Day 242 ta:537 kt:33.5 gps: N 10 degrees 38.400' W 75 degrees 24.352'
Day 243 ta:2137 kt:94.1 gps: N 10 degrees 56.539' W 74 degrees 49.980'
Day 244 ta: 984 kt:78 gps: N 10 degrees 21.390' W 74 degrees 52.263'
As I expected, I didn't leave Cartagena until late in the afternoon. I headed to Barranquilla with a very important mission. I was to take a picture of the giant Shakira statue for my mother. At about an hour before sunset on my first day back on the road, I stopped at a town called Arroyo de Canoas. The locals there were friendly; they offered me a place to stay for the night. I gratefully accepted because I was being swarmed by bugs at the time and wanted to get away from them. You could bathe in mosquito repellant and they would still viciously swarm around you.
I stayed in the room of Jonaton, the family's 17-year-old son. He is a big fan of telenovelas so I watched a few with him. Most telenovelas are made in Mexico but Colombia has its own homegrown telenovela called El Cartel. I am glad that someone figured out that the drama that goes on in a drug cartel would make a good soap opera.
I was off to Barranquilla the next day ready to fulfill my mission. I was making good time until my rear tire deflated. As I suspected, the flat was caused by my faulty tire. I learned that the trick of sewing your tires back together only works with cheap tires because they have more rubber. The stitchings held but the tire ripped even more causing the flat. Oh well, I still have one back-up tire.
Only an hour and a half remained until sunset by the time that I made it Barranquilla. I had gained some intelligence as to the whereabouts of the statue beforehand. It was, I was told, on the outskirts of the city at the Metropolitan Stadium. It was getting dark and I was hungry when I decided it was best to find some food and a place to stay. The mission could wait for the next day.
The place I where I was camped at was an abandoned house close to a highway intersection. It was far enough from the road so that I didn't have to worry about being bothered. Abandoned houses are great places to camp in the countryside but not so great in the city because they become de facto public toilets. There were no shitstains on my tent when I woke up and I was happy for this minor miracle.
Fortunately for me, the statue of Shakira was on the way to the highway that heads to Medellin. It was not as impressive as I had hoped. I took a few pictures and took off.
It is hot, humid, and flat in this part of the country. There are ranches as far as the eyes can see. Insects plague me everywhere I go. I can't wait to be in the mountains but they don't start for another 300 kilometers or so. I would happily give up the flat terrain to be rid of the insects.
Day 245 ta:2646 kt:93.1 gps:N 9 degrees 39.812' W 75 degrees 07.967'
Last night, I was unpleasantly awoken by a cop and four soldiers when they shined the lights of their patrol truck on my partially obscured tent. I quickly put on my sweatpants and said, "Buenas noches.", to indicate my friendly nature but to no avail. The cop imperiously barked, "Venga aqui con las manos arriba." I apparently didn't come out of the bushes fast enough for the cop then demanded, "Venga ahora!", several times. Since I didn't want to get shot, I quickly explained that I was unarmed, that I was barefoot and had to put on shoes, and that I had to unzip my tent which was hard to do in the dark. I held my hands high when I came out of the bushes, trying my best not to get shot. All four soldiers had their machine guns trained on me. They let down their guard a little bit when they realized that they had their guns pointed at a half-naked, flip-flop wearing, gringo. The cop was still annoying, though. He interrogated me for a few minutes as if he was trying to catch me in a lie. He told me that my name didn't sound American even though he was holding my passport. I told him that I was a fifth generation American with a funny name. He asked me when and where I arrived and told me that my passport had a different date stamped on it. I told him he probably was looking at my Panama exit stamp. (I checked later and I was right. He was, indeed, looking at my exit stamp.) After I passed his interrogation, he directed me to a hotel and told me my campsite wasn't safe. I wanted to tell him that I felt safe until they pointed their fucking machine guns at me. Thanks Big Brother.
I went to the hotel and put my sleeping pad on the dining room floor as instructed by the hotel owner. He didn't charge me for this impromptu arrangement. I didn't want to unpack everything after I had been forced to repack it in the dark. The mosquitoes devoured me but they started doing this during my ordeal with the law. I managed to get some sleep but only after the hotel owner turned on the fan for me.
It is a good thing that I am pretty proficient with my Spanish or this could have been an international incident. I figured that I would write down a few useful phrases for someone else who finds themselves in the same situation. No tengo armas means I do not have any weapons. No disparen means don't shoot. Venga aqui con las manos arriba means come here with your hands up. Understanding and being able to speak these phrases might save your life.
Sometimes the governments of our world make us choose from a false dilemna between liberty and security. They do their best to spin everything seem like such a dangerous place. An adroit politician can make fascism sound like chocolate cake. Yall like chocolate cake don't yall? What would we ever do without Big Brother their to protect us? I am not afraid of this world. I would choose liberty every time. I am old enough to make responsible decisions about my security and I am willing to reap the consequences if I am wrong. One of the great problems with out world is that there are too many cowards who would choose security over their freedom. These are people who vote for neo-fascists.
The flat land is starting to turn into rolling hills today. Soon enough, I will be in the mountains. I can't wait.
Day 246 ta:2491 kt:74.8 gps:N 90 degrees 13.722' W 75 degrees 24.863'
My day was more of the same today. It is still hot and there are still lots of rolling hills. There do not seem to be any good roadside camping spots here in Colombia or, at least, this part. I am especially paranoid after my rude awakening two nights ago. My campsite tonight is in a graveyard. This is, surprisingly, a first for me.
There are two political issues that can whip me into a loquacious fury. One is the Drug War and the other is the issue of immigration. As far as I am concerned, the only Americans that have any right to complain about immigrants are full-blooded Native Americans and they don't exist anymore because they have all been killed off or bred with Europeans.
The federal government and some state governments have recently started taking more aggressive actions against immigrants. They have been raiding workplaces and arresting immigrants and charging them with felony identity theft because they are using real Social Security numbers.
I read comments from many Americans that say something along the lines of, "They get what they deserve because they are all breaking the law." I disagree with that statement because the laws were passed with racist intent to begin with. We did not have any immigration laws minus the Chinese Exclusion Act until after World War I. Being heavily influenced by the ideas of eugenics that were in vogue at the time, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924. A better name for this act would have been the No More Mics, Spics, Dagos, Kikes, Niggers, or Gooks Act because it effectively limited legal immigrants to Western Europeans. It created a quota of no more than 2% of any nationality that currently resided in the United States. Since Southern and Eastern Europeans only started to come to the United States at the turn of the century, the numbers that were allowed to legally immigrate were severely restricted. Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans were not even listed in the quotas so it was assumed that the government didn't want any of them. The U.S. government so enthusiastically enforced this new law that it turned away entire boatloads of Jews during World War II, knowing very well that they would surely be killed off by the Nazis. In 1952 and again in 1965, the U.S. Congress amended the original act so that it broke down the quota between hemispheres instead of by country. It also allowed for war refugees to immigrate to the United States. I like to call these ammendments the No More Poor Uneducated Mics, Spics, Dagos, Kikes, Niggers, or Gooks Acts. They provided no quota for skilled and educated immigrants but still severely restricted immigrations from the huddled masses. They should have torn down the Statue of Liberty when they passed these laws. Maybe they should change, "Give us your poor, tired, huddled masses...." to "Fuck all you Mexicans" because that would be more of a reflection of the current sentiment. Notice no one wants to build a wall on the Canadian border.
I wonder what would happen if the U.S. government sent all of the "illegal" Mexicans back home. Mexico already has significant unemployment and underemployment and sending back 10% of the population would only exacerbate this issue. This is a recipe for revolution. They could then all immigrate to the United States as war refugees. Maybe they could all get jobs as drug mules and assassins working for the cartels and thus avoid unemployment.
Day 247 ta: 2344 kt:84.8 gps: N 8 degrees 34.639' W 75 degrees 29.072'
It rained very hard in the graveyard last night. I discovered that the rainfly for my tent is practically useless if the wind is blowing hard. The center of the storm passed right over me. I could tell because the thunder and lightning were simultaneous. There was nothing I could do inside my drizzling tent but cover my body with my rain jacket and cover my sleeping bag with my body to keep it dry. I managed to get some sleep dreaming of cops with machine guns.
In Colombia, the truck drivers drive older rigs than I have seen in Central America. I have seen some that look like they are at least fifty-years-old. Many of them were hauling hefty payloads, too.
The people in the towns are crazy for their small motorcycles which are barely powerful enough to keep up with the cars on the highway. Today, I saw two men carrying a hog-tied pig on their motorcycle. In the larger towns there are so many motorcycles that it reminds me of pictures that I have seen of Bangkok.
I popped a spoke today. The first thing I will do tomorrow is fix it. I hope that this doesn't become a chronic problem.
Day 248 ta:1554 kt: 61.8 gps: N 8 degrees 08.174' W 75 degrees 24.723'
As is usually the case whenever I have to fix on my bike, the spoke repair took longer than I anticipated. I had to remove the tire, remove the rim tape, put in a new spoke, true the wheel, put on new rim tape, put the tire and innertube back on, and pump up the tire. After I finished pumping up the tire, the prestivalve shot off to God knows where and I had to repeat the last two steps. I noticed that the bike shop in Panama City gave me a 36 spoke hub for my 32 spoke rim. This concerns me a little bit because there are gaps in the rotational symmetry of my wheel. I am worried that this will lead to uneven spoke tension and, hence, more broken spokes. I will probably try to swap out hubs in one of the big cities.
Between the late start and the long internet/lunch break I didn't get very far. I am hoping to make it to a point where I can finally see the Andes tomorrow.
Day 249 ta: 2483 kt:97.1 gps: N 7 degrees 33.088' W 75 degrees 22.841'
I can finally see the northernmost part of the Andes though they area still about 50 or 60 kilometers away. Hopefully, I will reach the base of the mountains by midday tomorrow and make it up to at least 4,000 feet where it will be cool at night and devoid of mosquitoes. I have grown tired of the heat, the plague of flies, and the lack of good campsites. I probably won't pass the tree line until I am somewhere in Peru.
There was another unexpected road hazard today. A dump truck rode under some electricity wires with its back still propped up and almost took down the wires with the poles. It is a good thing that I was paying attention. I quickly rode to the other side of the highway to avoid any live wires or downed poles.
I found another bridge to camp under tonight. This is good because it looks like it is going to rain again tonight as it has been prone to do recently.There are literally hundreds of wasp nests above me on the roof of the bridge. This is good because I like wasps and I am not allergic. Maybe they will eat all of the mosquitoes.
The river I am camped next to is one of the first clean rivers I have seen in a while so I took a bath. This is nice because I haven't bathed since Cartagena. When I get to Medellin in probably three days, I am going to shower to my heart's content.
Day 250 ta:4533 kt:65.1 gps:N 7 degrees 07.067' W 75 degrees 28.045'
Day 251 ta: 6553 kt: 75.2 gps: N 6 degrees 38.860' W 75 degrees 27.610'
Day 252 ta: 2641 kt: 81.1 gps: N 6 degrees 12.446' W 75 degrees 34.529'
Day 253-255 I stayed in Medellin
I am now in the Andes. The road that I followed into Medellin is quite lovely. It starts out by going along a ridge. Huge green gorges open up to each side. There are lots of waterfalls right by the side of the road. It is already significantly cooler, too.
The locals have a novel way of hitchhiking on the long uphill parts of the road. I see rigs passing by with people hanging off the back like they are spiderman. There are, of course, people on bicycles hanging on to the corner of the rigs as well. I don't do this because I think it is cheating.
When I was taking a little break from a long climb, my friend Gwen from Belgium rode up the hill. We rode together for the next two days. Having a riding partner actually makes me move faster because I feel guilty if I take too many breaks. We made some good time on those long ascents.
Just so no one thinks I hate soldiers, I actually camped with a bunch of soldiers at a checkpoint on the road. It was getting close to sunset and I didn't see any very good prospective campsites so I straight up asked them for permission to camp with them. This helps avoid any misunderstandings that lead to getting machine guns pointed at me. In the morning Gwen and I took some great photos with them. They even brought out their fully loaded grenade launcher for the photo shoot and let me hold it.
After staying in the town of Santa Rosa de los Osos, Gwen and I parted ways because I wanted to sleep in and he didn't. Santa Rosa is a nice place and I am surprised there are not more tourists there. It has a special dish called an arepa de queso that I really liked. It is a pan grilled hunk of cheese covered in a sweet milk sauce. In the morning, before I left, I wondered around the central plaza and watched some people trying to catch a stubborn cow. It was pretty hilarious watching the cow run around, block traffic, and overpower the two people trying to rope it.
I finally left Santa Rosa around midday but I made it to Medellin because there is a very large descent to the city on the way from Santa Rosa. I must have passed at least 20 semis on the way down. The metropolitan area of Medellin is pretty large. It seems like there are probably about 5 million people living in the general area. I am now resting and relaxing. It is nice to enjoy a little down time every once and a while.
I read the other day that the state of Florida did a study that concluded that prescription drugs were responsible for at least three times as many deaths in the state as all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol and cigarettes also kill more people than all the illegal drugs. Guess how many deaths were attributed to marijuana. Zero. Our nation's drug policy is a fucking joke.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Time to Start Pedaling Again
Day 232 I stayed in Panama City one more day
Day 233 ta: 1309 kt:38.7 gps: N 9 degrees 13.286' W 79 degrees 37.579'
I finally broke away from the clutches of Panama City today. If I wanted to wait around for the rain to stop I would probably have to wait around for several months so I decided it was time to go, rain or sun. It is raining right now.
Panama City is a very cosmopolitan city. There are also a lot of very wealthy people here. I saw lots of people driving Maseratis and Porches. On the other side of town, people live in buildings that are crumbling around them. There don't seem to be any bonafide shanty towns, though. If you come to Panama City, you can hobnob with millionaires in the banking district or hang out with rasta dudes in the ghetto.
The place I stayed at in Panama City is nice. It is called Zuly's Hostel. Zuly is an African-Panamanian goddess who isn't but a year older than me. The beds were comfortable, the rooms were quiet, and we had free internet and cable. My only complaint is that she cracks down on pot smoking but that is mainly to protect herself.
My campsite is at a government building. It is an agricultural inspection post to be precise. I didn't ask anyone permission to be there, I just set up my tent. A worker found me a little later but he said it was okay. He even offered for me to set up my tent under a roof but I was already unpacked so I politely declined. If I were in the U.S., they would have called the cops and I would have spent a night in jail.
Day 234 ta:1613 kt:42.9 gps: N 9 degrees 36.043' W 79 degrees 35.283'
Day 235-239 I was in the Caribbean sea on a boat to Cartagena
Day 240-242 I stayed in Cartagena
There must be something about the humidity in Central America that causes excessive rubber rot because I had to sew my new/used rear tire back together the day before I left Panama. I miraculously found two more new/used tires at a bike shop in Cartagena. This miracle, which now seems to be on the Jesus-walking-on-water variety, has probably given me at least another several thousand kilometers before I have to worry about my tires again. I should be able to make it through Colombia, at the least, without having to buy more tires.
The day before I left Panama, I was sitting at a lunch stop when two other cyclists from Colorado rode up in a truck taxi. They had to hurry to the town of Puerto Lindo, Panama because their boat was leaving the next day. Being faced with the opportunity to leave Panama the next day rather than sit around for a week or more waiting for a boat, I put my bike in the back and rode with them to Puerto Lindo.
The names of the two riders are Ralph and Pat. They are a married couple from Colorado who is taking two years to ride from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. Being a gearhead, I had a bicycle-induced orgasm when I saw their bikes. They have two titanium soft-tail bicycles with front suspension and mechanical disk brakes. My bike is nice enough but I was having some very unfaithful thoughts when I saw theirs. They have have ridden off-road some as their bikes should be able to devour dirt roads.
I have heard a lot of horror stories about drunk captains and unseaworthy boats so I wanted to go to port before I agreed to get on a boat. That being said, the boat ride to Cartagena was at times a little unpleasant but was mostly a hoot. The unpleasantness was entirely due to my day-long bout of seasickness and not the captain or the boat. I was a little disapointed that we were motor-sailing but the wind wasn't strong enough for us to keep our schedule. There is only so much food and fresh water that you can carry on a boat.
Captain Mark was a gregarious guy with a with a lovely Colombian wife young enough to be his daughter. He spends most of his time on his boat in the San Blas Islands, a Caribbean paradise south of the hurricane danger zone. He makes money by delivering goods to islanders and other boaters anchored at the San Blas Islands and taking backpackers from Panama to Cartagena and vice versa. It seems to me that he lives a pretty idealic life though I am not ready to give up tierra firma and follow in his footsteps just yet.
We stayed at the San Blas Islands as Captain Mark's houseguests for most of the time we were on the boat. This place really is beautiful with crystal-clear blue water and abundant sealife. I spent most of my time snorkelling and reading. The reefs in the San Blas Islands are not as impressive as those in the Bay Islands of Honduras but still had an impressive array of sealife. I saw lots of barracudas, sting rays, and eagle rays to go along with many of the fish that I saw in Honduras. I also saw dolphins and squid. My boatmates saw sharks but I wasn't so lucky. We ate well while we were anchored at the islands so I can say that my memories of this place are all good.
