August 7
We had a loud night on CA2 (hotel was right next to the road). I really dont’ know how the semi trucks drive these roads at night… I guess with 18 wheels they can afford to lose a few and still go until morning. As we enjoyed our morning coffee and saltines the rain clouds disappeared for just a few minutes and for a short while we had a lovely view of Vulcan Acatenango. Muy bueno.
100km ride to the border today, but for us it was a bit more as we made a few wrong turns around Escquintla. The first wrong turn we pulled over at a tourist restaurant stop, and the security guard immediately came over to tell us we could park our bikes right out front if we wanted. We smiled and thanked them and told them we didn’t need food, we needed directions ha ha! He was super cool, told us exactly where to go. We fist bumped. And when we made it back around and drove by on the opposite side of the divided highway, we gave an enthusiastic set of honks. The ride from Escuintla to the El Salvador border was definitely the most scenic part of CA2. A few very beautiful portions with a body of water, topography, forest, vines, etc. Lovely.
We saw a Guatemalan funeral today. I am not sure if it was traditional for the entire country, but it was very moving. The casket was in a car/hatchback, but the car wasn’t driving - it was being pushed by about a dozen men. Seemingly the entire village was following behind on foot. We estimated around 100 people, and of all ages. Everyone was dressed very casually. We didn’t see a cemetery ahead, and don’t know how long they had been walking. Again, it was very moving.
The crop of this part of Guatemala is sugar cane. There is a bit of coffee, but by far the majority of what is growing in southern part of the country is sugar cane. Which is very fitting… Sugar cane is not planted in rows or in any sort of grid. And its very bushy and wild looking. The chaos of the crop matches the chaos of the country.
This border town is nothing like the western border. Much smaller, much less traffic. We have high hopes of a long but easy crossing tomorrow morning.
We just saw a commercial on Guatemalan TV for a drink that, according to the commercial, is supposed to make a man sexy and attractive to women (think Axe body spray commercials but for a beverage). The name of this drink is “Predator”...
I’m experiencing some Pavlovian conditioning regarding the rain and wifi. It rains here and the wifi stops. When I get back to Portland will it start raining and I’ll put my computer away?
Ernesto says “I’d like to say thank you again to Tonya for sending us our titles. I appreciate her doing that and I know it was a pain in the ass. And Guatemala has weird lollipops”
FYI - tonight was the second time we have been given a candy treat in exchange for a screw up. The first was yesterday at the gas station when they ran out of change. They owed us 2Q, they didn’t have 2Q, so they gave us a 2Q candy instead. Then after we got back from our frontera walk about, it turns out or hotel door is broken and we were locked out of our room. There was no fixing this.. i.e., no way to lock our room other than being in it, so they gave us two lollipops. I think we shall see if we can’t take this custom north.
Late night addendum. The power went out. POOF. Total darkness and calm and quiet throughout all the streets of Ciudad Pedro de Alvarado. Seriously, no light. Just dark. This is surprisingly freaky in a Central American country. Many dark thoughts in Tara’s mind as to what was going on and what could happen in the hours to come. We dig for our headlamps, which are in the always locked case with our passports. Nothing like fumbling around for your things in a room you don’t know in complete darkness! Eventually we would have successfully navigated the scene, but the power came back on before then. After writing this bit o blog I shall be repacking the headlamps in our “always open” case.
August 8
Hola El Salvador! You are lovely! So tranquil. So green. So colorful. So nice to be through Guatemala. Sighs and smiles by Ernesto and I. We had a 150 km ride from the border to El Tunco, which is just west of La Libertad. The ride here was so nice. Jungle cliffs met the ocean on a lush, windy, and well paved road. I can’t even imagine how beautiful it was before the power lines and cell towers. The crops are corn and watermelon, and we must have seen tens of thousands of watermelons in piles along the highway. Are they for sale for passers-by? Are they piled there waiting to be picked up by a truck?
We unknowingly picked a gringo town to spend our first few nights (we decided to plop for one full day on the coast of El Salvador). El Tunco is stupid with gringos, and well, we would rather be somewhere stupid with mariposas! But it is nice and we are going to have a great visit. While we were enjoying a $6 dinner, a woman came over to us to sell us the goods on her head. Nuts and sweets, beautifully arranged. She was so short. So pretty. So chatty. So affectionate. Probably connected to us because we were old like her :) We bought three dollars worth of nuts and gave her a five, and she said she only had one dollar in change (total lie). So I asked for another bag of peanuts to make up the difference, she laughed, and said she gave us her "richest" bag.
