urge to get gone a travel bug, but this bug is the size of Godzilla. It´s so easy to read about foreign places and have preconceptions, based on what someone else has experienced; but I don’t like to read so I guess I’ll have to figure it out on my own(jk, I like to read!!) I’ve always considered myself more of a player than a fan anyhow. Enough blabber… sit back and follow along!

After an interesting surfing experience in La Libertad we drove to Somoto in Nicaragua. It took us the whole day because we had to drive through 2 borders in the same day. One border from El Salvador into Honduras and then from Honduras into Nicaragua. Each of these border crossings takes about 3 hours because of the unorganized chaos that takes place down here to get papers to the correct person and office and acquire signatures and stamps for our car. Nevertheless, we had a long day with the police stops. What not mentioned in this article was already posted a month ago, see Finally In Nicaragua! for more details.
Our first stop in Nicaragua was Somoto near the border. We had heard there was some good canyoning in this area and we were not disappointed. We decided to bunk up at a terrible hostel with the most inhospitable host we have had on the entire trip. When we arrrived her daughter was rocking in a chair giving us death looks like Todd from the movie the Wedding Crashers...very strange to begin with. Then we talked to the mother who owns the place and she showed us some rooms and we were all set. There was a kitchen out in the open air, and most hostels allow you to use the public kitchens. Little did we know this was her prized possession of a kitchen and noone not even the death look daughter was allowed in there. Before we found this out however, we went to market and bought raw meats and vegetables for making pasta. On our return she began to yell at us for trying to use the kitchen, saying it was off limits even after several attempts of promising to clean all dishes and the kitchen itself...pretty standard protocol.
We then decided to ask a local corner restaurant run by a small family if they would cook our food for us if we paid them. They were very nice and they agreed to let us pay to use their kitchen in the back. We proceeded to make pasta sauce with them looking over our shoulders and we are preety sure they have never seen anything like it before. A refreshing change for them rather than rice beans chicken. Overall a good exchange of hospitality and conversation from these very nice people.
Visiting the canyon was very nice as we were able to swim, hike, cliff jump all along the river inside this canyon. It was very beautiful and good excersize. A real life junglejim for all of us who like to run around. After that, not much else to see in Somoto and we were off to Leon to do some volcano boarding!

After just one night at the Bearded Monkey hostel in Granada we decided to skip the city and head to the island of Ometepe.

The massive Lago Ometepe, is somewhat reminiscent of Lake Iliamna in Alaska. Stretching roughly 20 miles long and 6 miles wide. In the center of the lake lies an island with two volcanos, one of which is active. Volcan Concepcion is considered active and had erupted with the latest eruption in 2005. The other volcano, Maderas, is considered dormant, but has a lagun on top which feeds a gigantic waterfall.
I don't recall the name of the "ferry" we took to the island, but it was similar to the USS minot. It ran a wopping 3knots an hour and had the seaworthiness of a rubber duck. The wind was howling which created 4ft to 5ft waves and an even tipsier boat to say the least. Not long after, 1.5 hours or so, did we finally land to find 10 taxi cab drivers asking if we needed transportation. We had a few ideas about where we wanted to go, but realized that we just needed to go to a hostel and check in. We made our way to the east side of the lake where the wind was relentless at 25knots or so. The water was warm so Derek and Mike took a dip as soon as they made it over. That night around 7 or so, thousands if not millions of mosquitos swarmed the living quarters where we were staying. Oddly enough they only lasted for an hour or so.

The next day Ari, Michael and Derek were behind the handlbars of some kick asphalt 125 enduros. We made a $25 day rental into a $1000 ride, up and down and all around the island, no breaks except at Volcan Maderas's waterfall. We definitaly had the best tour of all, because the amount of area we covered.

Warning! Savages are closer than they appear




The next day we decided that two nights on the island was good enough for us, so we jumped on the only bus running that day. The waves were calling us, so onto San Juan Del Sur we went.

