10/27 Met a couple other touring riders from Spain on the road. Oddly enough the didn’t even know each other and happened to meet up in Bogotá where they started their trip. Not too much else happened. Getting ready for a huge climb in 2 days. I heard it was 7500 feet from Barbosa to Tunja. Not sure if I’ll be doing that all in one day since there’s a place I want to see before Tunja.

My hotel picking skills need some work. For the 3rd night in a row I’ve picked a place that has construction going on. Not sure why they keep sticking me right under where they are working either. I could ask for another room but they don’t start making noise until I have everything unpacked.

It got cold last night. Glad they had blankets instead of a sheet. I’m down at 4000 feet tonight so it should be warmer.

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09/20 Survived another day on the Costa Rican death roads. Riding has just been miserable and the homicidal drivers don’t help. There was rarely a shoulder to ride on so 95% of the time I’m stuck in the lane with a million 18 wheelers. A couple people didn’t bother to move over even though the other lane was clear which didn’t surprise me given how unfriendly people seem to be.

When a pedestrian gets killed they paint a heart with a halo over it onto the road. Saw quite a few today. As you can see from the picture of the family walking down the road its not surprising that people get run over a lot. It’s either walk on the road or walk in the tall grass with the poisonous snakes. I also saw a lot of ambulances on the road today too. It’s probably easier for them to just drive around knowing an accident is bound to happen sooner or later. Or the same one just followed me all day figuring I’m a sure thing.

Met a couple touring riders from the Netherlands this morning. That was a bit of a surprise. They are just riding around Costa Rica (for some crazy reason). The first thing they said was how bad the roads were.

I did meet one of the 8 nice people in the country today He runs a fruit stand in town. I loaded up on some delicious tangerine fruit juice and he gave me about a dozen bananas to take along. I’m glad I found the place because I needed something to even out all the rtards I encountered today.

It was very hot again today but I beat the rain by an hour. I can’t seem to drink enough fluid though and I’m downing a lot. Didn’t go to the bathroom all day which is pretty bad.

I posted the fact that I’m here illegally (no entry stamp) on the Thorn Tree forum to see how bad it’s going to be when I try to leave. It sounds like just playing the no habla Spanish card might work. We’ll see.

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09/01 I did end up riding into town both to check out the museum and to find some new brake pads. Failed on both. I couldn’t find the museum but then again I suppose I didn’t try very hard. The rear brake pads I bought like 2 weeks ago wore down to the medal which has me wondering if I was ripped off. I’ve never had brake pads wear out that fast and it wasn’t that hilly. The front ones were OK so I popped them on the back. The first 12 miles was all downhill but nothing one set of brakes couldn’t handle. I had to walk my bike down the hill leaving Hotel Lenca this morning. No way was I riding down that steep, wet, cobblestone monster.

Depending on how nice the border guard is I might be back in Honduras tomorrow. I didn’t get stamped into El Salvador and even with CA-4 I think you have to get an entry stamp. Since no one was stationed at the crossing coming in I might have to either pay a fine or be stuck here forever. I have a note ready in Spanish professing my ignorance but hopefully I won’t need it.

Being in El Salvador for such a short time kind of stinks but this border agreement (CA-4) where you only have 90 days to spend in 4 countries sucks. Why on Earth would they want to drive out tourists so fast? Every day we’re here we spend money. I didn’t really get a taste of the culture or the people either. I came in at a place that probably has more reason to be anti-American than anywhere else in the country and I did notice that drivers didn’t wave/honk as much as in Honduras but 2 days is hardly a good time frame. Everyone waved back if I waved first so that was good.

Nothing exciting on the road today. It’s getting flatter (and hotter) so I can get more miles in. It’s also 5pm and the sun is still out–amazing. When I arrived in Santa Rosa I hit an ATM and went looking for a hotel. Oh, and why on Earth do stupid ATMs have to say “Insufficient funds available” when the actual machine is out of money? That scared the crap out of me. El Salvador also uses the US dollar as its currency so I have some green backs again. Speaking of money problems, I didn’t notice a $0.24 balance on my credit card so they hit me with a $30 fee when it was late. I emailed them and told them how sorry I was and they cleared the fee and the $0.24. Thanks IBM Credit Union.