Hopefully tomorrow shall be full of surfing (Ernie), beach chilling and reading (Tara), and snorkeling around that big awesome rock in between the beginners surfers area and the advanced surfers area (Ernie and Tara together). Even after our brief walk through town this afternoon we can tell this town exists for gringos (which is too bad) and that it is a total sausage fest (which is also too bad). Our hotel is very nice, has AC, and we have a private deck with a hammock (which Ernie is enjoying right now and I’m giving him a push every now and again). It is on a strip with some hostels, so within 10 minutes of arriving to the hotel we met a guy from Eugene, OR (Brandon. Duuude. Brah. Trust fund.). There are germans and South Africans. And two other adventure riders from Australia. They flew over, bought bikes on Craigslist in California and Arizona, and have been on the road since June. They are less half our age and their bikes and gear are less than half as good. During our introductory scene, they were staring at us and our bikes but not really being sincere about it… I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but now I know what the look was. Ernie and I are old enough to be their parents. We are easily and by far the oldest gringos in this town. The Aussies were the 20-25 year olds taking this trip because DUDE they can! Let’s do it BRAH! Before we have wives and kids and jobs and woah! We’ll figure it out MAN! They are on used Kawasaki’s that look beat to shit and their stuff was in black plastic lawn and leaf bags that were bungeed to the bike. We are on Triumph Tigers. Elite British motorcycles equipped with waterproof hard cases. We are the privileged grown-ups, probably seen as a mid-life crisis to them. They see us as comfort and cushion and they are bare bones and hard core. We have a Jet Boil with a french press and real paper maps. Yes, we need reading glasses for our maps but we do know how to read and fold them. When Brandon of Eugene came out as we were unpacking the bikes, he was like “totally inspirational man”. Yes he was a little bit high, but he was also looking at us like we were his parents. It isn’t what we see in the mirror, but we understand that it is likely what they see. And that is ok! Life at 40 and 50. Woah. Dude. Ha! Ahh… kids… we are proud of you and love that you are out there, but we’ll talk later when you are old enough to have an intelligent talk about what privilege means.
Border crossing was fine… we managed to shoo all the helpers away and do it ourselves! It was definitely easier this time around as we knew the basic principles. Leaving the country you have to get passport stuff and vehicle stuff, and photocopies of everything. Entering a new country you have to get passport stuff and vehicle stuff and photocopies of everything. Always ask “is there anything else we need to do here?” And then ask “where do we go next?”. It took us two hours and our only costs were in photocopies. Interestingly, when we were entering El Salvador there was a guy with a badge with a 5$ request receipt, saying we had to pay him $5 to enter El Salvador. The border patrol guy was right there, and Ernie was looking to him for confirmation or some cue on whether or not this had to be paid. And the border patrol wouldn’t look at Ernie. It was all a scam, and yet the customs agents and country police were doing nothing. We drove off without paying and doubted we would be gunned down… It just raised questions about authority and respect and where the power (if any) lies. I guess the first rule of thumb is that if there no gun there is no respect. Although every security guard at every hotel and gas station has a shotgun…
The highlight of the border crossing for both of us was a colorful sign right in between the two service windows. It was the only thing in color. It was only an 8 x 10 poster, and it had two rather lengthy paragraphs as thought bubbles by two young people, one girl and one boy, each in a bottom corner of the poster. We didn’t understand all the text verbatim, but we gleaned that it basically said “us El Salvadoran customs officers are good people and we don’t take bribes”. That took up the right and left thirds of the poster. The middle third of the poster was the nativity scene. Yep. Baby Jesus in the hay, three wise men, sheep, goat, the whole thing. It was like a Kevin Bacon game gone awry… what is in someone’s head that can go from the Christian nativity to customs corruption in just one step? No separation of church and state here.
We are watching geckos feed. They are so good at catching bugs.
I just mistook a moth for a bat. Holy crap! Ernesto says it has a 5” wingspan.
And smelling weed. Damn kids. This is a hotel not a hostel. Grandma and grandpa want to go to bed soon, so you better settle down before 10 pm.
Crossing into El Salvador today we passed the 5,000 mile mark. Wow!