After five days at sea, we finally arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. Cartagena is one of the more popular tourist destinations in Colombia. I would describe it as a small island of beautiful colonial architecture and fortifications surrounded by a sea of slums. The hotel where I am staying is cheap and upscale compared to what I have gotten used to in Central America but there are plenty of sketchy people in its surroundings. I am spending a few days here getting used to Colombia and running some errands before I start pedaling again.
At the hotel, I smoked a joint with another person staying in the hotel for the first time in over a month. I then went back to my room and watched cable T.V. Here in Latin America, some of the cable channels show cherry-picked reruns of the American cable channels. I saw That's My Bush and Breaking Bad for the first time. Maybe it was the fact that I was stoned for the first time in a long time but these shows seemed brilliant. In That's My Bush, the president was going to celebrate the arrest of the 100 millionth War on Drugs criminal at a White House Press Conference when he accidentally ingests a couple of extasy tablets. The press conference quickly degenerates into a rave with the president dancing like a club kid and being as cuddly as ever. In breaking bad, an underpaid science teacher decides he is going to make some extra money by cooking up methamphetamines. I love it when Hollywood mocks the government. As long as the government persists in its quixotic attempt to fight the War on Drugs, there will be plenty of fodder for the screenwriters to ridicule the government with.
Here I am in Colombia, the frontline on the War on Drugs. This is the land of the F.A.R.C., A.U.C., E.L.N., Pablo Escobar, and the Medellin and Calì cartels. Narcoterrorism was invented here. That being said, drugs seem pretty readily available here. Even though I got a stern warning from Captain Mark, I could have easily carried drugs on board in the Caribbean Sea if I were discrete. The sea to the north of Colombia is one of the most heavily policed bodies of water on this planet but they can do nothing to stop the flow of drugs. For every time they stop a ton of cocaine, ten tons are probably making it through. There are people who openly smoke pot on the street here and I have been accosted on more than one occasion by people selling a variety of drugs.
As a pot smoker, I am indignant at amount of effort that all the governments of the world expend keeping pot illegal. Cigarette smokers blithely walk down the street sucking on their cancer sticks and throwing their cigarette butts whereever they want while drunks beat their wives and kill people in traffic accidents but I have to hide in the shadows and constantly look over my shoulders if I want to smoke a joint. There are so many addictions that are worse than marijuana. Cocaine and heroin are obvious but their are so many addictions that are legal that are worse. Have you ever met someone addicted to sniffing glue or huffing gasoline. It is not a pretty sight. How about someone who is addicted to prescription pills, gambling, or sloth.
The worst addiction of them all is the addiction to all the stuff that seems to afflict most Americans and spreads like a cancer to the rest of the world. This addiction lead to the housing bust afflicting America today. Americans wanting to finance their increasingly expensive lifestyle fell victim to the lure of easy money and easy credit to take out mortgages which they couldn't afford. When the times were flush and the house prices were rising, we were able to flip our houses or take out home equity loans so we could buy bigger cars and more stuff than we could ever reasonably afford. Now the economy has been worsening and our lifestyle is being exposed as unsustainable. The Chinas and Indias of the world want their share of stuff, too leading to the rise in almost all commodity and food prices so they can live like westerners. Those poor kids from the slums of the world that grow up to become drug dealers don't do it so they can provide their families with financial security and health care. They want the bling. Maybe we should end the War on Drugs and start fighting the War on Greed.
I don't smoke cigarettes, I almost never drink alcohol, I don't gamble, I don't snort coke or meth or shoot speed but I smoke pot and ingest an occasional few grams of mushrooms. I am not some retarded, drug-addicted loser who can't take care of his own business. I graduated college with a degree in math while working my way through school and I speak two, soon to be three, languages. I paid off all of my loans before I graduated school and have saved up a shitload of money because I have a simple lifestyle centered around not owning a car. I have a rule where I don't buy anything on credit and I usually don't buy anything that I can't carry on my bicycle. This eliminates a lot of useless shit. People probably say, "You must live like a monk.", but I don't. I eat well, go dancing, and enjoy being with friends, making music and food and merriment. I am currently travelling on the adventure of a lifetime because I have been afforded the opportunity by my own personal responsibility. I think it is fun to smoke a whole bunch of pot and spend four hours cooking. I can't think of many things more fun and spiritually rewarding than taking a bunch of mushrooms and climbing a tree. I harm no one with these activities, not even myself, and I am pissed off that my government wants to say that I am a criminal for this behavior. I will be forever defiant until the government ends its insane War on Drugs.
The drug problem is like a poison ivy rash. The more you scratch it the worse it gets. It itches so bad but you have to resist scratching. You have to treat it intelligently by applying ointment to the affected areas. I understand the visceral reaction that people get when they see someone who has ruined their life because of their addiction. I watched my own father ruin his life because of his drug addiction. He chose being an addict over being a father. He started as just a user and quickly graduated to selling drugs to feed his own habit. People think, "We should lock up all the people who sell these drugs and turn our children into addicts." They never think that these people are victims, too. They never think that they are fathers or mothers and that they are somebody's child. Like the person who scratches his poison ivy rash, the government only gets temporary relief by attacking the supply of drugs. It would do a lot better by attacking the root causes of drug addiction such as social inequality and lack of education and opportunity among abusers. Only when the government tries an intelligent solution rather than a reactionary temporary solution will we be able to win the drug war.
The group of presidential candidates is a little bit narrower now but none of them have any positive, proactive solutions for ending the War on Drugs. With that being said, I am going to announce my candidacy for 2016 when I will be old enough to run for president. I promise that I will gather the heads of the D.E.A. and all the respective leaders of the drug agencies from the rest of the world, and anyone else who is responsible for this mess we have gotten ourselves into. We will have a summit about the War on Drugs. I will bake special brownies and harangue all these people for their asinine drug policies. Afterwords, I will have a shaman administer mushrooms to all them so they can experience what it feels like to dissolve their ego for the very first time.
Day 233 ta: 1309 kt:38.7 gps: N 9 degrees 13.286' W 79 degrees 37.579'
I finally broke away from the clutches of Panama City today. If I wanted to wait around for the rain to stop I would probably have to wait around for several months so I decided it was time to go, rain or sun. It is raining right now.
Panama City is a very cosmopolitan city. There are also a lot of very wealthy people here. I saw lots of people driving Maseratis and Porches. On the other side of town, people live in buildings that are crumbling around them. There don't seem to be any bonafide shanty towns, though. If you come to Panama City, you can hobnob with millionaires in the banking district or hang out with rasta dudes in the ghetto.
The place I stayed at in Panama City is nice. It is called Zuly's Hostel. Zuly is an African-Panamanian goddess who isn't but a year older than me. The beds were comfortable, the rooms were quiet, and we had free internet and cable. My only complaint is that she cracks down on pot smoking but that is mainly to protect herself.
My campsite is at a government building. It is an agricultural inspection post to be precise. I didn't ask anyone permission to be there, I just set up my tent. A worker found me a little later but he said it was okay. He even offered for me to set up my tent under a roof but I was already unpacked so I politely declined. If I were in the U.S., they would have called the cops and I would have spent a night in jail.
Day 234 ta:1613 kt:42.9 gps: N 9 degrees 36.043' W 79 degrees 35.283'
Day 235-239 I was in the Caribbean sea on a boat to Cartagena
Day 240-242 I stayed in Cartagena
There must be something about the humidity in Central America that causes excessive rubber rot because I had to sew my new/used rear tire back together the day before I left Panama. I miraculously found two more new/used tires at a bike shop in Cartagena. This miracle, which now seems to be on the Jesus-walking-on-water variety, has probably given me at least another several thousand kilometers before I have to worry about my tires again. I should be able to make it through Colombia, at the least, without having to buy more tires.
The day before I left Panama, I was sitting at a lunch stop when two other cyclists from Colorado rode up in a truck taxi. They had to hurry to the town of Puerto Lindo, Panama because their boat was leaving the next day. Being faced with the opportunity to leave Panama the next day rather than sit around for a week or more waiting for a boat, I put my bike in the back and rode with them to Puerto Lindo.
The names of the two riders are Ralph and Pat. They are a married couple from Colorado who is taking two years to ride from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. Being a gearhead, I had a bicycle-induced orgasm when I saw their bikes. They have two titanium soft-tail bicycles with front suspension and mechanical disk brakes. My bike is nice enough but I was having some very unfaithful thoughts when I saw theirs. They have have ridden off-road some as their bikes should be able to devour dirt roads.
I have heard a lot of horror stories about drunk captains and unseaworthy boats so I wanted to go to port before I agreed to get on a boat. That being said, the boat ride to Cartagena was at times a little unpleasant but was mostly a hoot. The unpleasantness was entirely due to my day-long bout of seasickness and not the captain or the boat. I was a little disapointed that we were motor-sailing but the wind wasn't strong enough for us to keep our schedule. There is only so much food and fresh water that you can carry on a boat.
Captain Mark was a gregarious guy with a with a lovely Colombian wife young enough to be his daughter. He spends most of his time on his boat in the San Blas Islands, a Caribbean paradise south of the hurricane danger zone. He makes money by delivering goods to islanders and other boaters anchored at the San Blas Islands and taking backpackers from Panama to Cartagena and vice versa. It seems to me that he lives a pretty idealic life though I am not ready to give up tierra firma and follow in his footsteps just yet.
We stayed at the San Blas Islands as Captain Mark's houseguests for most of the time we were on the boat. This place really is beautiful with crystal-clear blue water and abundant sealife. I spent most of my time snorkelling and reading. The reefs in the San Blas Islands are not as impressive as those in the Bay Islands of Honduras but still had an impressive array of sealife. I saw lots of barracudas, sting rays, and eagle rays to go along with many of the fish that I saw in Honduras. I also saw dolphins and squid. My boatmates saw sharks but I wasn't so lucky. We ate well while we were anchored at the islands so I can say that my memories of this place are all good.
After five days at sea, we finally arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. Cartagena is one of the more popular tourist destinations in Colombia. I would describe it as a small island of beautiful colonial architecture and fortifications surrounded by a sea of slums. The hotel where I am staying is cheap and upscale compared to what I have gotten used to in Central America but there are plenty of sketchy people in its surroundings. I am spending a few days here getting used to Colombia and running some errands before I start pedaling again.
At the hotel, I smoked a joint with another person staying in the hotel for the first time in over a month. I then went back to my room and watched cable T.V. Here in Latin America, some of the cable channels show cherry-picked reruns of the American cable channels. I saw That's My Bush and Breaking Bad for the first time. Maybe it was the fact that I was stoned for the first time in a long time but these shows seemed brilliant. In That's My Bush, the president was going to celebrate the arrest of the 100 millionth War on Drugs criminal at a White House Press Conference when he accidentally ingests a couple of extasy tablets. The press conference quickly degenerates into a rave with the president dancing like a club kid and being as cuddly as ever. In breaking bad, an underpaid science teacher decides he is going to make some extra money by cooking up methamphetamines. I love it when Hollywood mocks the government. As long as the government persists in its quixotic attempt to fight the War on Drugs, there will be plenty of fodder for the screenwriters to ridicule the government with.
Here I am in Colombia, the frontline on the War on Drugs. This is the land of the F.A.R.C., A.U.C., E.L.N., Pablo Escobar, and the Medellin and Calì cartels. Narcoterrorism was invented here. That being said, drugs seem pretty readily available here. Even though I got a stern warning from Captain Mark, I could have easily carried drugs on board in the Caribbean Sea if I were discrete. The sea to the north of Colombia is one of the most heavily policed bodies of water on this planet but they can do nothing to stop the flow of drugs. For every time they stop a ton of cocaine, ten tons are probably making it through. There are people who openly smoke pot on the street here and I have been accosted on more than one occasion by people selling a variety of drugs.
As a pot smoker, I am indignant at amount of effort that all the governments of the world expend keeping pot illegal. Cigarette smokers blithely walk down the street sucking on their cancer sticks and throwing their cigarette butts whereever they want while drunks beat their wives and kill people in traffic accidents but I have to hide in the shadows and constantly look over my shoulders if I want to smoke a joint. There are so many addictions that are worse than marijuana. Cocaine and heroin are obvious but their are so many addictions that are legal that are worse. Have you ever met someone addicted to sniffing glue or huffing gasoline. It is not a pretty sight. How about someone who is addicted to prescription pills, gambling, or sloth.
The worst addiction of them all is the addiction to all the stuff that seems to afflict most Americans and spreads like a cancer to the rest of the world. This addiction lead to the housing bust afflicting America today. Americans wanting to finance their increasingly expensive lifestyle fell victim to the lure of easy money and easy credit to take out mortgages which they couldn't afford. When the times were flush and the house prices were rising, we were able to flip our houses or take out home equity loans so we could buy bigger cars and more stuff than we could ever reasonably afford. Now the economy has been worsening and our lifestyle is being exposed as unsustainable. The Chinas and Indias of the world want their share of stuff, too leading to the rise in almost all commodity and food prices so they can live like westerners. Those poor kids from the slums of the world that grow up to become drug dealers don't do it so they can provide their families with financial security and health care. They want the bling. Maybe we should end the War on Drugs and start fighting the War on Greed.
I don't smoke cigarettes, I almost never drink alcohol, I don't gamble, I don't snort coke or meth or shoot speed but I smoke pot and ingest an occasional few grams of mushrooms. I am not some retarded, drug-addicted loser who can't take care of his own business. I graduated college with a degree in math while working my way through school and I speak two, soon to be three, languages. I paid off all of my loans before I graduated school and have saved up a shitload of money because I have a simple lifestyle centered around not owning a car. I have a rule where I don't buy anything on credit and I usually don't buy anything that I can't carry on my bicycle. This eliminates a lot of useless shit. People probably say, "You must live like a monk.", but I don't. I eat well, go dancing, and enjoy being with friends, making music and food and merriment. I am currently travelling on the adventure of a lifetime because I have been afforded the opportunity by my own personal responsibility. I think it is fun to smoke a whole bunch of pot and spend four hours cooking. I can't think of many things more fun and spiritually rewarding than taking a bunch of mushrooms and climbing a tree. I harm no one with these activities, not even myself, and I am pissed off that my government wants to say that I am a criminal for this behavior. I will be forever defiant until the government ends its insane War on Drugs.
The drug problem is like a poison ivy rash. The more you scratch it the worse it gets. It itches so bad but you have to resist scratching. You have to treat it intelligently by applying ointment to the affected areas. I understand the visceral reaction that people get when they see someone who has ruined their life because of their addiction. I watched my own father ruin his life because of his drug addiction. He chose being an addict over being a father. He started as just a user and quickly graduated to selling drugs to feed his own habit. People think, "We should lock up all the people who sell these drugs and turn our children into addicts." They never think that these people are victims, too. They never think that they are fathers or mothers and that they are somebody's child. Like the person who scratches his poison ivy rash, the government only gets temporary relief by attacking the supply of drugs. It would do a lot better by attacking the root causes of drug addiction such as social inequality and lack of education and opportunity among abusers. Only when the government tries an intelligent solution rather than a reactionary temporary solution will we be able to win the drug war.
The group of presidential candidates is a little bit narrower now but none of them have any positive, proactive solutions for ending the War on Drugs. With that being said, I am going to announce my candidacy for 2016 when I will be old enough to run for president. I promise that I will gather the heads of the D.E.A. and all the respective leaders of the drug agencies from the rest of the world, and anyone else who is responsible for this mess we have gotten ourselves into. We will have a summit about the War on Drugs. I will bake special brownies and harangue all these people for their asinine drug policies. Afterwords, I will have a shaman administer mushrooms to all them so they can experience what it feels like to dissolve their ego for the very first time.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
To South America
Day 185-188 I stayed in Leon
Day 189 ta:2386 kt:93 gps: N 12°08.692' W 86°16.914'
Day 190 and 191 I stayed in Managua
Day 192 ta: 2109 kt:48.1 gps:N 11°55.905' W 85°57.414'
Day 193 I took the ferry to Ometepe Island
After travelling through Mexican colonial towns, Central American colonial towns seem pretty unimpressive. These cities have always been poorer and, hence have more interesting colonial architecture. Moreover, it seems like every Central American town has been destroyed, at least once, by an earthquake. Granada, Nicaragua has been destroyed by pirate raids. That being said, I stayed multiple days in Leon because it is very hot and I was comfortable in the place that I was staying. I didn't do anything special; I just lazed around and did mundane things like file my taxes and watch movies. The main highlight of my stay in Leon was meeting yet another cyclist who is on his way to Southern Argentina. His name is Eric. He is from California and he left from Northern Alaska nine months ago.
The other highlight of my stay was the food. Though it is not quite as good as the food from Mexico, it is a significant improvement over the food from Guatemala and Honduras. I enjoyed the manuelitas, which are like pancakes wrapped around cheese, and the tortas de lechuga, which is rice and beef wrapped in lettuce and then pan grilled.
I finally broke free from Leon and headed to Managua. I rode 90 kilometers starting at noon. On the road, I saw a pedestrian who looked like they had been killed by an overly aggressive bus driver. This seemed kind of ironic to me because, if anything, the drivers in Nicaragua seem to be infinitely more polite than other Latin American drivers. I even had taxi drivers yield the right of way to me. I was stunned. I think that this probably has something to do with the fact that the police actually enforce traffic laws here. I actually saw police using radar detectors while going into Managua on the main highway.