We arrived into El Salvador without much trouble and made our way to La Libertad. A stretched out town along the pacific offering fishing and surfing. We chose the latter of the two and surfed most of the time we were there. We stayed at yet again another Dutch owned hostel, roughly 400 yards from the beach. We found that our surfing abilities didn't match the break, that is the break broke us. A strong, relentless current that kept dragging us sideways away from the break. Most of the area was full of surfers, but we managed to catch a couple waves.
The most significant thing about hte area was the feeling of insecurity there. We never felt threatened or had any runins with anybody, but walking around the area just to grab some pupusas had people gocking and saying "es peligroso gringo".
Pupusas were the main hit, $1 for three, a traditional El Salvadorian dish, basicaly two pancaked sized toritillas grilled together with cheese and some sort of meat. We also managed to buy a 10lb yellow tail snapper... and grilled it up right... Tasty!

When we arrived in Nicaragua we didn't know that they were inventing new sports by the day. With more localized volcanoes in one location than anywhere in the world, Leon Nicaragua is the perfect place to do what they call volcano boarding. Basically you sit on a wooden plank with a solid metal plate attached to the bottom. Then for more fluid and fast motion they glue on smooth counter top plastic to make you go super fast. When arriving at the hostel Bigfoot, we noticed on the chalk board that the record was 87 km/hr. We had to try this!



A group of 20 people were picked up on an oversized cattle truck where they hearded us into our seats and then unloaded us at the base of a cinder cone volcano that is still active. Yes...still active, maybe we would be boarding faster than we thought if this thing starts to blow! We continued to hike for 30 minutes to climb to the top of the 700 meter volcano. The group suited up in orange coveralls provided by the staff and we couldn't forget the chemical goggles they provided or we might lose an eye from flying rocks and dust on the way down. In groups of two we all cheered as people went racing down the volcano face sitting on their boards and holding onto a makeshift rope attached to it. Your only hope for steering and breaking is using your feet. This tactic can also be your mistake as you could crash instantly by planting your feet too hard as some people found out.


When you start you don't know what to expect. Dirt and rocks are flying everywhere, in you eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Derek took a good bruiser to the head that drew blood and some people ended up scraped and bloodied from their wipeouts. Even at your fastest, you really are not going as fast as you think. The experienced guides only got up to 76 km/hr but they looked like a blazing dirt trail coming down the mountain.





When done we all hopped back up into the cattle truck where everyone was grinning ear to ear with beers in hand celebrating our victorious attempts at volcano boarding.

Slowly but surely we continue to make our way south. Over the past two days we jumped from Guatemala, through Honduras and into Nicaragua.

Our last location in Guatemala was a unknown resort for 10 U.S. a night. We were departing from San Pedro on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala and were trying to head South but somehow ended up northwest and we were not going to make the border crossing before night fall so we decided to bunk up in this resort. Around 7 o´clock that evening loud bangs were heard out in the street, along with thousands of people running. The police were firing tear gas into a crowd to disperse them. Luckily for us, armed guards and a 15 foot fence kept everyone out. It was quick to find out what the riot was all about, power. The prices in the area continue to rise and the people are fed up with it all, but it didn´t look like things got too out of hand.
The following day we made our way to Honduras which opened up a whole new can of worms in terms of our annoyance with the border crossings. When we got there we had to wait over two hours because the staff was on lunch and they get to decide how long they want to take to eat. Every border crossing seems to be chaotic down here. As soon as you pull up in your car there are ¨guides¨trying to jump inside your car so you will pay them a tip for their services to get through the border which as we have found out is never a fast process. We are starting to get annoyed with everyone asking for free handouts and the obvious conmen who try to rip us off at every opportunity. Do we sound like experienced travellers now or what! The guides are useful in their own way but they do not help make the process any faster. All we want is someone to point out where the immigration and customs counters are because they are never well marked and there are tons of people and building selling things which confuse the issue.

After getting through the Guatemalan border into Honduras we were hounded by the police at three different stops. Luckily we were only stopped at these three because we passed through 12 of them. Honduras police are notorious for trying to bribe people and even rip off the locals. Of course, us being white and in a foreign car they thought they were going to get a free pay day. We had other plans though. Our encounters went like this I will write it in english for you:

´This might get annoying´

Good day officer how are you.
Good can you give me license registration and passport.
Ok here you go.
Where are you going.
We are heading straigt to Nicaragua.
Oh, well do you have a traffic triangle or fire extinguisher in your car

No, officer we dont and at the border no one at the border said anything about them. Do the customs officials know we are supposed to have one?