We had a loud night on CA2 (hotel was right next to the road). I really dont’ know how the semi trucks drive these roads at night… I guess with 18 wheels they can afford to lose a few and still go until morning. As we enjoyed our morning coffee and saltines the rain clouds disappeared for just a few minutes and for a short while we had a lovely view of Vulcan Acatenango. Muy bueno.
100km ride to the border today, but for us it was a bit more as we made a few wrong turns around Escquintla. The first wrong turn we pulled over at a tourist restaurant stop, and the security guard immediately came over to tell us we could park our bikes right out front if we wanted. We smiled and thanked them and told them we didn’t need food, we needed directions ha ha! He was super cool, told us exactly where to go. We fist bumped. And when we made it back around and drove by on the opposite side of the divided highway, we gave an enthusiastic set of honks. The ride from Escuintla to the El Salvador border was definitely the most scenic part of CA2. A few very beautiful portions with a body of water, topography, forest, vines, etc. Lovely.
We saw a Guatemalan funeral today. I am not sure if it was traditional for the entire country, but it was very moving. The casket was in a car/hatchback, but the car wasn’t driving - it was being pushed by about a dozen men. Seemingly the entire village was following behind on foot. We estimated around 100 people, and of all ages. Everyone was dressed very casually. We didn’t see a cemetery ahead, and don’t know how long they had been walking. Again, it was very moving.
The crop of this part of Guatemala is sugar cane. There is a bit of coffee, but by far the majority of what is growing in southern part of the country is sugar cane. Which is very fitting… Sugar cane is not planted in rows or in any sort of grid. And its very bushy and wild looking. The chaos of the crop matches the chaos of the country.
This border town is nothing like the western border. Much smaller, much less traffic. We have high hopes of a long but easy crossing tomorrow morning.
We just saw a commercial on Guatemalan TV for a drink that, according to the commercial, is supposed to make a man sexy and attractive to women (think Axe body spray commercials but for a beverage). The name of this drink is “Predator”...
I’m experiencing some Pavlovian conditioning regarding the rain and wifi. It rains here and the wifi stops. When I get back to Portland will it start raining and I’ll put my computer away?
Ernesto says “I’d like to say thank you again to Tonya for sending us our titles. I appreciate her doing that and I know it was a pain in the ass. And Guatemala has weird lollipops”
FYI - tonight was the second time we have been given a candy treat in exchange for a screw up. The first was yesterday at the gas station when they ran out of change. They owed us 2Q, they didn’t have 2Q, so they gave us a 2Q candy instead. Then after we got back from our frontera walk about, it turns out or hotel door is broken and we were locked out of our room. There was no fixing this.. i.e., no way to lock our room other than being in it, so they gave us two lollipops. I think we shall see if we can’t take this custom north.
Late night addendum. The power went out. POOF. Total darkness and calm and quiet throughout all the streets of Ciudad Pedro de Alvarado. Seriously, no light. Just dark. This is surprisingly freaky in a Central American country. Many dark thoughts in Tara’s mind as to what was going on and what could happen in the hours to come. We dig for our headlamps, which are in the always locked case with our passports. Nothing like fumbling around for your things in a room you don’t know in complete darkness! Eventually we would have successfully navigated the scene, but the power came back on before then. After writing this bit o blog I shall be repacking the headlamps in our “always open” case.
August 8
Hola El Salvador! You are lovely! So tranquil. So green. So colorful. So nice to be through Guatemala. Sighs and smiles by Ernesto and I. We had a 150 km ride from the border to El Tunco, which is just west of La Libertad. The ride here was so nice. Jungle cliffs met the ocean on a lush, windy, and well paved road. I can’t even imagine how beautiful it was before the power lines and cell towers. The crops are corn and watermelon, and we must have seen tens of thousands of watermelons in piles along the highway. Are they for sale for passers-by? Are they piled there waiting to be picked up by a truck?
We unknowingly picked a gringo town to spend our first few nights (we decided to plop for one full day on the coast of El Salvador). El Tunco is stupid with gringos, and well, we would rather be somewhere stupid with mariposas! But it is nice and we are going to have a great visit. While we were enjoying a $6 dinner, a woman came over to us to sell us the goods on her head. Nuts and sweets, beautifully arranged. She was so short. So pretty. So chatty. So affectionate. Probably connected to us because we were old like her :) We bought three dollars worth of nuts and gave her a five, and she said she only had one dollar in change (total lie). So I asked for another bag of peanuts to make up the difference, she laughed, and said she gave us her "richest" bag.