It is really hot in Nicaragua. It feels like an eternal Texas summer in the lowlands. I am well accustomed to the heat but it, nevertheless, saps my energy. I find myself staying in cities for extra time just so I can watch T.V. shows about spoiled, selfish Americans spending thousands of dollars so a plastic surgeon can suck miniscule amounts of fat out of them. I can't help but wonder about how the average Nicaraguan who is struggling to survive feels about Americans when they see these shows.
My guidebook says that Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere after Haiti. This isn't immediately apparent until you reach Managua. There are shanty towns constructed in the cities public parks, the roads have no labels, and there are holes that drop all the way into the cities sewer system as if people stole the lids and sold them for scrap metal. The poverty is not concentrated in any part of the city because it is entirely decentralized after having been destroyed more than once by earthquakes. The working poor of America have nothing on the working poor of Nicaragua. I would like to see an American survive by selling bags of water for ten cents each. As long as these conditions exist in Latin America there will always be illegal immigrants coming to the U.S. no matter how high we build a fence nor how many laws we pass against them.
I spent several days in Managua running errands which proved to be quite tedious due to the lack of proper road markings. I purchased a needle and thread so I can sew my tire back together if need be, sent a form to the I.R.S., and extended my visa in the immigration office.
Bureaucracy is the worst form of oppression. I would rather have my eyes gouged out by birds, take a tazer to the balls, or use sand paper as toilet paper. My personal version of Hell would be just like that of Sisyphus but instead of having a rock to roll up a hill only for it to roll down again I would have a form that needed to be notarized an infinite number of times in an infinite number of government agencies. That being said, I thought I would be able to get my visa extension in about an hour or so which was unrealistic because that would be some kind of bureacratic record. Not only did the clerk quit helping me to check her text messages on her cell phone but she actually left one line in a document unsigned so she could go eat lunch. I just said, "Fuck it." and went to go eat lunch myself. If I ever run amok I make sure to do it at some sort of bureacratic office and make sure I only kill bureaucrats. The experience was so aggravating that I decided to stretch my errands out to two days instead of one.
I eventually left Managua for a one-day stop at Granada and the onward to the Island of Ometepe. I have heard good things about this place so I hope that I won't be disappointed.
Day 194-199 I stayed on the Island de Ometepe
Day 200 ta:970 kt:30.8 gps: N 11°26.614' W 85°49.566'
My gear and my body are going through some wear-and-tear. The valve on my camelbak has a hole the size of a bird's eye, rendering it useless and forcing me to divert my trip through San Jose, Costa Rica to find a new valve or, if necessary, a new bladder. I can carry the same amount of water but I have to stop to drink it now.
I had a case of athlete's foot that turned into some painful blisters between my toes and then a bacterial infection. I have finally solved this problem by lazing around my hotel room and only wearing flip-flops so my feet could breathe. Since I am going to go back to exclusively camping in Costa Rica, I figured it would be best to solve this problem now. I don't want to get my feet amputed because I have gangrene( I am far from having gangrene).
While in Ometepe, I hiked to the top of the taller of the two twin volcanos named Concepción. I managed to save $20 by refusing to hire a guide. After the fact, one of the guides practically begged me to tell other travellers that it was possible to hike to the top without a guide. Seeing that it was his bread-and-butter, I acceded to this request. I would not particularly recommend this to the general traveller anyway because the trail is relatively dangerous and if you got hurt you might be stuck there for a couple of days. I, however, am stupid and have a G.P.S. device making it nigh impossible to get lost. The trail was steep and very rocky meaning that it was actually harder to descend than ascend. I conquered the mountain only to see a cloud-obscured sulfurous pit at the top and to be humbled later on. During the descent I had to step very carefully because there was always the danger of losing my footing or getting my feet wedged between rocks and stumbling forward, thereby breaking my ankles. I descended slowly, stoped a lot, and planned almost every step. By the time I got to the bottom, I was stumbling forward and my legs were trembling from having to balance backward on such a steep slope. As an added treat, my quadriceps stiffened up over the next few days to the point that it hurt to walk or get up from a lying or seated position. The spasms were so bad that it hurt when I barely touched them. I looked like an old man inching around with muscle spasms in my legs and blisters between my toes. I am better now and my feelings of youthful immortality have returned.
While recovering from my various ailments, I mostly found myself lying in a hammock and reading or watching movies with the hotel crew. Oh what a thrill it was to see the retrofuturistic dystopian shoot-em-up Robocop dubbed in Spanish. I actually remember going to see that movie in the theaters when I was kid. It actually made me start thinking about the present state of the world. The prices of food and fuel (they are related) have been marching inexorably upward for the past year while we are most likely about to enter into a multiyear recession caused by the bursting of the international housing bubble. There are food riots in Haiti and road blockades in Managua to protest rising fuel prices. The Chinese and the Indians want to drive their cars everywhere and eat meat every meal just like the Americans and in doing so are proving just how unsustainable our lifestyle is with a planet of only six billion people on it. I hate to think about how bad these problems will be in 2050 when the world's population is projected to reach 9 billion people. In a few decades the Detroit City of Robocop will seem quaint compared to the reality. Make and sure to stop and smell the roses now while you can before global warming kills all of the rose bushes.
Day 201 ta:2383 kt: 59.1 gps: N 11°03.142' W 85°37.565'
This morning when I woke up there was a man who had just gotten his passport and $600 stolen from the people he was sharing his room with. I think he was Costa Rican. I felt sorry for him because he was in a bad situation but I also feel like he could have been more careful. If I am in a shared room I sleep holding my wallet and passport and my knife is never farther away than arm's reach. You can never be too careful.
I crossed into Costa Rica today. It was surprisingly more annoying getting out of Nicaragua than getting into Costa Rica. I had to stand in line and wait for the immigration officer to give me my exit stamp whereas when I got to the Costa Rican immigration office I didn't have to wait in line or pay any money for my entrance exam. I have become a veteran border crosser at this point in my journey.
Costa Rica is supposed to be a lot better off than Nicaragua. This is not immediately apparent as you cross the border but becomes more so once you go further inland. The houses are constructed more or less like they are in the U.S. and not made of mud and scrap metal like they often are in Honduras or Nicaragua. There seem to be more trees than are on the isthmus in Nicaragua but it is still hot and dry which should change as I enter more highly elevated land soon.
This morning, the morning before I left Rivas, Nicaragua, I went to the marketplace to eat breakfast. There was a crazy homeless man who seemed to get his kicks by touching people on the back of the neck. When he tried to do it to me earlier, I just turned around and said, "No!," thinking that he was trying to ask me for money. I don't like being touched by strangers at all. It wasn't until later that I realized that this was how he amused himself. I felt bad entertaining myself with his insanity but I couldn't help but laugh while watching the reactions of different people. Some people just ignored him and continued walking while others slapped his hand away. The funniest moment is when a man reared back in a boxer's stance to fight him. When I asked some ladies at the bus station next to the marketplace what was wrong with him they told me he had smoked too much crack. Oh well, I guess he brought this on himself.
Day 202 ta: 1966 kt: 82.8 gps: N 10°31.544' W 85°15.755'
It was surprisingly cold when I woke up this morning. I was, after all, in the lowlands where it is quite hot during the day. The reason for the chilliness was the strong wind that was blowing from the mountains to my east towards the sea to my west. There were times when the wind was so strong that I had to ride diagonally just to ride straight and keep myself from being blown off the road.
My previous two days were meant to be light, therapeutic days to stretch out my still tight quadriceps. This definitely did the trick. I feel as good as new and I think I could have conceivably rode another 60 kilometers today if I hadn't taken my four hour lunch and internet break.
I have seen a lot of people riding nice bikes here. This leads me to think that I should have no problem replacing my camelbak and finding new bike tires. I think that I will save this errand for San Jose as I am getting along fine with these tires right now.
Day 203 ta: 4372 kt: 51.4 gps: N 10°26.272' W 84°56.836'
Though beautiful in many places, the entire country of Costa Rica seems to be one giant tourist trap. The citizens of Costa Rica have devised numerous ways to get gringo money. I even see signs, in English, advertising time shares. Everything here is at least 50% more expensive than the rest of Latin America except, maybe, the internet cafes. For this reason, I have decided to camp the whole way except for when I am in San Jose looking for bike supplies. Fortunately for me, there seem to be laws governing the offset between the highway and fences. I haven't had any problem finding good hiding places.
I spent most of my day charging up a hill and into a headwind. I knew I was in trouble when I saw the windfarm on top of the hill. I have a feeling that I am going to be charging into this headwind for the next couple of days.
The part of Costa Rica that I am travelling through is cowboy country through and through. When I stopped in the town of Tilaran, they even had some kind of horse parade. All the horses were trimmed and made-up while the men and women were wearing their cowboy best.
I decided to call an early day, not because I was tired, but because I liked the spot where I was at. My original plan was to ride to a hotel close to the bioreserve of Monteverde and use it as a base of operations to explore the park. My new plan is to ride to the park and ride back. I don't trust the accuracy of the Lonely Planet anymore and I don't want to be gouged by a local hotel.
When I was riding up a hill today I found a new treasure: it is a motorcycle helmet, not one of those full-face helmets but one that only covers the top of my head and has spikes on it. It has a faded sticker on it that says, "Ride it like you stole it." I usually don't like helmets but this one makes me look lie a post-apocalyptic bandit in a Mad Max movie. Hell yeah!
Day 204 ta:3196 kt:23.3 gps: N 10°21.222' W 84°52.217'
I woke up with a sore throat, afraid that I was coming down with a cold. This is not the greatest way to feel before you enter a dirt road. The useless Lonely Planet, or course, doesn't mention that it is an unpaved road. There are all sorts of trips for gay travellers but none for cyclists. The funny thing is that I haven't met a single openly gay traveller but I have met nine other cyclists. I am happy that there are tips for gay travellers; I just wish that they indicated unpaved roads on their maps.
The feeling crappy and riding on the dirt road were all worth it because I saw one of those gorgeous green-beaked toucans. Parrots are as common as pigeons and monkeys are as common as squirrels, but toucans are relatively rare and elusive. Maybe some time shortly I will get to see a quetzal. That would be something.
Day 205 ta:3252 kt:32.4 gps: N 10°28.177'
Day 206 I stayed in Tilaran
Day 207 ta:1145 kt:12.5 gps: N 10°31.245' W 84°57.724'
I still wasn't feeling super-great on the day that I was supposed to go to Monteverde. Because of this, I ended up stopping and turning around about 8 kilometers before I got to the park. I was just going to turn around anyway and I was getting tired of the crappy dirt road. I had reached a point in the road where I couldn't start back up after I had stopped to take a rest. There are not a lot of things that are as frustrating as losing your traction while going up a 15° dirt road. I had already seen a green-beak toucan, a green toucanette, and some pretty scenery so I was happy.
Going back towards Tilaran was a lot easier due to the fact that the head wind was now a tailwind. The wind was so strong that there was actually one part of the road where I accelerated uphill without pedalling.
I still felt a little funky when I reached Tilaran so I decided to stay at a hotel for a day. I had a slight fever and a runny nose so resting seemed like a good idea. When I took a shower, an entire river of dirt flowed off of my skin into the drain. It was satisfying to be clean again.
When I finally made it out of Tilaran today, another screw in my bike rack jiggled loose and caused me to turn right back around. I found one screw but the other was missing and I thought it would be better to deal with this while I was close to civilization. I think that I had been missing one screw for a while because I noticed a strange feeling whenever I stood up while going uphill a couple of days earlier but I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my bike. Since I often spend entire days on my bike, I am quite attuned to weird sounds and feelings but I can't always figure out what is causing them. I stopped and checked my bike many times but didn't notice the screw was missing until today. This was an easy problem to fix but it delayed my leaving the city even longer.
I am camped right now on top of a hill in someone's ranch. How can I not camp at a place like this when they make it so easy to enter their property by giving me gates. Anyway, I plan to get up early tomorrow and leave before anyone notices anything. If there were no clouds, I would have an unobstructed view of Mount Arenal, the most active volcano in Costa Rica.
Day 208 ta:4038 kt:71.8 gps: N 10°28.731' W 84°36.200'
I rode along the northern edge of Arenal for most of the day today. There was a lot of tree cover so I didn't have to deal with the fierce headwind but the hills did add up. There were many signs, in English, proudly proclaiming the area as Costa Rica's "Lake Tahoe". Yuk!! I saw so many "For Sale" signs that and ads for realtors that I couldn't help but wonder if Costa Rica was going through a housing bust of its own. The lake isn't that great in my opinion. I would much rather live along Lake Atitlan in Guatemala than here. The only active draws here are the jungle wildlife and the very active Arenal which constantly puts on nighttime lava shows.
I saw more toucans today. I was also finally able to take a good picture of a monkey. He was perched on a branch right off of the road, just at eye level. When I got my camera out he just stayed there calmly while I shot my picture. That will not happen again.
When I was riding by the volcano, it started smoking real heavily. This excited me because I thought I was going to witness a major eruption and I have always wanted to see one. I didn't want to see anything of Krakatau magnitude but I did want to hear explosions and feel the earth tremble. Alas, it was not meant to be. By the time I stopped my bike to take a picture, the angry volcano had relaxed a bit and was no longer pumping out large amounts of ash. Maybe, I will get to see something like this in South America.
After I arrived in the town of Fortuna, Costa Rica, I was very surprised to run into Sjaak, the very first cycle tourist whom I met in Zacatecas, Mexico. I thought he would be well into South America by now. I felt bad that I had to cut our conversation short but the sun was about to set and I had to get out of the tourist-trap town. It is always a bad sign if you are in a Spanish speaking country and, yet, all the signs are in English. There are also lots of expensive looking hotels with views of the volcano along the road. I got out of the city with about 30 minutes to spare and am now camped on the edge of some kind of orchard. I can not identify the trees which have all been planted in rows here. Maybe they bear some kind of nut. Anyway, I would have a good view of Arenal if it wasn't shrouded in clouds, again.
Day 209 ta:3615 kt: 69.5 gps: N 10°20.794' W 84°14.678'
I have been slacking off recently but I have a nice punishment planned for tomorrow: I get to start my day off with at least 5,000 of ascent. Woo hoo! The mountains to my south look imposing and intimidating being cloaked in clouds. A number of people tried to give me directions for an easier way to San Jose from Ciudad Quezada but I paid them no heed because I would rather suffer a little and go on the more scenic, mountainous route.
There were a bunch of red-winged blackbirds on the side of the road today. They are supposed to migrate as far north as Texas but I have never seen one there before.
Right now, I am camped above the Rio Toro underneath the bridge that passes over it. The rapids here have the muddy appearance of volcano run-off. The water has stained the rocks on the edge a coffee color. It really makes me want to take up kayaking.
Day 210 ta:7395 kt: 74.2 gps: N 9°56.277' W 84°04.480'
Day 211 I stayed in San Jose
Day 212 ta: kt:14.8 gps: N 9°50.927' W 84°05.976'
Near the beginning of my day riding towards San Jose, I found a hummingbird on the side of the road. It actually willingly perched on my finger when I went to pick it up. If it was sick, I didn't want it to die the undignified death of being splattered by a semi. Eventually, after I tried to get it to perch on a barbed wire fence, it flew off on its own as if nothing were wrong.
I knew that I was going to have to pay for my sin of sloth and, boy, did I suffer. I actually ascended more in one day than I have ever done before. There were several times when I had to stop and ring about a pint of sweat out of my shirt. Despite my suffering, the ride was beautiful. The whole area between the town of San Miguel and San Jose is mostly undeveloped cloudforest. There is some development along the side of the road but it is mostly untouched. I even passed by a couple of pristine waterfalls that are right next to the road.
I didn't get to San Jose until after nightfall because of my all-day-long ascent. Arriving in a large metropolitan area at night is not my favorite thing to do but it is a necessary evil sometimes. I had to come to San Jose because I needed to look for replacement parts for my bike and camelbak. I did manage to find the hostel where I wanted to stay but not without riding through some sketchy areas of town filled with the usual suspects of glue-sniffers and thuggish looking people.
The place where I stayed is called Tranquilo Backpackers. It is in downtown San Jose and was a pretty good value for my $10 a night. They whip up a bunch of pancake batter every morning for all of the guest to make their own pancakes. It is kind of fun to see the disasters that some people cook up. They have free internet and the first steel-stringed guitars that I have seen in all of Latin America. Most importantly, they have a kitten. I could see myself being comfortable at this place for a while but that $10 can add up fast.
As usual, I didn't actually leave the city until real late. I discovered some loose screws with stripped nuts that I felt that I had to replace. This of course, took more time to do than I anticipated because it was hard to remove the old screw. I also promised a guy from Singapore that I would fetch a pair of sunglasses for him because he like the pair that I had just purchased. That being said, I barely made it out of the city. I am now camped in a banana/coffee plantation right now hoping that I don't get discovered. Because I am crazy and a glutton for punishment, I think I am going to ride straight through the highest part of the country over the next couple of days.
Day 213 ta:1744 kt: 16.1 gps: N 9°46.527' W 84°04.247'
Day 214 ta: 2796 kt:18.1 gps: N 9°44.596' W 83°58.337'
I haven't travelled much in the last few days but I did read over 300 pages of a book and finish it. I have become a voracious reader on this trip. Already, I have probably tripled the number of books that I have read since I graduated college four years ago. I have been reading so much that it has slowed me down every time I have a good book.
