December 22nd 2006:
Racing for a Costa Rican Christmas
Ahhh!!! A day to breathe, finally. Our absence with our routine of weekly updates hasn’t been because nothing is happening. On the contrary! We have so much to share but so little time to spare.
At the moment we are in Leon, Nicaragua and we only have a few days of biking to reach Costa Rica. We are always pushing ourselves to reach Santa Teresa for the New Year. You know how it is at New Years Eve…a fiesta of friends without even thinking of waking up in the morning.
Since our last entry we have passed through five countries. So here goes:
South of Mexico:
To say that children from Canada need to be nice for the year and they will receive gifts but here in Mexico all they need is a stick to smack Santa
Ricardo with his taxi
In Puerto Escondito where I was to meet my new cycling partner, Paul…to my surprise and his, Lynne appeared out of nowhere to accompany us on the final stretch to Costa Rica. Our only worry was that Lynne was to slow us down…but far from it. What actually slowed us down was a bacteria we all experienced first hand in Salina Cruz that nailed us to the wall or I should say to the toilet.
After two days of suffering we left weak but excited to hop back on the bikes to face the Ventana. La Ventana is an area that all cyclist dread. This desert is located where North America’s landscape becomes narrow and very flat and allows violent winds from the East to the West. We where so happy to be somewhat healthy and back on the bikes that even being violently thrown around by the wind was a mere discouragement.
Our new friend for the journey... Paul with the Chiapas Mountain Range behind him
Danger, large curve ahead... Ahh and don’t forget to use our detergent
Once we escaped the winds of La Ventana we entered the mountain range of Chiapas where the winds were calmed but violent obstruction where still thrown my way. Within my whole biking career so far I have been hit by cars before but I have to say that it’s the first time that I got hit by a tire from a moving car. People here in Mexico are not surprised when their wheel from their car flies off to hit another but instead it was me... Me I was stunned. I was lucky enough to escape without any injury but my trailer lost a few feathers.
Guatemala:
Before the second world war rubber trees were the only means to obtain rubber but now we seem to push away from nature but here in Guatemala we still see fields like these.
I really don’t understand that we are entering poor countries that have higher quality fruits
Entering Guatemala had its challenges with the guards at the gate. They had a hard time believing that we wanted to pass through Guatemala by bike all the way to Chili. They gave us a 3month VISA but all we actually needed was 2 days. Wow... the roads are a biker's dream. Wide shoulders is all we ask for and that’s what we got.
This is only one of the many volcanoes we see, this one from Guatemala
We were disgusted with the diesel trucks spitting smoke into the air which was transferred unintentionally into our lungs. And let’s not forget the burning cane fields surrounding the highway. That was the first half of Guatemala. The second half was calm. We were enchanted by the volcanoes and accompanied by large prehistoric sugar cane trucks and cowboys that guided their cattle to greener pastures and the other side of the road.
El Salvador:
It’s reality
Once again the fear of entering El Salvador caught me. One of my Salvadorian friends begged me to change my initial route. Knowing that it was his home country I was... scared. From what he has survived from El Salvador we were not to be alive to today. With the expectation of hostile welcomes we received the complete opposite. Our presence was welcomed only by smiles and Hola’s from adults and children. Throughout our travels in El Salvador all we really experienced was good people. We enjoyed El Salvodor so much that we are planning to pass through once again when we make our way up North.
Honduras:
We look like ants beside these huge double semis of cane sugar
Funny to say that we traveled through that second biggest country in Central America in only one day. Upon our return we are looking at two weeks on the East coast however. We also learned in Honduras that it isn’t wise to pass through the border at night. Before the border we were attacked by the merchants wanting to exchange money and to buy anything they were selling. The problem was that we were surrounded by so many people that we couldn’t really move and others drunk seemed like they wanted to attack Lynne and maybe even steal from her. Out of panic and I chose a merchant to change our money and made him realize that if he didn’t get rid of the other merchants, I wouldn’t deal with him.
Nicaragua:
Now this is Recycling!!! Even the floor is made of bottle caps
Entering a new country at 8pm without any light to guide us on a road with pot holes big enough to loose by bike in really wasn’t a wise thing to do. But now we know it. Even the locals that guided us to a hotel that evening didn’t encourage us to go out at night in their own country. We felt lucky to have met up with them instead of bandidos on the road at night. Our first day in Nicaragua was painted with the landscape of a smoking volcano which could swipe out this road we are biking on at anytime she desires.
Of course we are disappointed about our rush to Costa Rica. But we are fortunate enough to know that we are going to pass through again and the volcanoes aren’t going to go anywhere... I hope?
I hope to give you news once we arrive in Costa Rica and have the chance to sleep in ‘til 12pm…I can’t wait.
Ciao!!!
Simon