Anyway, a kid asked if I was looking for a hotel so I followed him over to the one his mom manages. Decent enough place for $15. Even has AC. The same kid also walked me over to a bike shop to get 2 new sets of brake pads. I bought him and his mom 4 Cokes to say thanks.

A couple days ago something kind of cool happened that I forgot to mention. It was on the crazy road just before the border in Honduras. At the top of a hill a car stopped and the driver gave me a bunch of bananas. We talked for a bit (Spanish) and he took off. That was pretty nice.

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06/27 Worst day ever. Started off very early with heavy rain all night. Barely got any sleep (loud in tent). Next up were fire ants which chewed merrily on my feet while I was packing my gear in the rain. Finally on the road I hit a water-filled pothole and destroyed my front rack. Half an hour after that my rear tire went flat. Had it filled 90% of the way and it went flat again. Got a decent sunburn. Found a hotel in town, opened my toiletry bag and discovered that the tube of BenGay had ruptured and was all over everything. Jumped in the shower and was electrocuted by the shower head.

The funny thing about today was I had a feeling this morning that it would be a really bad day. I should have stayed put. This will be hard to believe but I didn’t swear or throw anything all day.

The front rack is a major, major problem. The bottom half bent under the weight of the pannier when I slammed down into the pothole. It’s actually a miracle that only one spoke was broken. Glad there are 35 more. I spent the next hour taking off the front fender and trying to straighten the rack back out. Of course bending medal that’s already damaged usually makes it more damaged. Now one of the weight-bearing bars is almost ripped right in half. Getting someone to weld it might work but I’m only going to try that as a last resort. The one bar isn’t the only one that’s damaged. I took almost everything out of the pannier and managed to make it here without it failing completely. There’s no way I can ride off-pavement and that’s another problem because the next part of my route after Coban tomorrow was supposed to be gravel. I’m also down a front fender which makes riding in the rain a mess.

I’m hoping that Coban has some sort of bike shop that could at least order me a new rack and fix the spoke. If it doesn’t I could probably fix the spoke but I’d have to order the rack from the States which would cost a fortune.

The flat tire sucked because now I’m down to 2 spare tubes and it’s harder than I thought to find ones with Presta valves. The one that went bad was the last from a batch of 3 I bought in Mazatlan. All three ended up wearing out at the inner seam.

Camped out last night in the back yard of the people that run the local restaurant. The lady spoke a little English which made things a little easier (even though I could have gotten through it in Spanish). She even offered to let me stay thanks to the weather but I set off to see how bad of a day I could have. It ended up not raining the rest of the day until literally 10 seconds after I got to the motel.

Mega hills today. One of them was the steepest I’ve ridden up on any major road. Traffic was light so I rode up it side-to-side and would have made it all the way except for one truck that messed it up for me.

Rode through some amazing scenery over the last 2 days. There are some beautiful national parks in Guatemala and I was lucky enough to pass through one of them–Ceibal. That place had the biggest trees and ferns I’ve ever seen. The mountain range called Sierra Chinaja was equally impressive. The mountains aren’t extremely high but they are entirely tree-covered and rise up from the jungle like huge pillars.

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Pictures are here. Once again the site breaks when I try to include them in the post. Argh.

06/25 Had a little rain to start the day. Lasted about an hour and then it mostly just drizzled. Luck was on my side because an hour after I arrived in town a nasty thunderstorm rolled through. I was safe and sound in my US $4.99 motel room so it didn’t matter. The place is called the Plaza Hotel. The room isn’t bad–2 beds, cable TV, a fan, space for my bike and it’s pretty clean. The shower/bathroom are shared but I can live with that for five bucks.

I’m running into a few places where the people don’t speak Spanish or English so it takes a little more non-verbal communication to be understood. There are something like 22 spoken languages in Guatemala so it was just a matter of time. Even the word for water (agua) is different. I had to show a lady the little bit left in my bottle so she’d know what I wanted. Food is so cheap here too. Lunch was a big plate of rice, beans and chicken tortillas plus 2 Cokes for US $3.

I forgot to mention the parrots at the hotel in La Reforma. They spoke to everyone sitting near them at the restaurant in Spanish. “Hola! Hola!” over and over again. They also made a barking noise when they got hungry.

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