The mountains where I am at are covered in coffe plantations. If they aren't covered in coffee plantations they are covered in cloudforests. It is mostly cool and misty where I am at right now. I might top out at over 10,000 feet tomorrow so I expect it to be downright cold. I will probably have to dig out my cold weather gear. I am already wearing my full length bicycle tights.
Yesterday, I passed the satellite dish that I believe scientists use to try to communicate with extraterrestrial life forms. It was huge, at least 50 feet across. Shortly afterwards, I saw a turquoise-browed motmot. It has a funny name but it is a beautiful bird. It is the national bird of Nicaragua but they live in Costa Rica, too.
My flashlight has become my latest gear casualty. It barely gives off any light at all and bleeds the battery after I turn it off. I don't think that there is a single piece of gear that I can't destroy on a bicycle tour.
Day 215 ta: 4890 kt: 89.4 gps: N 9°22.461' W 83°42.183'
Day 216 ta: 1075 kt: 32.9 gps: N 9°15.296' W 83°30.427'
Yesterday, I climbed to the top of el Cerro de la Muerte which means the Hill of Death. It seems like a pretty ironic name since the place is overgrown with plant life. I topped out just 8 feet shy of 11,000 feet. Even in the tropics, it is cold above 10,000 feet. The rain didn't make things any better. It was misty all morning but it actually started raining about 4 hours before sunset. I had finally figured out a comfortable clothing arrangement until it started to raining. I kept my torso covered while I allowed my body to cool through my bicycle tights. The rain fucked that arrangement up. I was able to stay warm until I started to descend but, once I started to descend, I got real cold real fast. I had to stop at a restaurant and have some hot soup and hot tea. I didn't want to get hypothermia. I also put on some extra winter gear for the descent.
The 8,500 feet of descent might have been a lot more fun if the roads weren't slick and I wasn't cold and wet. I had to hold onto my brakes the whole time just to prevent myself from sliding out and losing traction. I used my brakes so much that I had to stop just to give my hands a rest every once and a while. If the conditions were dryer, I would have zoomed down the entire mountain at 50+ kilometer per hour and would have had a hell of a time doing it.
The whole area that I rode through has an almost enchanted feel. All of the forests here are as green as can be. Plants grow on plants which grow on other plants. Occasionally a view of the mountainside with clouds rolling up the hills would open up. If I wasn't so cold and wet, I would have been mesmerized by the beauty of this place.
I pretty much decided that I was going to ride all the way to the town of San Isidro, Costa Rica, named for the patron saint of farmers. I wanted to stay in a hotel as soon as it started raining. Unfortunately, the sun set before I got there. All those years of riding my bike at night ninja-style without any lights or reflectors paid off as I was able to successfully navigate the highway and avoid vehicles.
I only got a half-day of riding in today as I got enmeshed in the comforts of the city as I have a tendency to do. With about three hours to go until the sun set, it started raining again. Rather than tough it out, I decided to set up camp early. I really get tired of waking up with wet shoes. Hopefully, I can make it to Panama with minimal rain.
Day 217 ta: 2321 kt: 71.1 gps: N 8°57.815' W 83°08.993'
I rather enjoyed a nice leisurely ride through many miles of virgin rainforests today. My favorite part was when the road followed the clay-red colored Rio General. There was even one spot where two twin 200-foot waterfalls flowed into the river. While I was relaxing by the waterfalls, I saw a coati. I should cross into Panama tomorrow. I am expecting more mountains and more cloudforests. The stretches of road that travel from San Miguel to San Jose and then from San Jose to San Vito on the border have been two of the more scenic routes that I have followed.
I read in the news recently that an Arkansas is supposed to give birth for the eighteenth time. I am disgusted. I don't care if the family is debt free. The average American consumes 32 times more resources than the average person in the developing world. Since the world's farmers sell their crops to the highest bidder, people like here are the reason that Haitian children eat mud.
I have also been thinking about Barack Obama's former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. I think he is taking it a little far to say that there is a conspiracy to kill black people with A.I.D.S. but I think he has a point when he says terrorists attack us because we commit acts of terrorism. When our government assassinates a Somali warlord we say it is a necessary strategic elimination. When Hezbollah assassinates a Lebanese leader, we say it is terrorism. When we secretly fly someone to a country that uses torture and don't allow them to communicate with anyone, we call it extreme rendition. When the F.A.R.C. kidnaps someone and holds them for ransom we call it terrorism. I am not saying that these are not terrorist acts, I am saying that we commit terrorist acts, too. There can be no double standards. All is fair in love and war and war is hell. For every terrorist action there is an equal/greater terrorist reaction.
Day 218 ta: 4355 kt: 51.3 gps: N 8°49.079' W 82°51.783'
I planned to cross the border into Panama today but my plans were thwarted by dirt roads and rain. When I arrived at the border, the immigration offices for both countries were already closed.
Just to prove that things operate differently here in Latin America, I am camped at the police station. I asked permission and they said yes. I could have easily crossed into Panama illegally but I am not anxious to find out what kind of bureaucratic delays this could cause. I plan to get my exit and entry stamps when I wake up tomorrow.
The rear hub on my bicycle is loose and it is making me nervous. If it wasn't a sealed hub, I would swear that I needed to regrease and repack the bearings. My wheel jiggles from side to side. I can feel the play in the wheel whenever I go uphill. Hopefully, I will be able to tighten my hub and solve this problem tomorrow morning. If not, I can add sealed hubs to the growing list of bicyle parts that I have ruined in my eleven years as a bicycle commuter. I should be able to make it to David, Panama soon where I should be able to get a new hub.
Day 219 ta:4564 kt: 54.8 gps: N 8°40.140' W 82°37.916'
When I woke up this morning, I had to wait for the Costa Rican and Panamanian immigration offices to open so I played with my rear wheel. I managed to tighten the two bolts on the outside of the wheel and this solved my jiggly wheel problem but now it doesn't seem to spin as well. I think I am going to have to replace the hub.
I had to wait an extra hour for the Costa Rican immigration office to open. Even though the buildings are no more than 200 feet apart, they operate in different time zones. That was no problem. I just went and ate breakfast while I waited. It cost me $25 to enter Panama, about $20 more than I expected. I might as well throw my fucking useless Lonely Planet away because, although it is the newest addition, it is thouroughly outdated by the time it is published. This, fortunately was no problem because I expected to have to pay the Costa Rican immigration office $26 and didn't have to pay anything. I should have plenty of money to make it to David, Panama.
Speaking of money, although the Panamanian standard of living is high, Panama does not suffer from the scourge of too many tourists like Costa Rica does. I immediately realized that the food was about 33% cheaper than in Costa Rica; it is better, too.
I probably rode through my last Central American rainforest today. It is replete with exotic plants, wildlife, and waterfalls cascading down cliffs on the side of the road. Tomorrow I should enter the Pacific lowlands where I expect to see a bunch of boring farms and ranches. Oh well, I should be in Colombia soon.
Dady 220 ta: 1247 kt:70.2 gps: N 8° 24.038' W 82°12.816'
Rain has been the story of my last week. It has rained 5 out of the last 6 days. It rained real hard today. I think that the rainy season is beginning.
I remember when a friend of mine from high school and I would trade irreverent jokes. I would say, "When it rains, God is pissing on us.", and he would reply, "It only rains when the angels masturbate." Ancient cultures prayed to the rain gods but I wonder if the nomadic tribes were among them. Rain is great when you are inside by the fire and you have crops planted but not so great if you are on the back of a horse or on foot in an open plain with no trees. All the rain does then is makes you cold and wet.
I have been a waterlogged nomad for the last week. At 11,000 feet, I had to take precautions against hypothermia. I had to hold my brakes while riding downhill so my wheels wouldn't lock up and slide out from underneath me. A slide-out at 50 kilometers per hour can be deadly and, at the very least, break my hip. It also only seems to rain when I am climbing mountains and it is uncomfortable to wear my rain gear because of all the sweating I do underneath. From now on, I am going to try to do most of my riding before the afternoon because that is when the rain comes in the tropics. I am camped underneath a bridge right now which means that I won't have to use my rain fly for my tent and I will wake up dry and happy.
I read in the news that the Vatican has given its official approval to the belief in extraterrestrial life forms. If only it could approve of contraception.
Day 221 ta: 4133 kt:96.6 gps: N 8°12.151' W 81°30.575'
It didn't rain today and for that I am grateful but, man, was it humid. The air was so dense with moisture that it actually started drizzling without there being a cloud in the sky. I have actually seen this phenomenon a couple of times in Costa Rica as well. It did not rain but it might as well because my shirt, bike shorts, and socks were completely soaked with sweat. To make matters worse, I have developed one of the rashes caused by the excessive moisture and friction in a sensitive, unmentionable area. All I can do is apply appointment to it.
Aside from the heat and humidity, I actually had a good day. I discovered a distinct form of Panamanian music called cantadera. When I heard the music, I had one of those reactions where I geeked out and starting asking as many questions as possible about it. I plan to do some more investigation and buy some pirated CDs soon.
Day 222 ta:2653 kt: 103 gps: N 8°08.214' W 80°41.078'
I had two wildlife highlights today: I saw a large butterfly with purple wings and a live snake. I have seen plenty of snake roadkill but this is, surprisingly, the first live snake that I have seen in Latin America. I did not see if it was a pit viper nor did I try. I am not particularly afraid of snakes but I am wise enough to let them run since I do not carry antivenom as part of my medical kit. Generally, if you make any noise at all when you walk and watch where you step, you won't have any problem with snakes.
After I passed through Santiago, Panama today, the land flattened out and I had a nice strong tailwind. I was flying. If the land remains flat tomorrow and I have the same tailwind, I might try to ride the entire 215 kilometers to Panama City. That is a big if though. If anything, I would like to ride over a hundred kilometers tomorrow so I can get to Panama city before nightfall the next day.
Day 223 ta:1376 kt:64.9 gps: N 8°30.834' W 80°20.954'
Day 224 I stayed in Penonome
Day 225 ta:1520 kt:60.5 gps: N 8°29.871' W 79°57.482'
Whenever I plan on a long day, something always ruins it. The strong tailwind shifted into a strong headwind, I had several flat tires, and my rash graduated from being merely irritating to being painful.
I had the opportunity to learn how to sew my tires shut when the steel wire that gives my tire form seperated from the rubber in another spot. At first, it was frustrating trying to figure out the proper stitching but I eventually figured it out. My rear tire looks bad. Not only have I worn off the treads but I can actually see the thread mesh poking through the rubber. I absolutely need to replace my rear tire in Panama City. It will not last much longer. I also need to replace my rear cassette, chain, and brake pads. I rode around Penonome for a while looking for replacement tires but to no avail.
My bike is not the reason I stopped in Penonome. My rash in the unmentionable place, let's just call it saddle sore, became so painful that it hurt to ride my bike. There is only one cure for saddle sore: get off the saddle and don't wear tight shorts. I rented a room in the cheapest hotel room that I could find and spent a lot of time watching T.V. in my room naked. The day of rest helped me and I can now ride my bike without grimacing in pain.
Panama actually seems to have a culture distinct from other parts of Central America. Children here play baseball instead of soccer, lots of men wear distinct straw hats that look like cowboy hats curved upward at the front, and there seems to be a lot more racial diversity here. There are blacks on the Caribbean side of all Central American countries and there are Asians in all of the big cities but Panama has sizeable minorities of both in all of the towns on the Panamerican highway. Another thing that I noticed is that most of the general stores and restaurants are owned by Asians. There also seem to be larger numbers of indigenous people in Panama than in the other Central American countries with Guatemala being the obvious exception. The Kuna Indians seem to have the most style out of all the Indians I have seen in Central America. I really appreciate all this racial diversity. It all contributes to a very unique culture.
All say several items in the news that were of interest to me. One is that there is a church of the Jedi in Great Britain. The entire religion is based on the philosophical musings of Yoda and the rest of the Jedi Council from the Star Wars movies. George Lucas should be proud that he unintentionally spawned a new religion.
The other article that I saw was an article that stated that the average American wedding cost over $28,000. I was disgusted. That is so wasteful. To put in context, I would like to show how much money this would be if it were invested over a 50 year period at a 10% rate of return which is doable. I estimated up to $30,000 to simplify matters. When I punched the number into an interest rate calculator, it ended up being over three and a half million dollars. Considering that most marriages in the U.S end up in divorce, I would rather keep the money. I would rather have a pepper spray enema than marry one of these golddiggers.
Day 226 ta: 3025 kt: 89.1 gps: N 8°58.976' W 79° 31.494'
Day 227-231 I stayed in Panama City
I made it into Panama City with a few problems but nothing that I couldn't handle. I had to fix a spoke and my rash came back. When I reached the Bridge of the Americas, a cop made me get off my bike and hitchhike across. I was ready to go across but the cops seem to frown on that. There are some gnarly looking ghettos on the other side of the bridge but I didn't have any problems there.
I haven't done anything special here in Panama City. I have just rested and surfed the internet a lot. One day, I rode down to the ghetto and bought a pirated copy of the new Indiana Jones movie. The quality of the movie is terrible but the credits were in French which makes me think that a person snuck a camera into the Canne's film festival in France and filmed the premier of the movie. Go pirates!
My bike was hurting. I replaced the rear tire, rear cassette, chain, brake pads, and rear hub. I am proud to say that this is the very first time that I have destroyed a hub. I am very proud of that accomplishment.
Day 189 ta:2386 kt:93 gps: N 12°08.692' W 86°16.914'
Day 190 and 191 I stayed in Managua
Day 192 ta: 2109 kt:48.1 gps:N 11°55.905' W 85°57.414'
Day 193 I took the ferry to Ometepe Island
After travelling through Mexican colonial towns, Central American colonial towns seem pretty unimpressive. These cities have always been poorer and, hence have more interesting colonial architecture. Moreover, it seems like every Central American town has been destroyed, at least once, by an earthquake. Granada, Nicaragua has been destroyed by pirate raids. That being said, I stayed multiple days in Leon because it is very hot and I was comfortable in the place that I was staying. I didn't do anything special; I just lazed around and did mundane things like file my taxes and watch movies. The main highlight of my stay in Leon was meeting yet another cyclist who is on his way to Southern Argentina. His name is Eric. He is from California and he left from Northern Alaska nine months ago.
The other highlight of my stay was the food. Though it is not quite as good as the food from Mexico, it is a significant improvement over the food from Guatemala and Honduras. I enjoyed the manuelitas, which are like pancakes wrapped around cheese, and the tortas de lechuga, which is rice and beef wrapped in lettuce and then pan grilled.
I finally broke free from Leon and headed to Managua. I rode 90 kilometers starting at noon. On the road, I saw a pedestrian who looked like they had been killed by an overly aggressive bus driver. This seemed kind of ironic to me because, if anything, the drivers in Nicaragua seem to be infinitely more polite than other Latin American drivers. I even had taxi drivers yield the right of way to me. I was stunned. I think that this probably has something to do with the fact that the police actually enforce traffic laws here. I actually saw police using radar detectors while going into Managua on the main highway.
It is really hot in Nicaragua. It feels like an eternal Texas summer in the lowlands. I am well accustomed to the heat but it, nevertheless, saps my energy. I find myself staying in cities for extra time just so I can watch T.V. shows about spoiled, selfish Americans spending thousands of dollars so a plastic surgeon can suck miniscule amounts of fat out of them. I can't help but wonder about how the average Nicaraguan who is struggling to survive feels about Americans when they see these shows.
My guidebook says that Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere after Haiti. This isn't immediately apparent until you reach Managua. There are shanty towns constructed in the cities public parks, the roads have no labels, and there are holes that drop all the way into the cities sewer system as if people stole the lids and sold them for scrap metal. The poverty is not concentrated in any part of the city because it is entirely decentralized after having been destroyed more than once by earthquakes. The working poor of America have nothing on the working poor of Nicaragua. I would like to see an American survive by selling bags of water for ten cents each. As long as these conditions exist in Latin America there will always be illegal immigrants coming to the U.S. no matter how high we build a fence nor how many laws we pass against them.
I spent several days in Managua running errands which proved to be quite tedious due to the lack of proper road markings. I purchased a needle and thread so I can sew my tire back together if need be, sent a form to the I.R.S., and extended my visa in the immigration office.
Bureaucracy is the worst form of oppression. I would rather have my eyes gouged out by birds, take a tazer to the balls, or use sand paper as toilet paper. My personal version of Hell would be just like that of Sisyphus but instead of having a rock to roll up a hill only for it to roll down again I would have a form that needed to be notarized an infinite number of times in an infinite number of government agencies. That being said, I thought I would be able to get my visa extension in about an hour or so which was unrealistic because that would be some kind of bureacratic record. Not only did the clerk quit helping me to check her text messages on her cell phone but she actually left one line in a document unsigned so she could go eat lunch. I just said, "Fuck it." and went to go eat lunch myself. If I ever run amok I make sure to do it at some sort of bureacratic office and make sure I only kill bureaucrats. The experience was so aggravating that I decided to stretch my errands out to two days instead of one.
I eventually left Managua for a one-day stop at Granada and the onward to the Island of Ometepe. I have heard good things about this place so I hope that I won't be disappointed.
