Goodbye Guatemala – Hello El Salvador
Yesterday I started to continue with my ride through Central America. First I needed to cross Guatemala City, which had a lot of traffic and stinking vehicles in store for me.
In addition, I needed to climb about 400 m up to a ridge to leave the city which is situated in a bowl. This climb was very uncomfortable due to the heat and the many particles of the dirty diesel exhaust of the incessant traffic. I actually got a slight headache from this exhaust – probably not the best day for my lungs either 🙁
As a counterpoint, what followed was a fantastic 900 m (3000 ft) downhill on a great 4-lane road (the CA-1 Highway). I covered 20 km in 25 min, topping out at speeds of nearly 72 km/h, passing several trucks on the way down. The latent energy I had put into the bike on my last day of hard riding up to Guatemala City was now released and helped me to cruise effortlessly.
So it went up and down several hundred m two more times for the rest of the day. I almost got caught again in the dark on a 1.5 hr climb until 5pm. On the downhill the sun was setting and when I reached the little village of El Amate (between Cuilapa and Jutiapa) it was getting dark. I ate dinner at a small restaurant and luckily the owners told me that I could pitch my tent on their private property just a short walk from the restaurant.
The last night in Guatemala was quite noisy, with roosters, dogs, trucks, and some crazy locals in their cars seemingly competing for the most annoying noise. In the middle of the night at 3am someone pulled up next to the road some 100m away from my tent and blasted the area with super loud music from the car stereo – that lasted almost 1 hr! I put in ear-plugs and drifted into sleep again…
Today in the morning I had breakfast there while the tent was drying in the early morning sun. Then I continued with the ride towards the El Salvador border, now only about 70 km away. First stop was in Jutiapa, where I looked for and found an Internet provider to catch up on email (since I didn’t have Internet access last night). Then I continued with some hills for the remaining 50 km to the border.
Some local cyclists rode beside me in this area which was fun. Once I reached the border there were long lines of trucks lining the road for several km apparently waiting for the paperwork of the border crossing. I was getting concerned about such wait time, but it turned out that for me it took only about 15 min. The border agent first did his paperwork, then came out to have a picture taken from his cell phone while sitting on my bike, then I had someone take a picture with my camera as well. They all wished me well for the rest of my journey.
The remaining 35 km were first another 200 m uphill, then a sizeable downhill and lastly about 20 km of flat road. The latter provided a great way to end the day; riding on a flat road is just so much less strenuous…
I reached Santa Ana, the first town here in El Salvador. Near the center I found a hotel and got a room with shower and bathroom and Internet – all for just $12 per night. Here in El Salvador the currency is US$, so no need to collect yet another currency in my wallet…
Tomorrow I will continue riding towards San Salvador, from where I’ll probably take a bus to detour to the country high point Cerro El Pital on the following day…
2 comments December 1st, 2009