Well, it doesn´t matter you are violating the law and this is an infraction, you will have to pay a fine.

We apologize officer, but how are we supposed to know about this law if even the border official inspecting the car does not inform us or tell us we are already breaking the law. We are new to this country and want to follow the law and enjoy ourselves, but this is making it difficult to do so. Can we buy the following items in the next town.

The officer thinks about it and we argue back and forth in a polite manner for 5 minutes until he decides I am not going to give him any money and he lets us go. We got stopped and went through the same thing 3 more times that day. And no, we did not buy a triangle and fire extinguisher because it is just flat out bull shit to get us to pay them money. If it weren´t that it would be somehting else. Polite refusal to these con artists is our method. Luckily we know spanish so we can politely argue and get away with it. The other thing is, if they write us a ticket, we just wouldn´t pay it because we are off to the next country anyway and this car will never be back to Honduras anyhow.

This is one instance of many police encounters we have had, but they are men with some morals, and the longer you argue, the more guilty they feel about trying to take money from you.

After these encounters with Honduras police, it put a sour taste in our mouth for Honduras so we decided to move on into Nicaragua the same day. The border crossing took 2.5 hours with the same crap about going on lunch, needing a bribe to make the process go faster. Our greatest weapon is patience as we dont pay any bribes. Michael´s charm is also a great asset as he met a lady in the customs office for the car. She was going on lunch but with charm and wit, he won her over to fill out the necessary paperwork so we could get out of there. Same border crap, different country. Finally we entered Nicaragua.

We had a full load going to Lanquin, Jolanda, Ari and Bart, all from Holland and all ready to get out of the cramped car. The first third of road to Lanquin was paved and rather good for driving. After that the road started to change from good to bad to worse. More than a couple of times our car was bottomed completely out and we more or less ‘bicycled’ ol’ Duro (Ol’ toughy) on two wheels to get some tight spots. After Mirador when our guide called us Duro (In Spanish meaning having endurance and tough) we decided our car had earned the name. A narrow, windy zigzagged route through the mountains; around every corner it seemed were men with machetes and women with stacks of wood strapped to their backs. At one point we decide to break and at least take a group photo of the epic excursion. Lucky us, we had four Germans following close behind, who were glad to take a photo for us.

Two couples, one from Germany and the other from Switzerland. A Volkswagen van shipped from Germany along with a Land Cruiser retrofitted with beefed up suspension, exhaust, fuel tank, 200 gallon water tank and sleeper canopy welded to the frame; the ultimate off road travel utility vehicle. If only we had more time and money!!!

We finally made it to Lanquin and found ourselves turned around again due to no signs, roads without names and one way streets (though it doesn’t matter in CA if you drive down them the wrong way) We dodged a few passed out drunks in the middle of the street and found the alley way leading to the paradise hostel owned by another Dutchmen, called Zephyr, located on the hill.
The next day we were already off to the caves for some “Cave exploring” at Semuc Champey, so we booked a guide who gave us a candle and match and we hiked for hours. No, a little more than that, though we did get a candle and a guide. There were about 20 of us from Israel to Slovenia, a mixed breed of folks with mixed conceptions on what the trip was going to entail. Really it was awesome, with stalactites hanging from the ceiling and an eerie ancient feeling from the ancient Mayan past. Mike would say “a site to behold if one could ever behold something like I am beholding” and Derek would say “a mythical landscape, if this place were a movie it would be the wizard of ozz” so there you have it. If this doesn’t make any sense at all just wait for the pics to be uploaded.


After the caves we hiked to pools of water that cascaded from one pool to another down the side of the mountain. We were able to relax and swim and play in them cliff diving, bathing, and enjoying nature. A really beautiful spot, we were glad that we went.


We were also able to swing on a huge rope swing out into the middle of the river. The swing probably launched us out 20 feet in the air some people belly flopping, others quite gracefully landed in the water.