Day 194-199 I stayed on the Island de Ometepe
Day 200 ta:970 kt:30.8 gps: N 11°26.614' W 85°49.566'
My gear and my body are going through some wear-and-tear. The valve on my camelbak has a hole the size of a bird's eye, rendering it useless and forcing me to divert my trip through San Jose, Costa Rica to find a new valve or, if necessary, a new bladder. I can carry the same amount of water but I have to stop to drink it now.
I had a case of athlete's foot that turned into some painful blisters between my toes and then a bacterial infection. I have finally solved this problem by lazing around my hotel room and only wearing flip-flops so my feet could breathe. Since I am going to go back to exclusively camping in Costa Rica, I figured it would be best to solve this problem now. I don't want to get my feet amputed because I have gangrene( I am far from having gangrene).
While in Ometepe, I hiked to the top of the taller of the two twin volcanos named Concepción. I managed to save $20 by refusing to hire a guide. After the fact, one of the guides practically begged me to tell other travellers that it was possible to hike to the top without a guide. Seeing that it was his bread-and-butter, I acceded to this request. I would not particularly recommend this to the general traveller anyway because the trail is relatively dangerous and if you got hurt you might be stuck there for a couple of days. I, however, am stupid and have a G.P.S. device making it nigh impossible to get lost. The trail was steep and very rocky meaning that it was actually harder to descend than ascend. I conquered the mountain only to see a cloud-obscured sulfurous pit at the top and to be humbled later on. During the descent I had to step very carefully because there was always the danger of losing my footing or getting my feet wedged between rocks and stumbling forward, thereby breaking my ankles. I descended slowly, stoped a lot, and planned almost every step. By the time I got to the bottom, I was stumbling forward and my legs were trembling from having to balance backward on such a steep slope. As an added treat, my quadriceps stiffened up over the next few days to the point that it hurt to walk or get up from a lying or seated position. The spasms were so bad that it hurt when I barely touched them. I looked like an old man inching around with muscle spasms in my legs and blisters between my toes. I am better now and my feelings of youthful immortality have returned.
While recovering from my various ailments, I mostly found myself lying in a hammock and reading or watching movies with the hotel crew. Oh what a thrill it was to see the retrofuturistic dystopian shoot-em-up Robocop dubbed in Spanish. I actually remember going to see that movie in the theaters when I was kid. It actually made me start thinking about the present state of the world. The prices of food and fuel (they are related) have been marching inexorably upward for the past year while we are most likely about to enter into a multiyear recession caused by the bursting of the international housing bubble. There are food riots in Haiti and road blockades in Managua to protest rising fuel prices. The Chinese and the Indians want to drive their cars everywhere and eat meat every meal just like the Americans and in doing so are proving just how unsustainable our lifestyle is with a planet of only six billion people on it. I hate to think about how bad these problems will be in 2050 when the world's population is projected to reach 9 billion people. In a few decades the Detroit City of Robocop will seem quaint compared to the reality. Make and sure to stop and smell the roses now while you can before global warming kills all of the rose bushes.
Day 201 ta:2383 kt: 59.1 gps: N 11°03.142' W 85°37.565'
This morning when I woke up there was a man who had just gotten his passport and $600 stolen from the people he was sharing his room with. I think he was Costa Rican. I felt sorry for him because he was in a bad situation but I also feel like he could have been more careful. If I am in a shared room I sleep holding my wallet and passport and my knife is never farther away than arm's reach. You can never be too careful.
I crossed into Costa Rica today. It was surprisingly more annoying getting out of Nicaragua than getting into Costa Rica. I had to stand in line and wait for the immigration officer to give me my exit stamp whereas when I got to the Costa Rican immigration office I didn't have to wait in line or pay any money for my entrance exam. I have become a veteran border crosser at this point in my journey.
Costa Rica is supposed to be a lot better off than Nicaragua. This is not immediately apparent as you cross the border but becomes more so once you go further inland. The houses are constructed more or less like they are in the U.S. and not made of mud and scrap metal like they often are in Honduras or Nicaragua. There seem to be more trees than are on the isthmus in Nicaragua but it is still hot and dry which should change as I enter more highly elevated land soon.
This morning, the morning before I left Rivas, Nicaragua, I went to the marketplace to eat breakfast. There was a crazy homeless man who seemed to get his kicks by touching people on the back of the neck. When he tried to do it to me earlier, I just turned around and said, "No!," thinking that he was trying to ask me for money. I don't like being touched by strangers at all. It wasn't until later that I realized that this was how he amused himself. I felt bad entertaining myself with his insanity but I couldn't help but laugh while watching the reactions of different people. Some people just ignored him and continued walking while others slapped his hand away. The funniest moment is when a man reared back in a boxer's stance to fight him. When I asked some ladies at the bus station next to the marketplace what was wrong with him they told me he had smoked too much crack. Oh well, I guess he brought this on himself.
Day 202 ta: 1966 kt: 82.8 gps: N 10°31.544' W 85°15.755'
It was surprisingly cold when I woke up this morning. I was, after all, in the lowlands where it is quite hot during the day. The reason for the chilliness was the strong wind that was blowing from the mountains to my east towards the sea to my west. There were times when the wind was so strong that I had to ride diagonally just to ride straight and keep myself from being blown off the road.
My previous two days were meant to be light, therapeutic days to stretch out my still tight quadriceps. This definitely did the trick. I feel as good as new and I think I could have conceivably rode another 60 kilometers today if I hadn't taken my four hour lunch and internet break.
I have seen a lot of people riding nice bikes here. This leads me to think that I should have no problem replacing my camelbak and finding new bike tires. I think that I will save this errand for San Jose as I am getting along fine with these tires right now.
Day 203 ta: 4372 kt: 51.4 gps: N 10°26.272' W 84°56.836'
Though beautiful in many places, the entire country of Costa Rica seems to be one giant tourist trap. The citizens of Costa Rica have devised numerous ways to get gringo money. I even see signs, in English, advertising time shares. Everything here is at least 50% more expensive than the rest of Latin America except, maybe, the internet cafes. For this reason, I have decided to camp the whole way except for when I am in San Jose looking for bike supplies. Fortunately for me, there seem to be laws governing the offset between the highway and fences. I haven't had any problem finding good hiding places.
I spent most of my day charging up a hill and into a headwind. I knew I was in trouble when I saw the windfarm on top of the hill. I have a feeling that I am going to be charging into this headwind for the next couple of days.
The part of Costa Rica that I am travelling through is cowboy country through and through. When I stopped in the town of Tilaran, they even had some kind of horse parade. All the horses were trimmed and made-up while the men and women were wearing their cowboy best.
I decided to call an early day, not because I was tired, but because I liked the spot where I was at. My original plan was to ride to a hotel close to the bioreserve of Monteverde and use it as a base of operations to explore the park. My new plan is to ride to the park and ride back. I don't trust the accuracy of the Lonely Planet anymore and I don't want to be gouged by a local hotel.
When I was riding up a hill today I found a new treasure: it is a motorcycle helmet, not one of those full-face helmets but one that only covers the top of my head and has spikes on it. It has a faded sticker on it that says, "Ride it like you stole it." I usually don't like helmets but this one makes me look lie a post-apocalyptic bandit in a Mad Max movie. Hell yeah!
Day 204 ta:3196 kt:23.3 gps: N 10°21.222' W 84°52.217'
I woke up with a sore throat, afraid that I was coming down with a cold. This is not the greatest way to feel before you enter a dirt road. The useless Lonely Planet, or course, doesn't mention that it is an unpaved road. There are all sorts of trips for gay travellers but none for cyclists. The funny thing is that I haven't met a single openly gay traveller but I have met nine other cyclists. I am happy that there are tips for gay travellers; I just wish that they indicated unpaved roads on their maps.
The feeling crappy and riding on the dirt road were all worth it because I saw one of those gorgeous green-beaked toucans. Parrots are as common as pigeons and monkeys are as common as squirrels, but toucans are relatively rare and elusive. Maybe some time shortly I will get to see a quetzal. That would be something.
Day 205 ta:3252 kt:32.4 gps: N 10°28.177'
Day 206 I stayed in Tilaran
Day 207 ta:1145 kt:12.5 gps: N 10°31.245' W 84°57.724'
I still wasn't feeling super-great on the day that I was supposed to go to Monteverde. Because of this, I ended up stopping and turning around about 8 kilometers before I got to the park. I was just going to turn around anyway and I was getting tired of the crappy dirt road. I had reached a point in the road where I couldn't start back up after I had stopped to take a rest. There are not a lot of things that are as frustrating as losing your traction while going up a 15° dirt road. I had already seen a green-beak toucan, a green toucanette, and some pretty scenery so I was happy.
Going back towards Tilaran was a lot easier due to the fact that the head wind was now a tailwind. The wind was so strong that there was actually one part of the road where I accelerated uphill without pedalling.
I still felt a little funky when I reached Tilaran so I decided to stay at a hotel for a day. I had a slight fever and a runny nose so resting seemed like a good idea. When I took a shower, an entire river of dirt flowed off of my skin into the drain. It was satisfying to be clean again.
When I finally made it out of Tilaran today, another screw in my bike rack jiggled loose and caused me to turn right back around. I found one screw but the other was missing and I thought it would be better to deal with this while I was close to civilization. I think that I had been missing one screw for a while because I noticed a strange feeling whenever I stood up while going uphill a couple of days earlier but I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my bike. Since I often spend entire days on my bike, I am quite attuned to weird sounds and feelings but I can't always figure out what is causing them. I stopped and checked my bike many times but didn't notice the screw was missing until today. This was an easy problem to fix but it delayed my leaving the city even longer.
I am camped right now on top of a hill in someone's ranch. How can I not camp at a place like this when they make it so easy to enter their property by giving me gates. Anyway, I plan to get up early tomorrow and leave before anyone notices anything. If there were no clouds, I would have an unobstructed view of Mount Arenal, the most active volcano in Costa Rica.
Day 208 ta:4038 kt:71.8 gps: N 10°28.731' W 84°36.200'
I rode along the northern edge of Arenal for most of the day today. There was a lot of tree cover so I didn't have to deal with the fierce headwind but the hills did add up. There were many signs, in English, proudly proclaiming the area as Costa Rica's "Lake Tahoe". Yuk!! I saw so many "For Sale" signs that and ads for realtors that I couldn't help but wonder if Costa Rica was going through a housing bust of its own. The lake isn't that great in my opinion. I would much rather live along Lake Atitlan in Guatemala than here. The only active draws here are the jungle wildlife and the very active Arenal which constantly puts on nighttime lava shows.
I saw more toucans today. I was also finally able to take a good picture of a monkey. He was perched on a branch right off of the road, just at eye level. When I got my camera out he just stayed there calmly while I shot my picture. That will not happen again.
When I was riding by the volcano, it started smoking real heavily. This excited me because I thought I was going to witness a major eruption and I have always wanted to see one. I didn't want to see anything of Krakatau magnitude but I did want to hear explosions and feel the earth tremble. Alas, it was not meant to be. By the time I stopped my bike to take a picture, the angry volcano had relaxed a bit and was no longer pumping out large amounts of ash. Maybe, I will get to see something like this in South America.
After I arrived in the town of Fortuna, Costa Rica, I was very surprised to run into Sjaak, the very first cycle tourist whom I met in Zacatecas, Mexico. I thought he would be well into South America by now. I felt bad that I had to cut our conversation short but the sun was about to set and I had to get out of the tourist-trap town. It is always a bad sign if you are in a Spanish speaking country and, yet, all the signs are in English. There are also lots of expensive looking hotels with views of the volcano along the road. I got out of the city with about 30 minutes to spare and am now camped on the edge of some kind of orchard. I can not identify the trees which have all been planted in rows here. Maybe they bear some kind of nut. Anyway, I would have a good view of Arenal if it wasn't shrouded in clouds, again.
Day 209 ta:3615 kt: 69.5 gps: N 10°20.794' W 84°14.678'
I have been slacking off recently but I have a nice punishment planned for tomorrow: I get to start my day off with at least 5,000 of ascent. Woo hoo! The mountains to my south look imposing and intimidating being cloaked in clouds. A number of people tried to give me directions for an easier way to San Jose from Ciudad Quezada but I paid them no heed because I would rather suffer a little and go on the more scenic, mountainous route.
There were a bunch of red-winged blackbirds on the side of the road today. They are supposed to migrate as far north as Texas but I have never seen one there before.
Right now, I am camped above the Rio Toro underneath the bridge that passes over it. The rapids here have the muddy appearance of volcano run-off. The water has stained the rocks on the edge a coffee color. It really makes me want to take up kayaking.
Day 210 ta:7395 kt: 74.2 gps: N 9°56.277' W 84°04.480'
Day 211 I stayed in San Jose
Day 212 ta: kt:14.8 gps: N 9°50.927' W 84°05.976'
Near the beginning of my day riding towards San Jose, I found a hummingbird on the side of the road. It actually willingly perched on my finger when I went to pick it up. If it was sick, I didn't want it to die the undignified death of being splattered by a semi. Eventually, after I tried to get it to perch on a barbed wire fence, it flew off on its own as if nothing were wrong.
I knew that I was going to have to pay for my sin of sloth and, boy, did I suffer. I actually ascended more in one day than I have ever done before. There were several times when I had to stop and ring about a pint of sweat out of my shirt. Despite my suffering, the ride was beautiful. The whole area between the town of San Miguel and San Jose is mostly undeveloped cloudforest. There is some development along the side of the road but it is mostly untouched. I even passed by a couple of pristine waterfalls that are right next to the road.
I didn't get to San Jose until after nightfall because of my all-day-long ascent. Arriving in a large metropolitan area at night is not my favorite thing to do but it is a necessary evil sometimes. I had to come to San Jose because I needed to look for replacement parts for my bike and camelbak. I did manage to find the hostel where I wanted to stay but not without riding through some sketchy areas of town filled with the usual suspects of glue-sniffers and thuggish looking people.
The place where I stayed is called Tranquilo Backpackers. It is in downtown San Jose and was a pretty good value for my $10 a night. They whip up a bunch of pancake batter every morning for all of the guest to make their own pancakes. It is kind of fun to see the disasters that some people cook up. They have free internet and the first steel-stringed guitars that I have seen in all of Latin America. Most importantly, they have a kitten. I could see myself being comfortable at this place for a while but that $10 can add up fast.
As usual, I didn't actually leave the city until real late. I discovered some loose screws with stripped nuts that I felt that I had to replace. This of course, took more time to do than I anticipated because it was hard to remove the old screw. I also promised a guy from Singapore that I would fetch a pair of sunglasses for him because he like the pair that I had just purchased. That being said, I barely made it out of the city. I am now camped in a banana/coffee plantation right now hoping that I don't get discovered. Because I am crazy and a glutton for punishment, I think I am going to ride straight through the highest part of the country over the next couple of days.
Day 213 ta:1744 kt: 16.1 gps: N 9°46.527' W 84°04.247'
Day 214 ta: 2796 kt:18.1 gps: N 9°44.596' W 83°58.337'
I haven't travelled much in the last few days but I did read over 300 pages of a book and finish it. I have become a voracious reader on this trip. Already, I have probably tripled the number of books that I have read since I graduated college four years ago. I have been reading so much that it has slowed me down every time I have a good book.
The mountains where I am at are covered in coffe plantations. If they aren't covered in coffee plantations they are covered in cloudforests. It is mostly cool and misty where I am at right now. I might top out at over 10,000 feet tomorrow so I expect it to be downright cold. I will probably have to dig out my cold weather gear. I am already wearing my full length bicycle tights.
Yesterday, I passed the satellite dish that I believe scientists use to try to communicate with extraterrestrial life forms. It was huge, at least 50 feet across. Shortly afterwards, I saw a turquoise-browed motmot. It has a funny name but it is a beautiful bird. It is the national bird of Nicaragua but they live in Costa Rica, too.
My flashlight has become my latest gear casualty. It barely gives off any light at all and bleeds the battery after I turn it off. I don't think that there is a single piece of gear that I can't destroy on a bicycle tour.
Day 215 ta: 4890 kt: 89.4 gps: N 9°22.461' W 83°42.183'
Day 216 ta: 1075 kt: 32.9 gps: N 9°15.296' W 83°30.427'
Yesterday, I climbed to the top of el Cerro de la Muerte which means the Hill of Death. It seems like a pretty ironic name since the place is overgrown with plant life. I topped out just 8 feet shy of 11,000 feet. Even in the tropics, it is cold above 10,000 feet. The rain didn't make things any better. It was misty all morning but it actually started raining about 4 hours before sunset. I had finally figured out a comfortable clothing arrangement until it started to raining. I kept my torso covered while I allowed my body to cool through my bicycle tights. The rain fucked that arrangement up. I was able to stay warm until I started to descend but, once I started to descend, I got real cold real fast. I had to stop at a restaurant and have some hot soup and hot tea. I didn't want to get hypothermia. I also put on some extra winter gear for the descent.
The 8,500 feet of descent might have been a lot more fun if the roads weren't slick and I wasn't cold and wet. I had to hold onto my brakes the whole time just to prevent myself from sliding out and losing traction. I used my brakes so much that I had to stop just to give my hands a rest every once and a while. If the conditions were dryer, I would have zoomed down the entire mountain at 50+ kilometer per hour and would have had a hell of a time doing it.