Hopefully tomorrow shall be full of surfing (Ernie), beach chilling and reading (Tara), and snorkeling around that big awesome rock in between the beginners surfers area and the advanced surfers area (Ernie and Tara together). Even after our brief walk through town this afternoon we can tell this town exists for gringos (which is too bad) and that it is a total sausage fest (which is also too bad). Our hotel is very nice, has AC, and we have a private deck with a hammock (which Ernie is enjoying right now and I’m giving him a push every now and again). It is on a strip with some hostels, so within 10 minutes of arriving to the hotel we met a guy from Eugene, OR (Brandon. Duuude. Brah. Trust fund.). There are germans and South Africans. And two other adventure riders from Australia. They flew over, bought bikes on Craigslist in California and Arizona, and have been on the road since June. They are less half our age and their bikes and gear are less than half as good. During our introductory scene, they were staring at us and our bikes but not really being sincere about it… I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but now I know what the look was. Ernie and I are old enough to be their parents. We are easily and by far the oldest gringos in this town. The Aussies were the 20-25 year olds taking this trip because DUDE they can! Let’s do it BRAH! Before we have wives and kids and jobs and woah! We’ll figure it out MAN! They are on used Kawasaki’s that look beat to shit and their stuff was in black plastic lawn and leaf bags that were bungeed to the bike. We are on Triumph Tigers. Elite British motorcycles equipped with waterproof hard cases. We are the privileged grown-ups, probably seen as a mid-life crisis to them. They see us as comfort and cushion and they are bare bones and hard core. We have a Jet Boil with a french press and real paper maps. Yes, we need reading glasses for our maps but we do know how to read and fold them. When Brandon of Eugene came out as we were unpacking the bikes, he was like “totally inspirational man”. Yes he was a little bit high, but he was also looking at us like we were his parents. It isn’t what we see in the mirror, but we understand that it is likely what they see. And that is ok! Life at 40 and 50. Woah. Dude. Ha! Ahh… kids… we are proud of you and love that you are out there, but we’ll talk later when you are old enough to have an intelligent talk about what privilege means.
Border crossing was fine… we managed to shoo all the helpers away and do it ourselves! It was definitely easier this time around as we knew the basic principles. Leaving the country you have to get passport stuff and vehicle stuff, and photocopies of everything. Entering a new country you have to get passport stuff and vehicle stuff and photocopies of everything. Always ask “is there anything else we need to do here?” And then ask “where do we go next?”. It took us two hours and our only costs were in photocopies. Interestingly, when we were entering El Salvador there was a guy with a badge with a 5$ request receipt, saying we had to pay him $5 to enter El Salvador. The border patrol guy was right there, and Ernie was looking to him for confirmation or some cue on whether or not this had to be paid. And the border patrol wouldn’t look at Ernie. It was all a scam, and yet the customs agents and country police were doing nothing. We drove off without paying and doubted we would be gunned down… It just raised questions about authority and respect and where the power (if any) lies. I guess the first rule of thumb is that if there no gun there is no respect. Although every security guard at every hotel and gas station has a shotgun…
The highlight of the border crossing for both of us was a colorful sign right in between the two service windows. It was the only thing in color. It was only an 8 x 10 poster, and it had two rather lengthy paragraphs as thought bubbles by two young people, one girl and one boy, each in a bottom corner of the poster. We didn’t understand all the text verbatim, but we gleaned that it basically said “us El Salvadoran customs officers are good people and we don’t take bribes”. That took up the right and left thirds of the poster. The middle third of the poster was the nativity scene. Yep. Baby Jesus in the hay, three wise men, sheep, goat, the whole thing. It was like a Kevin Bacon game gone awry… what is in someone’s head that can go from the Christian nativity to customs corruption in just one step? No separation of church and state here.
We are watching geckos feed. They are so good at catching bugs.
I just mistook a moth for a bat. Holy crap! Ernesto says it has a 5” wingspan.
And smelling weed. Damn kids. This is a hotel not a hostel. Grandma and grandpa want to go to bed soon, so you better settle down before 10 pm.
Crossing into El Salvador today we passed the 5,000 mile mark. Wow!