Day 611
El Salvador
Tom and I were feeling pretty relaxed. The last few weeks had been tough trying to get ahead of our daily mileage target, yet we had done it. Still a fair few miles to go to catch our boat to Colombia but we were well on track and could kick back and take it a bit easier. We had our last full day in Guatemala and could easily have made the border and crossed into El Salvador but we wanted to enjoy a slower day and spend our last night with Jairo, a Warmshowers host and his family. After a really late start we rode slowly, enjoying the views of volcanos all around us and mountain sides covered in trees.
We stopped several times, had a beer, ate lunch, just taking it slow, and at 3pm had just 10 miles to go to Jairo’s. One minute I felt fine the next, well, I won’t go into too much detail but my body decided it wasn’t keen on everything I had eaten and drunk that day and set about expelling it from my body. I would cycle for a mile or so, stop, throw up, and repeat. The road was lined with small villages and people seemed to be everywhere. I was getting weaker and weaker. Finally I stopped and told Tom I simply couldn’t ride anymore, and curled up on a ‘grass’ verge. We were only half a mile from Jairo’s but it might as well have been 20. Also there was no way I could turn up at a stranger’s home in the state I was in.
Fortunately I’d chosen to throw up then collapse outside a hotel. A somewhat grander place than we are used too, it had valet parking for goodness sake! Tom, darling that he is, booked us in, and though the ever present armed security guards seemed somewhat perplexed by us on our bikes, we were in. I would love to say a night’s sleep cured me but at least I was improving by morning. Jairo, star that he is, invited us to breakfast and we had a couple of hours getting to know him and his lovely family.
Then that was it. Just a week in Guatemala and we were entering our next country, El Salvador. Friends had said it was plain sailing to cross the border, so we were surprised to be asked so many questions. They even wanted to see proof of our yellow fever vaccination, thank goodness we had that back in Puerto Vallarta. Once the formalities were over the very attractive border guide seemed to take a shine to Tom. She spent more time than I felt strictly necessary showing him endless snaps on her phone! Finally, she waved us through and we were off. Up! It was to be a day of climbing, I guess a land full of (hopefully) dormant volcanos is bound to be hilly, and the first day delivered in spades. As a treat we had booked into yet another hotel. Positioned half-way up a massive climb, but with no valet parking this time, it split the massive effort over two days. We also got to meet, Manrique, our waiter, who said, “cyclismo es mi passion”. He actually valet parked my bike too!
Refreshed we blasted up the final 1,400 feet and started our descent to the beach. Tom realised that his bottom bracket was coming loose, again. What does that man do to them? We stopped at a small bike shop, Calisto’s, and the guys tightened it up and sent us on our way. We knew we would have to find a new part, but for now we were off to camp by the beach. Swim in the sea, and just kick back and relax!