The whole area that I rode through has an almost enchanted feel. All of the forests here are as green as can be. Plants grow on plants which grow on other plants. Occasionally a view of the mountainside with clouds rolling up the hills would open up. If I wasn't so cold and wet, I would have been mesmerized by the beauty of this place.
I pretty much decided that I was going to ride all the way to the town of San Isidro, Costa Rica, named for the patron saint of farmers. I wanted to stay in a hotel as soon as it started raining. Unfortunately, the sun set before I got there. All those years of riding my bike at night ninja-style without any lights or reflectors paid off as I was able to successfully navigate the highway and avoid vehicles.
I only got a half-day of riding in today as I got enmeshed in the comforts of the city as I have a tendency to do. With about three hours to go until the sun set, it started raining again. Rather than tough it out, I decided to set up camp early. I really get tired of waking up with wet shoes. Hopefully, I can make it to Panama with minimal rain.
Day 217 ta: 2321 kt: 71.1 gps: N 8°57.815' W 83°08.993'
I rather enjoyed a nice leisurely ride through many miles of virgin rainforests today. My favorite part was when the road followed the clay-red colored Rio General. There was even one spot where two twin 200-foot waterfalls flowed into the river. While I was relaxing by the waterfalls, I saw a coati. I should cross into Panama tomorrow. I am expecting more mountains and more cloudforests. The stretches of road that travel from San Miguel to San Jose and then from San Jose to San Vito on the border have been two of the more scenic routes that I have followed.
I read in the news recently that an Arkansas is supposed to give birth for the eighteenth time. I am disgusted. I don't care if the family is debt free. The average American consumes 32 times more resources than the average person in the developing world. Since the world's farmers sell their crops to the highest bidder, people like here are the reason that Haitian children eat mud.
I have also been thinking about Barack Obama's former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. I think he is taking it a little far to say that there is a conspiracy to kill black people with A.I.D.S. but I think he has a point when he says terrorists attack us because we commit acts of terrorism. When our government assassinates a Somali warlord we say it is a necessary strategic elimination. When Hezbollah assassinates a Lebanese leader, we say it is terrorism. When we secretly fly someone to a country that uses torture and don't allow them to communicate with anyone, we call it extreme rendition. When the F.A.R.C. kidnaps someone and holds them for ransom we call it terrorism. I am not saying that these are not terrorist acts, I am saying that we commit terrorist acts, too. There can be no double standards. All is fair in love and war and war is hell. For every terrorist action there is an equal/greater terrorist reaction.
Day 218 ta: 4355 kt: 51.3 gps: N 8°49.079' W 82°51.783'
I planned to cross the border into Panama today but my plans were thwarted by dirt roads and rain. When I arrived at the border, the immigration offices for both countries were already closed.
Just to prove that things operate differently here in Latin America, I am camped at the police station. I asked permission and they said yes. I could have easily crossed into Panama illegally but I am not anxious to find out what kind of bureaucratic delays this could cause. I plan to get my exit and entry stamps when I wake up tomorrow.
The rear hub on my bicycle is loose and it is making me nervous. If it wasn't a sealed hub, I would swear that I needed to regrease and repack the bearings. My wheel jiggles from side to side. I can feel the play in the wheel whenever I go uphill. Hopefully, I will be able to tighten my hub and solve this problem tomorrow morning. If not, I can add sealed hubs to the growing list of bicyle parts that I have ruined in my eleven years as a bicycle commuter. I should be able to make it to David, Panama soon where I should be able to get a new hub.
Day 219 ta:4564 kt: 54.8 gps: N 8°40.140' W 82°37.916'
When I woke up this morning, I had to wait for the Costa Rican and Panamanian immigration offices to open so I played with my rear wheel. I managed to tighten the two bolts on the outside of the wheel and this solved my jiggly wheel problem but now it doesn't seem to spin as well. I think I am going to have to replace the hub.
I had to wait an extra hour for the Costa Rican immigration office to open. Even though the buildings are no more than 200 feet apart, they operate in different time zones. That was no problem. I just went and ate breakfast while I waited. It cost me $25 to enter Panama, about $20 more than I expected. I might as well throw my fucking useless Lonely Planet away because, although it is the newest addition, it is thouroughly outdated by the time it is published. This, fortunately was no problem because I expected to have to pay the Costa Rican immigration office $26 and didn't have to pay anything. I should have plenty of money to make it to David, Panama.
Speaking of money, although the Panamanian standard of living is high, Panama does not suffer from the scourge of too many tourists like Costa Rica does. I immediately realized that the food was about 33% cheaper than in Costa Rica; it is better, too.
I probably rode through my last Central American rainforest today. It is replete with exotic plants, wildlife, and waterfalls cascading down cliffs on the side of the road. Tomorrow I should enter the Pacific lowlands where I expect to see a bunch of boring farms and ranches. Oh well, I should be in Colombia soon.
Dady 220 ta: 1247 kt:70.2 gps: N 8° 24.038' W 82°12.816'
Rain has been the story of my last week. It has rained 5 out of the last 6 days. It rained real hard today. I think that the rainy season is beginning.
I remember when a friend of mine from high school and I would trade irreverent jokes. I would say, "When it rains, God is pissing on us.", and he would reply, "It only rains when the angels masturbate." Ancient cultures prayed to the rain gods but I wonder if the nomadic tribes were among them. Rain is great when you are inside by the fire and you have crops planted but not so great if you are on the back of a horse or on foot in an open plain with no trees. All the rain does then is makes you cold and wet.
I have been a waterlogged nomad for the last week. At 11,000 feet, I had to take precautions against hypothermia. I had to hold my brakes while riding downhill so my wheels wouldn't lock up and slide out from underneath me. A slide-out at 50 kilometers per hour can be deadly and, at the very least, break my hip. It also only seems to rain when I am climbing mountains and it is uncomfortable to wear my rain gear because of all the sweating I do underneath. From now on, I am going to try to do most of my riding before the afternoon because that is when the rain comes in the tropics. I am camped underneath a bridge right now which means that I won't have to use my rain fly for my tent and I will wake up dry and happy.
I read in the news that the Vatican has given its official approval to the belief in extraterrestrial life forms. If only it could approve of contraception.
Day 221 ta: 4133 kt:96.6 gps: N 8°12.151' W 81°30.575'
It didn't rain today and for that I am grateful but, man, was it humid. The air was so dense with moisture that it actually started drizzling without there being a cloud in the sky. I have actually seen this phenomenon a couple of times in Costa Rica as well. It did not rain but it might as well because my shirt, bike shorts, and socks were completely soaked with sweat. To make matters worse, I have developed one of the rashes caused by the excessive moisture and friction in a sensitive, unmentionable area. All I can do is apply appointment to it.
Aside from the heat and humidity, I actually had a good day. I discovered a distinct form of Panamanian music called cantadera. When I heard the music, I had one of those reactions where I geeked out and starting asking as many questions as possible about it. I plan to do some more investigation and buy some pirated CDs soon.
Day 222 ta:2653 kt: 103 gps: N 8°08.214' W 80°41.078'
I had two wildlife highlights today: I saw a large butterfly with purple wings and a live snake. I have seen plenty of snake roadkill but this is, surprisingly, the first live snake that I have seen in Latin America. I did not see if it was a pit viper nor did I try. I am not particularly afraid of snakes but I am wise enough to let them run since I do not carry antivenom as part of my medical kit. Generally, if you make any noise at all when you walk and watch where you step, you won't have any problem with snakes.
After I passed through Santiago, Panama today, the land flattened out and I had a nice strong tailwind. I was flying. If the land remains flat tomorrow and I have the same tailwind, I might try to ride the entire 215 kilometers to Panama City. That is a big if though. If anything, I would like to ride over a hundred kilometers tomorrow so I can get to Panama city before nightfall the next day.
Day 223 ta:1376 kt:64.9 gps: N 8°30.834' W 80°20.954'
Day 224 I stayed in Penonome
Day 225 ta:1520 kt:60.5 gps: N 8°29.871' W 79°57.482'
Whenever I plan on a long day, something always ruins it. The strong tailwind shifted into a strong headwind, I had several flat tires, and my rash graduated from being merely irritating to being painful.
I had the opportunity to learn how to sew my tires shut when the steel wire that gives my tire form seperated from the rubber in another spot. At first, it was frustrating trying to figure out the proper stitching but I eventually figured it out. My rear tire looks bad. Not only have I worn off the treads but I can actually see the thread mesh poking through the rubber. I absolutely need to replace my rear tire in Panama City. It will not last much longer. I also need to replace my rear cassette, chain, and brake pads. I rode around Penonome for a while looking for replacement tires but to no avail.
My bike is not the reason I stopped in Penonome. My rash in the unmentionable place, let's just call it saddle sore, became so painful that it hurt to ride my bike. There is only one cure for saddle sore: get off the saddle and don't wear tight shorts. I rented a room in the cheapest hotel room that I could find and spent a lot of time watching T.V. in my room naked. The day of rest helped me and I can now ride my bike without grimacing in pain.
Panama actually seems to have a culture distinct from other parts of Central America. Children here play baseball instead of soccer, lots of men wear distinct straw hats that look like cowboy hats curved upward at the front, and there seems to be a lot more racial diversity here. There are blacks on the Caribbean side of all Central American countries and there are Asians in all of the big cities but Panama has sizeable minorities of both in all of the towns on the Panamerican highway. Another thing that I noticed is that most of the general stores and restaurants are owned by Asians. There also seem to be larger numbers of indigenous people in Panama than in the other Central American countries with Guatemala being the obvious exception. The Kuna Indians seem to have the most style out of all the Indians I have seen in Central America. I really appreciate all this racial diversity. It all contributes to a very unique culture.
All say several items in the news that were of interest to me. One is that there is a church of the Jedi in Great Britain. The entire religion is based on the philosophical musings of Yoda and the rest of the Jedi Council from the Star Wars movies. George Lucas should be proud that he unintentionally spawned a new religion.
The other article that I saw was an article that stated that the average American wedding cost over $28,000. I was disgusted. That is so wasteful. To put in context, I would like to show how much money this would be if it were invested over a 50 year period at a 10% rate of return which is doable. I estimated up to $30,000 to simplify matters. When I punched the number into an interest rate calculator, it ended up being over three and a half million dollars. Considering that most marriages in the U.S end up in divorce, I would rather keep the money. I would rather have a pepper spray enema than marry one of these golddiggers.
Day 226 ta: 3025 kt: 89.1 gps: N 8°58.976' W 79° 31.494'
Day 227-231 I stayed in Panama City
I made it into Panama City with a few problems but nothing that I couldn't handle. I had to fix a spoke and my rash came back. When I reached the Bridge of the Americas, a cop made me get off my bike and hitchhike across. I was ready to go across but the cops seem to frown on that. There are some gnarly looking ghettos on the other side of the bridge but I didn't have any problems there.
I haven't done anything special here in Panama City. I have just rested and surfed the internet a lot. One day, I rode down to the ghetto and bought a pirated copy of the new Indiana Jones movie. The quality of the movie is terrible but the credits were in French which makes me think that a person snuck a camera into the Canne's film festival in France and filmed the premier of the movie. Go pirates!
My bike was hurting. I replaced the rear tire, rear cassette, chain, brake pads, and rear hub. I am proud to say that this is the very first time that I have destroyed a hub. I am very proud of that accomplishment.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Hitchhiking and Knife-fighting
Day 175-179 I stayed in Tegucigalpa
Day 180 ta:2009 kt:22.1 gps: N 14 degrees 02.636' W 87 degrees 06.017'
I ended up staying in Tegucigalpa out of laziness rather than because I loved it so much. As much as I love the mountains and the beaches, I am a city boy through and through. I like the hustle and bustle of big cities and their cosmopolitan nature. That said, Tegucigalpa seems to be the sketchiest big city that I have visited in Latin America. There are legions of glue-sniffers and generally thuggish looking people all over the city. The cops seemed corrupt in a particularly aggressive way. This is the only place where cops have ever wanted to search my bags. I gave the cop a dirty look and told him to go for it. He would not have found anything anyway. The cops also wanted to search the other tourists that were staying at the place where I stayed. I mostly avoided walking around at night to avoid the drug addicted and uniformed thugs. Fortunately my hotel had cable so I got to watch a lot of movies.
The shampoo that I got for getting rid of the lice did not work very well so I went with the nuclear option of shaving my head. I have gone from looking like a bum to looking like a satanist since I kept my goatee. I bear a striking resemblance to Anton LaVey, the founder of the American Church of Satan. This probably won't help me with the ladies but it will probably help me stay safe since I look kind of scary. Security is more important to me than getting laid anyway. I haven't taken a vow or anything but I am essentially celibate.
I finally managed to break free from the comforts of the city today. I didn't leave until the early afternoon but I am now officially out of the city. The place where I am camping right now has a lovely view of the pine forest outside of Tegucigalpa.
Day 181 ta: 2995 kt: 63.8 gps: N 14 degrees 01.851' W 86 degrees 34.244'
I committed the ultimate sin today: I excepted a ride from someone. There were extenuating circumstances, though. First of all, I only had another 15 kilometers to go until I reached the city of Danli, Honduras. Second of all, the rear tire that I just recently purchased has a manufacturers defect. The steel wire that gives the tire form separated from the rubber causing the innertube to poke out the side and , hence, explode. I could not continue on like this because that would have destroyed all of my innertubes. The holes that this left were unpatchable. As I was pondering my dilemna, a couple in a truck pulled over and offered me a ride before I even had a chance to flag anyone down. They were going all the way to the border but I just wanted to go to Danli since it was a bigger city and I had a better chance of finding a replacement tire there.
As I secretly suspected, I was not able to replace my tires in Danli but the mechanic had a pretty ingenious solution. He used a needle and thread to sew my tire back together. I was skeptical that it would work but he swore that he has done it before and that it lasted for a long time. If they gave out a Nobel Prize for bike repair, I would nominate this mechanic. When I tried to pay him, he told me that he just wanted a soda. I bought to big sodas for him and all of the onlookers at the shop because I was very grateful. I am going to look for new tires whenever possible but I think that my tires will hold for now.
Since I was having a bad day, I decided to spoil myself by staying at a luxurious hotel for about $12 a night. The place had nice large rooms with private bathrooms and hot water. There was even a large television with cable. I watched Kill Bill in Spanish. My favorite part was when they translated "My name is Buck and I like to fuck." to "My name is Buck and that means fun." I wonder how hard it is to get a job translating Hollywood movies into Spanish because I think I could do a significantly better job.
Day 182 ta: 2620 kt: 57.2 gps: N 13 degrees 37.652' W 86 degrees 28.590'
The highlight of my day, besides crossing the border into Nicauragua, was when two men attempted to assault and rob me. I say that they attempted to do this because they weren't actually successful.
When I was climbing a mountain, about four kilometers from the border in the countryside, the two men stopped me. One of them grabbed me from behind holding my buck knife, which I wear on the right side of my belt, while the other stood in front of me and threatened me with a rock. The man behind me had a knife of his own. I immediately placed my right hand on my knife's sheath and placed my left hand on his arm so he couldn't just stab me at will. I essentially ignored the man with the rock because it wasn't a very large rock. I placed all of my attention on the man with the knife or rather on the knife since this man was potentially more dangerous. We all ended up in what could best be described as a standoff for about a minute or so. We were all kind of waiting for someone to do something to break the stalemate. I lied and told them that I didn't have any money. The man with the rock said that he wanted my bicycle and I told him no. To steal my bike would be to steal my dreams and I would rather die than not be able to complete my dreams of riding to Argentina. The standoff would have lasted longer if a truck didn't drive by. The two would-be thieves ran for cover on the side of the road and I immediately unsheathed my knife so I was better prepared for a knife-fight. The truck kept on going without stopping but I don't think that the two men were ready for a duel to the death. After I brandished my own knife, they kept their distance. After cursing them out, I decided it was best that I didn't stay around and challenge them so I continued up the hill with the knife in my hand, looking back to make sure that they weren't following me.
I think that these men weren't very hardened thieves. They probably expected me to be a cowardly gringo who would beg for my life and give them everything that I had. They were wrong. From now on, I am going to watch my back more carefully when I am ascending hills because these men surprised me. If I were going down a hill, I would have zoomed by so fast that they would not have seen me coming. I things considered, I came out of this situation pretty well. I was unharmed, they didn't take anything, and I didn't have to stab anyone. I still haven't changed my opinion that the drivers here are more dangerous than the criminals.
When I made it to Nicauragua, it started raining but stopped long enough for me to reach the town of Ocotal where I found a room for about $2 a night. It started raining again shortly after I arrived in the city. I saw the sun setting while it was still raining for the first time of my life. It was incredible. The sun was almost a blood red color. I have watched many sun sets before but I have never seen one quite like this one.
Day 183 ta:3670 kt: 78.4 gps: N 13 degrees 05.055' W 86 degrees 21.384'
Today was a delightfully uneventful day. None of my innertubes exploded, I didn't get into any knife-fights, and I wasn't skullfucked by anyone. In fact, a Nicauraguan congressmen pulled over in his S.U.V., handed me his card, and told me to call him if I had any problems. I have friend in high places here in Nicauragua now.
When I reached the city of Estelì, I had drank a lot of water because it was very hot and I ended up hanging out long enough at a restaurant and then an internet cafe that, before I knew it, it was only an hour before sunset. I then went downtown and found a cheap place to stay.
Estelì has some interesting murals and public monuments. There is a statue of a Sandinista holding a machine gun in one hand and a molotov cocktail in the other. There was also a mural that functioned as a public service announcement. It exhorted women to get regular pap smears for early detection of cervical cancer. I will take some pictures tomorrow morning when the light is better.
Day 184 ta: 2658 kt: 142 gps: N 12 degrees 26.206' W 86 degrees 52.535'
I feel like I have been going through my own personal Trials of Hercules recently with the exploding tires and knife-fights and all. Today was no different. Before I left Estelì for Leon, a man told me that there was a more direct route to Leon that was all dirt road. He also told me that the main road to Leon had a lot of pot holes. I told him that I would prefer the road with potholes if there was pavement. I was second guessing my decision after I was actually on this road. It was mostly potholes and not much of a road. Combined with the fact that it was ridiculously hot and I there weren't any places to eat, it was a pretty hard day. I ate mostly cookies and almonds and must have drank about 8 liters of water. I drank another 2 liters of soda on top of that. I used a sugar rush to ride the last 30 kilometers to Leon. I sweated so much that there were salt stains in my T-shirt. On top of the 140+ kilometers in 100 degree heat that I rode, I had to ride about a half kilometer through thick smoke from the fires that farmers set using slash-and-burn agriculture. I am going to enjoy the next few days in Leon.
Day 180 ta:2009 kt:22.1 gps: N 14 degrees 02.636' W 87 degrees 06.017'
I ended up staying in Tegucigalpa out of laziness rather than because I loved it so much. As much as I love the mountains and the beaches, I am a city boy through and through. I like the hustle and bustle of big cities and their cosmopolitan nature. That said, Tegucigalpa seems to be the sketchiest big city that I have visited in Latin America. There are legions of glue-sniffers and generally thuggish looking people all over the city. The cops seemed corrupt in a particularly aggressive way. This is the only place where cops have ever wanted to search my bags. I gave the cop a dirty look and told him to go for it. He would not have found anything anyway. The cops also wanted to search the other tourists that were staying at the place where I stayed. I mostly avoided walking around at night to avoid the drug addicted and uniformed thugs. Fortunately my hotel had cable so I got to watch a lot of movies.
The shampoo that I got for getting rid of the lice did not work very well so I went with the nuclear option of shaving my head. I have gone from looking like a bum to looking like a satanist since I kept my goatee. I bear a striking resemblance to Anton LaVey, the founder of the American Church of Satan. This probably won't help me with the ladies but it will probably help me stay safe since I look kind of scary. Security is more important to me than getting laid anyway. I haven't taken a vow or anything but I am essentially celibate.
I finally managed to break free from the comforts of the city today. I didn't leave until the early afternoon but I am now officially out of the city. The place where I am camping right now has a lovely view of the pine forest outside of Tegucigalpa.
Day 181 ta: 2995 kt: 63.8 gps: N 14 degrees 01.851' W 86 degrees 34.244'
I committed the ultimate sin today: I excepted a ride from someone. There were extenuating circumstances, though. First of all, I only had another 15 kilometers to go until I reached the city of Danli, Honduras. Second of all, the rear tire that I just recently purchased has a manufacturers defect. The steel wire that gives the tire form separated from the rubber causing the innertube to poke out the side and , hence, explode. I could not continue on like this because that would have destroyed all of my innertubes. The holes that this left were unpatchable. As I was pondering my dilemna, a couple in a truck pulled over and offered me a ride before I even had a chance to flag anyone down. They were going all the way to the border but I just wanted to go to Danli since it was a bigger city and I had a better chance of finding a replacement tire there.
As I secretly suspected, I was not able to replace my tires in Danli but the mechanic had a pretty ingenious solution. He used a needle and thread to sew my tire back together. I was skeptical that it would work but he swore that he has done it before and that it lasted for a long time. If they gave out a Nobel Prize for bike repair, I would nominate this mechanic. When I tried to pay him, he told me that he just wanted a soda. I bought to big sodas for him and all of the onlookers at the shop because I was very grateful. I am going to look for new tires whenever possible but I think that my tires will hold for now.
Since I was having a bad day, I decided to spoil myself by staying at a luxurious hotel for about $12 a night. The place had nice large rooms with private bathrooms and hot water. There was even a large television with cable. I watched Kill Bill in Spanish. My favorite part was when they translated "My name is Buck and I like to fuck." to "My name is Buck and that means fun." I wonder how hard it is to get a job translating Hollywood movies into Spanish because I think I could do a significantly better job.
Day 182 ta: 2620 kt: 57.2 gps: N 13 degrees 37.652' W 86 degrees 28.590'
The highlight of my day, besides crossing the border into Nicauragua, was when two men attempted to assault and rob me. I say that they attempted to do this because they weren't actually successful.
When I was climbing a mountain, about four kilometers from the border in the countryside, the two men stopped me. One of them grabbed me from behind holding my buck knife, which I wear on the right side of my belt, while the other stood in front of me and threatened me with a rock. The man behind me had a knife of his own. I immediately placed my right hand on my knife's sheath and placed my left hand on his arm so he couldn't just stab me at will. I essentially ignored the man with the rock because it wasn't a very large rock. I placed all of my attention on the man with the knife or rather on the knife since this man was potentially more dangerous. We all ended up in what could best be described as a standoff for about a minute or so. We were all kind of waiting for someone to do something to break the stalemate. I lied and told them that I didn't have any money. The man with the rock said that he wanted my bicycle and I told him no. To steal my bike would be to steal my dreams and I would rather die than not be able to complete my dreams of riding to Argentina. The standoff would have lasted longer if a truck didn't drive by. The two would-be thieves ran for cover on the side of the road and I immediately unsheathed my knife so I was better prepared for a knife-fight. The truck kept on going without stopping but I don't think that the two men were ready for a duel to the death. After I brandished my own knife, they kept their distance. After cursing them out, I decided it was best that I didn't stay around and challenge them so I continued up the hill with the knife in my hand, looking back to make sure that they weren't following me.
I think that these men weren't very hardened thieves. They probably expected me to be a cowardly gringo who would beg for my life and give them everything that I had. They were wrong. From now on, I am going to watch my back more carefully when I am ascending hills because these men surprised me. If I were going down a hill, I would have zoomed by so fast that they would not have seen me coming. I things considered, I came out of this situation pretty well. I was unharmed, they didn't take anything, and I didn't have to stab anyone. I still haven't changed my opinion that the drivers here are more dangerous than the criminals.
When I made it to Nicauragua, it started raining but stopped long enough for me to reach the town of Ocotal where I found a room for about $2 a night. It started raining again shortly after I arrived in the city. I saw the sun setting while it was still raining for the first time of my life. It was incredible. The sun was almost a blood red color. I have watched many sun sets before but I have never seen one quite like this one.
Day 183 ta:3670 kt: 78.4 gps: N 13 degrees 05.055' W 86 degrees 21.384'
Today was a delightfully uneventful day. None of my innertubes exploded, I didn't get into any knife-fights, and I wasn't skullfucked by anyone. In fact, a Nicauraguan congressmen pulled over in his S.U.V., handed me his card, and told me to call him if I had any problems. I have friend in high places here in Nicauragua now.
When I reached the city of Estelì, I had drank a lot of water because it was very hot and I ended up hanging out long enough at a restaurant and then an internet cafe that, before I knew it, it was only an hour before sunset. I then went downtown and found a cheap place to stay.
Estelì has some interesting murals and public monuments. There is a statue of a Sandinista holding a machine gun in one hand and a molotov cocktail in the other. There was also a mural that functioned as a public service announcement. It exhorted women to get regular pap smears for early detection of cervical cancer. I will take some pictures tomorrow morning when the light is better.
Day 184 ta: 2658 kt: 142 gps: N 12 degrees 26.206' W 86 degrees 52.535'
I feel like I have been going through my own personal Trials of Hercules recently with the exploding tires and knife-fights and all. Today was no different. Before I left Estelì for Leon, a man told me that there was a more direct route to Leon that was all dirt road. He also told me that the main road to Leon had a lot of pot holes. I told him that I would prefer the road with potholes if there was pavement. I was second guessing my decision after I was actually on this road. It was mostly potholes and not much of a road. Combined with the fact that it was ridiculously hot and I there weren't any places to eat, it was a pretty hard day. I ate mostly cookies and almonds and must have drank about 8 liters of water. I drank another 2 liters of soda on top of that. I used a sugar rush to ride the last 30 kilometers to Leon. I sweated so much that there were salt stains in my T-shirt. On top of the 140+ kilometers in 100 degree heat that I rode, I had to ride about a half kilometer through thick smoke from the fires that farmers set using slash-and-burn agriculture. I am going to enjoy the next few days in Leon.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
New Countries, New Hobbies, Mud Roads, and Maintaining Momentum
Day 131 I stayed in Guatemala City
Day 132 ta: 2193 kt:37.7 gps:N 14 degrees 33.533' W 90 degrees 46.448'
Day 133 to 142 I stayed in Antigua
Day 143 ta: 2138 kt: 68.2 gps: N 14 degrees 15.520' W 90 degrees 46.448'
I have spent the last week and a half sitting around and waiting for a new tent part. The vast majority of my time was spent being a lazy little fart. I surfed the internet a lot and watched a lot of movies since the place I was staying at had free internet and free movies.
On my most active day in Antigua, I took the tour to the top of the active volcano named Pacaya. We hiked to the top where there is a large crater of mostly dry lava. Small streams of lava flow out of many cracks at the top. While standing in the crater, it began to rain. Most of the rain vaporized before hitting the hot lava bed. That was pretty cool.
I did a little routine bike maintainance. My rear brake felt like there was no recoil so I replaced the cable housing. This worked like a charm in fixing the problem. The sidewalls of my tires are starting to burst so I taped the insides up with electrical tape hoping to extend their life a little bit. I want to try to sqeeze another 1,000 kilometers into them. I find it unexpected that my brake pads are probably going to outlast my tires.
My ride out of Antigua was quite lovely. First, I had to climb about 2,000 feet over ten kilometers and, then, I rode downhill for the last 58 kilometers. I descended almost 6,000 feet in this long downhill stretch. The temperatures where I am camping are noticably warmer and I am going to have to content with the insects again.
There was another unexpected road hazard today: vomit. While dodging puddles of puke, I saw the source leaning out of a bus and projectile vomiting. I made sure to let her know when I passed. Though not deadly like other road hazards, I did not want to be covered in someone's partially digested lunch.
Day 144 ta: 1546 kt:91.7 gps: N 14 degrees 03.780' W 90 degrees 27.907'
I suffered a mild case of dehydration today. Fortunately, I was only a mile from a town when it happened. Though I have heard many times before that it is bad to drink cold water, 90+ degree water does nothing to quench your thirst on a hot day. I started feeling fatigued at the 85 kilometer mark and was peeing a solid stream of concentrated yellow. I just took extra breaks and tried to satisfy my thirst with the hot water that I had, knowing that the next town was close.
There was a point in the road where there was no bridge and a bunch of boats. The boat operator quoted a price of 50 Quetzals and then doubled it when I was already on the boat. What could I do? I was probably the guy's only fare for the day as the road I was on was infrequently travelled.
Alvaro Colom, the president of Guatemala, has earned my respect by offering to declassify all of the military records from the Guatemalan civil war. This is a step in the right direction for the government to come to terms with the role its military played in the civil war. Of course, the military and right-wing opposition party have condemned this move.
I personally am of the opinion that a democratic government can not have secrets. Usually, they are secrets of an unsavory, antidemocratic nature that would enrage the population. The Freedom of Information Act (F.O.I.A.) of the United States was written with these thoughts in mind but is very limited in its power to shine the light on government activities. The U.S. government can use national security as an excuse to keep documents permanently classified. Unfortunately, the governments darkest and most unsavory secrets are classified thusly. I tried playing devil's advocate to think of a scenario where information should be classified. At first, I thought of keeping the information about invasion forces secret but then I realized that the government has no business invading anyone. Then I thought about keeping the president's security detail secret but I realized that the president shouldn't make anyone so mad that they would go through the trouble of hiring the small army necessary to assassinate him/her.
If I were in power, one of my first moves would be to eliminate the C.I.A. and N.S.C. They are not democratic institutions. A quick look at the history of C.I.A. supported coup d'etats and counterrevolutions should sufficiently prove this. I don't think that C.I.A. agents who die in the line of duty are heroes. They die because they are meddling in affairs that they shouldn't be meddling in.
Since Ralph Nader has entered the election, I might actually vote. He comes the closest to approximating my views. I might end up frustrated with the absentee ballot process, though, and give up. I am, and will always be, unrepentant about voting for Nader in 2000. There was not a large difference between the Bush/Cheney ticket and the Gore " I decry global warming yet live in an opulent mansion that has a larger carbon footprint than a small city/ Lieberman " I'm a war hawk that is endorsing the Republican candidate in 2008" ticket.
Day 145 ta: 2206 kt: 77.1 gps: N 13 degrees 43.651' W 89 degrees 59.014'
It is very hot where I am today and I drank a lot of water because I did not want to repeat yesterday's flirtation with dehydration. I can't wait to climb back into the mountains.
Crossing into El Salvador was, to my pleasant surprise, painless and easy. The money changers didn't try to rip me off and, as it turns out, the stamp in my passport is good for Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicauragua. The downside to this is that I only have a little less than two months to enjoy the rest of Central America as I burned a whole month in Guatemala. I haven't noticed a whole lot of differences here though Chicano chic seems to be in fashion among the youth here.
Day 146 ta: 4175 kt:63.1 gps: N 13 degrees 51.664' W 89 degrees 47.474'
So far, El Salvador is not half bad. The travel guide, which I inherited from an Aussie flying to Canada, makes it sound relatively expensive. Granted, I have only camped but I was able to stuff myself at a pupuseria for $1.15 For those of you who don't know. A pupusa is a gordita by another name. The presentation is slightly different, though. A pupusa is sealed and served with a vinager cole slaw while a gordita is open and served by itself.
I underestimated the amount of time it would take to get to Apaneca, El Salvador today. I am camped pretty close to it in a coffee plantation. My campsite is well elevated so I should be pretty snug and cozy in my sleeping bag tonight. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to see la Laguna Verde before I go to el Cerro Verde National Park.
There was an article recently in the New York Times about how the United States imprisons 1 in 99 adults. It imprisons 1 in 35 hispanic men and 1 in 15 African-American men. I just wanted to make a couple of points about these statistics. First of All, our government should not imprison nonviolent offenders. The powers that be can come up with better, more creative solutions for drug offenders , thieves, and the likes. Second of all, I do not believe that blacks and hispanics commit crimes at a higher rate than white people. I believe that their higher rate of imprisonment rather reflects systemic racial profiling by police and their lack of quality legal representation due to their higher rates of poverty. In fact, I am willing to bet that if you did this same study using family income as an indicator, you would probably discover that poor people are imprisoned at a rate similar to blacks and hispanics. Ask any homeless person in the U.S. and I am sure that he will tell you that being poor in the United States is, indeed, a crime. Any why imprison so many people anyway? So we can have higher crime rates than Europe and most of Asia. I am tired of seeing the government resort to the same old, facile, "tough on crime" solutions to the problems associated with crime. Maybe we should attack poverty through expanded educational opportunities instead.
Day 147 ta:2446 kt:48.8 gps: N 13 degrees 42.924' W 89 degrees 43.277'
Day 148 ta: 3242 Kt:68.1 gps: N 13 degrees 42.595' W 89 degrees 12.708'
Day 149 and 150 I stayed in San Salvador
Day 151 ta: 1371 kt: 58.1 gps: N 14 degrees 07.654' W 89 degrees 08.923'
As usual, things don't always go as planned, or rather, plans change. I wanted to go to Cerro Verde National Park but I got sidetracked. I did manage to see la Laguna Verde but I wasn't overly impressed.
On the way to Cerro Verde, I stopped in a town called Juayùa where I found out that there is a weeked gastronomic fair. I, of course, had to stay because I figured that I might discover some new foods. There was one food that was new to me. It was called a rigua and consists of fresh corn pressed of all of its liquids, cooked inside a banana leaf, and then grilled. It was good but didn't change my life.
I didn't make it out of Juayùa until the early afternoon but it was still enough time to make it to the National Park. The only problem was that the entrance was not well marked. I missed it when I was zooming down a long hill.
When I rode into San Salvador, I thought it would be nice to stay for a couple of days. I didn't do too much other than watch T.V., surf the net, and talk with fellow travellers. I figure that I earn the right to some serious downtime since I exert myself so much on the road.
San Salvador didn't seem much worse than any other large city in Latin America. Contrary to its reputation, there are not large groups of Maras lurking around every corner. In fact, the city has many large American-style shopping malls filled with U.S. based chains. San Salvador is more prosperous than one might expect. The area around the central market seemed a little sketchy but I had a good time getting myself lost in the labryntine hallways.
It seems like the relationship between Colombia and Ecuador and Venezuela is deterioration after Colombia crossed into Ecuadoran territory to kill a senior F.A.R.C. commander. Both Ecuador and Colombia have mobilized troops on the border but I don't think that it is any more than chest-beating and posturing. This may not be front page news in the U.S. but it dominates headlines in Latin America. I don't think that this will affect my travel plans but I will, nonetheless, be monitoring the situation closely.
Day 152 ta: 4198 kt: 48.1 gps: N 14 degrees 26.224' W 89 degrees 10.997'
Day 153 ta: 4076 kt: 42.1 gps: N 14 degrees 31.276' W 88 degrees 56.936'
Crossing into Honduras yesterday was quite easy. I have developed a system for dealing with money changers: I make them quote how much money they will give me and I don't show them the money until I agree to their terms. I am always ready to walk away. I think that I will start gathering a group of them and let them compete for money. The only surprise for me was that I had to pay the Honduran entry tax in a Salvadoran government building.
I stayed the night at a hotel since the lodging is cheap. They had a television with cable and the other patrons and I ended up watching a bunch of American movies dubbed in Spanish. Good fun was had by all.
I got a late start because I was working on trying to solve the problem of my rapidly deteriorating tires. My solution has been to contact as many bike shops and hotels as possible that are south of my present location until I can find someone who can receive my tires for me. Hopefully, I will solve this problem by the time I make it to Colombia.
The area I rode through today is a legitimate cloud forest. After ascending to 5,000 feet, I could barely see more than a 100 feet ahead as I was right in the middle of the clouds. Of course, jackass drivers still pass in the opposing lane even though they have no visibility whatsoever. When I finally got to the top of Honduras's highest paved road, I was rewarded with the strongest headwind I have ever experienced. Judging by the movement of the clouds, I was in the midst of a wind that was moving by at least 20 miles per hour. I couldn't rest my bike on its kickstand it was so strong. Fortunately, the wind was only at the very top. I rather enjoyed my descent. I rode past lots of wildflowers. Many villagers had planted extensive orchid gardens as this is the ideal climate for them. They were quite lovely. I am looking forward to going through more cloudforests in Honduras.
Day 154 ta:4138 kt:51.3 gps: N 14° 47.562' W 88° 46.781'
I have been slacking. In all fairness to myself, I have done of 4,000 feet of ascent the last three days in a row. Maybe I subconsciously want to enjoy the mountains for what they are worth. I take frequent breaks just to stare reverently at the stunning scenery.
I should probably make it more of a point to eat prepared meals whenever possible in more rural areas. I ended up ascending a mountain for another 20 kilometers today after I had the opportunity to eat earlier on. By the time I reached the top, I was running on fumes.
Day 155 ta:2812 kt:82 gps: N 15° 17.347' W 88° 29.884'
I had several flats today caused by faulty rim tape. It kept sliding over and exposing the innertube to the spokes. The first time I just replaced a section of the rim tape. This only made the problem worse and caused a second flat. The second time I replaced all of the rim tape with a double layer of electrical tape. It is holding now and, hopefully, I will be able to make it to San Pedro Sula, Honduras by tomorrow. It is a large city so I should be able to remedy the problem there. I also discovered that two of the innertunes that I was carrying were nonfunctional trash. They were labeled "German type" valves and looked like prestivalve tubes from the drawing on the box but I should have examined them further. I should have examined them when I purchased them. Oh well, they were cheap. I am now down to one innertube and a hundred patches.
It seems like the standoff between Colombia and Venezuela and Ecuador has cooled off somewhat. Moreover Colombia killed another senior F.A.R.C. commander or, rather, a defector brought in the severed hand of said leader to prove his death. I am somewhat worried that we might soon see a F.A.R.C. counteroffensive of shelling of major cities or, worse for me, and increase in kidnappings.I continue to monitor the situation. I hope that the Colombian government doesn't think that it can successfully defeat the F.A.R.C. by killing off all of its senior commanders. Instead, this will only accelerate its transition from Marxist insurgency to drug cartel. This transition has already been occuring since before the fall of the Medellin Cartel. The F.A.R.C. would also probably lose its Colombian identity and become a destabilizing force in all of the Andean nations. They will go whereever the enforcement is laxest or most easily bribed. The F.A.R.C. will only disappear when the insatiable demand for cocaine from the United STates decreases. That will never happen because that would require an intelligent drug policy that attacks demand instead of supply. Our current strategy is the complete opposite of that and puts food on the table of many a drug baron.
Day 156 ta:2729 kt:78 gps: N 15° 29.921' W 88° 00.624'
Day 157 ta: 1568 kt: 63.4 gps: N 15° 34.604' W 87° 36.903'
Getting to San Pedro Sula was simple enough. The road to the city was mostly flat and it wasn't ridiculously hot and humid like the guidebook promised. The highlight of my day was when a young boy, who belonged to the owners of a restuarant where I ate, exclaimed, "Hombre feo." or ugly man and hit me in the back of the head. I shot him a very dirty look and he didn't bother me again.
In all fairness to the little boy, I am starting to look a little grungy. My beard now measures over 3 inches and my moustache is sun-bleached. I am starting to enjoy my vagabond experience. It still isn't enough to keep the beggars and conmen away, though. They only see my pale skin. My goal is to be so grungy looking that beggars give me money.
When I arrived in San Pedro Sula, I immediately made some new friends. When I was on the side of the road, looking at a map of the city, I met Nora and Luis Fernando, an elementary school teacher and her grandson respectively. Nora helped me find a bike shop and offered a place to stay for the night. I got lost looking for her place. All of the streets are numbered but it turns out there was more than one intersection of 7th Street and 14 Avenue in the quadrant of the city that I was in. I eventually was able to find her house by asking directions along the way. I almost ended up in one of those tragicomic situations like Clark Griswold in American Vacation where he takes a wrong turn and asks directions in a bad neighborhood only to have all of his hubcaps stolen. To limit the possibility of this happening, I only asked from people who were on the job: a security guard, a taxi driver, and a group of policemen. The latter group bought me some sugar cane juice and told me I was in a dangerous neighborhood which was pretty obvious from all of the thuggish looking kids walking around. I ended up with a machine gun escort to Nora's house so I felt pretty safe.
I found out after the fact that San Pedro Sula is where the most infamous Mara Salvatrucha massacre took place where a group of men machine-gunned 27 bus riders to there death for no apparent reason other than to gain notoriety. What I did not know is that this massacre occured two days before Christmas. Most of the victims were returning from Christmas shopping for their families. That is fucked up. This massacre was recently in the news again because a court just convicted the two men charged with orquestrating the massacre.
I left San Pedro Sula pretty late today after surfing the internet and eating brunch. The scenery was flat and uninteresting until I crossed through a crossroads at the town of El Progreso. Afterwards, the flat terrain was replaced by jungle mountains with crystal clear streams of water flowing down the slopes every kilometer or so. I am camped next to one of these lovely streams right now, staying out of the rain. The rain is not super heavy but it hasn't relented for the last hour or so. Hopefully, it will stop raining by the morning.
Day 158 ta: 2111 kt: 138 gps: N 15° 47.179' W 86° 47.581'
Day 159 ta: 53 kt:6.8 gps: N 16° 05.547' W 86° 53.502'
Day 160-167 I stayed in Utila
Day 168: ta:1243 kt:54 gps: N 15° 41.545' W 86°30.265'
Day 169 ta:1274 kt: 59.2 gps: N 15° 26.668' W 86° 22.571'
I wanted to get to Utila as fast as possible so I could find a dorm before the rush of Semana Santa vacationers arrived. I knew that all of the beach towns were going to fill up and that all of the banks were going to close. Being that this was a potentially disastrous situation, I decided it was better to hunker down in one place for a while.
I was interested in scuba diving but the cheapskate in me was saying that maybe I would just snorkel since it was cheaper. As soon as I put my face in the pristine water though, I knew that I was about to spend a lot of money on my scuba certification. I even took the advanced course so I can dive deeper and at night.
The coral reef here is an extension of the Belizian reef which is the second largest in the world after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. When you first peer into the clear blue Carribean waters, an explosion of shapes and colors overwhelms the senses. Fishes of every color swim through coral formations of every shape and size. I saw parrot fishes, angel fishes, damsel fishes, stingrays, starfishes, barracudas, sea cucumbers, porcupine fishes, groupers, and many, many more fishes representing the entire spectrum of the rainbow. After spending a lot of time underwater. I am officially hooked. I now want to dive in the Phillipines, Indonesia, and many other places.
Utila is an interesting place that attracts an interesting assortment of people. The islanders mostly speak English with a Carribean accent but many speak Spanish as well. Scuba diving attracts people of all sorts. I roomed with party animals and Mormons. A couple of doors down, there was a small contingent of U.S. Army soldiers who were stationed in Honduras. Throw in a bunch of Europeans, some Canadiens, and Latin Americans and we were all one big happy family. One of the soldiers told me I was the craziest man that he ever met which surprised me because I figured that he would probably know some marine who base jumps into war zones or something like that. He gave me the number for the U.S. Army base in Honduras in case I need to be evacuated in an emergency. Hopefully, that won't be necessary.
I am now back on the road. It seems like the rainy season is fast approaching as it started sprinkling and then pouring in the afternoon. I decided to wait the rain out instead of use my rain gear. If it starts to rain every day, which I think it might, I will probably start carrying my rain gear at the ready and ride in the rain. I am warm and dry right now and grateful for being so.
When I was setting up camp today a woman came and told me I was in a dangerous place to camp. To emphasize her point, she told me that the authorities had found a dead body in the same general area. I wasn't too scared since I figured that the body was dumped there rather than murdered on site. To allay her fears , though, I moved my still empty tent behind some bushes where it was better hidden. She even checked in on me later. I have a guardian angel.
Day 170 ta:2684 kt: 38.6 gps: N 15° 17.357' W 86° 30.320'
Some days are smooth sailing with lots of flat ground and beautiful weather. Today was not one of those days. It rained most of the day and when it wasn't raining it was infernally hot and steamy causing me to peel off all of my raingear. To call the road that I rode on a dirt road would be too generous of a description. It was more of a mud road. When I asked a policeman which road to take to La Union he pointed at this road and my heart just sank. I saw buses riding down it though and I figured I could make it if they could make it. I am sure glad that my new tires were knobbies and not slicks. My traction was pretty good on most of the road but there were parts where I was sloshing around in mud pits. My favorite part of the day was when I came to a fork in the road that had no clearly labeled signs pointing the right direction to La Union. I took a guess, chose one direction, and asked the first people that I saw if I was following the right direction. They told me I was so I didn't have to turn around. I am now sitting in my tent and wearing dry clothes and hoping that it doesn't rain anymore tonight.
Day 171 ta: 2168 kt: 30.3 gps: N 15° 06.263' W 86° 34.087'
I woke up this morning to yet more rain. After several long ascents, I had sweated so much that my rain gear was practically useless. When I finally found a place to eat, I stayed for and extended period of time so I could dry off and ate four portions of food since I had been subsisting off of cookies and almonds since the morning before. After I finally made myself leave, I managed to reach the leeward side of the mountain where it obviously hadn't rained in the last couple of days because the cars still kicked up dust. I am hoping that there is no more rain on the 100 kilometers or so of dirt road that remains. I was pretty miserable when I was cold, wet, and hungry. I am a firm believer that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.
Day 172 ta:2441 kt: 48.2 gps: N 14° 52.240' W 86° 39.531'
Day 173 and 174 I stayed in Tegucigalpa
It rained a little bit at night but, other than that, it was dry all day. Thank the lord, Hallelujah. I rejoiced in not having to wear my rain gear. Once you sweat inside your clothes in the cold mountains, your raingear is useless. The towns are getting bigger which means there are more places to eat but there is still no pavement. In most of the villages here they never see white people. When I roll up on my bicycle, it is like I am a rock star and circus all rolled up into one. I am usually swarmed by locals asking about my trip. My belly was happily full or I might have bristled at all of the attention.
I am camped right now on the top of a hill on the side of the road underneath a moss covered pine tree. Tomorrow, I am determined to reach pavement again. I hope to celebrate my birthday in civilization.
Day 173 ta:3404 kt: 69.8 gps: N 14°32.543' W 86° 43.109'
I reached pavement today. Yay!! I think I now know how a sailor who has been lost at sea feels like the first time he sees land. All told, the road was about 143 kilometers of bone-rattling, tick-infested, desolate, and muddy hellishness. If my useless travel guide or GPS had given me better warning, I might have avoided the road altogether but I am stronger for having survived it. I will say, though, that it sure did feel good to go down a hill with no brakes again after I finally left the dirt.
Some of the internet cafes in the countryside might as well be filled with typewriters. They are that useless. It would often take 10 minutes for a page to load if it loaded at all. When I get to Tegucigalpa, I am going to find a true high-speed internet connection so I can watch Youtube videos to my heart's content.
It seems to me that people everywhere are so irrationally afraid. Their eyes bug out in shock when I tell them that I am camping in the countryside. They always tell me that they have found dead bodies in these parts. Usually not even a car passes by in the night. The people who are murdered are usually murdered for a reason. I am just passing through without stepping on anyone's toes. Nevertheless, the locals always seem to believe that the countryside is populated by roving bands of narcosatanists who roam the countryside looking for foreigners to torture, kill, and skullfuck. I haven't been skullfucked yet. Knock on wood. I blame the media for putting the fear in these people's hearts.
Day 174 ta: 5209 kt:111 gps: 14° 06.410' W 87 ° 12.166'
I passed through two different ecosystems today on the way to Tegucigalpa. The first was pine forests and the second, just to the north of the city, looked like it could be somewhere in Texas. It was very much a desert area. I passed through a large shantytown area outside of the city and was eager to get out. I saw what looked like a couple of glue addicts having an argument only for one of them to pick up a huge rock and threaten the other one with it. Fortunately nothing happened. I saw this all from the other side of the street as I had the foresight to cross the road when I saw these two.
When I arrived in the city, the sun was setting and I, of course, arrived in the part of the city that my tourist book referred to as the dangerous part of the city. I soon found out that the whole city is sketchy. This is definitely the sketchiest seeming city in Latin America that I have visited thus far.
I was starving so I stopped at a place that sells baleadas (Honduran bean tacos) and gorged on them. A old homeless man came up to the lady and wanted to buy a baleada but he didn't have the 35 cents necessary to buy one. He was too proud to beg and began to walk away. The lady sold him one for 25 cents instead. I bought him a baleada too as I was feeling kind of guilty after eating 9 and watching him go hungry. The sad thing is that he probably goes hungry every day. I know there is poverty in the United States but we have so much food that we throw away perfectly good food. You have to make an effort to starve in the U.S.
I found out that the itching on my head is indeed lice. I probably picked them up on that dirt road along with a few ticks and dozens of ant and mosquito bites. I bought some shampoo but if I have to, I will go to the nuclear option and shave my head. I will keep the beard and moustache, though, so I can go from a vagabond look to a satanic look. It is nice to stay in a place and not get eaten alive by bugs so I am enjoying a stay of a couple of days here in the capital.
Day 132 ta: 2193 kt:37.7 gps:N 14 degrees 33.533' W 90 degrees 46.448'
Day 133 to 142 I stayed in Antigua
Day 143 ta: 2138 kt: 68.2 gps: N 14 degrees 15.520' W 90 degrees 46.448'
I have spent the last week and a half sitting around and waiting for a new tent part. The vast majority of my time was spent being a lazy little fart. I surfed the internet a lot and watched a lot of movies since the place I was staying at had free internet and free movies.
On my most active day in Antigua, I took the tour to the top of the active volcano named Pacaya. We hiked to the top where there is a large crater of mostly dry lava. Small streams of lava flow out of many cracks at the top. While standing in the crater, it began to rain. Most of the rain vaporized before hitting the hot lava bed. That was pretty cool.
I did a little routine bike maintainance. My rear brake felt like there was no recoil so I replaced the cable housing. This worked like a charm in fixing the problem. The sidewalls of my tires are starting to burst so I taped the insides up with electrical tape hoping to extend their life a little bit. I want to try to sqeeze another 1,000 kilometers into them. I find it unexpected that my brake pads are probably going to outlast my tires.
My ride out of Antigua was quite lovely. First, I had to climb about 2,000 feet over ten kilometers and, then, I rode downhill for the last 58 kilometers. I descended almost 6,000 feet in this long downhill stretch. The temperatures where I am camping are noticably warmer and I am going to have to content with the insects again.
There was another unexpected road hazard today: vomit. While dodging puddles of puke, I saw the source leaning out of a bus and projectile vomiting. I made sure to let her know when I passed. Though not deadly like other road hazards, I did not want to be covered in someone's partially digested lunch.
Day 144 ta: 1546 kt:91.7 gps: N 14 degrees 03.780' W 90 degrees 27.907'
I suffered a mild case of dehydration today. Fortunately, I was only a mile from a town when it happened. Though I have heard many times before that it is bad to drink cold water, 90+ degree water does nothing to quench your thirst on a hot day. I started feeling fatigued at the 85 kilometer mark and was peeing a solid stream of concentrated yellow. I just took extra breaks and tried to satisfy my thirst with the hot water that I had, knowing that the next town was close.
There was a point in the road where there was no bridge and a bunch of boats. The boat operator quoted a price of 50 Quetzals and then doubled it when I was already on the boat. What could I do? I was probably the guy's only fare for the day as the road I was on was infrequently travelled.
Alvaro Colom, the president of Guatemala, has earned my respect by offering to declassify all of the military records from the Guatemalan civil war. This is a step in the right direction for the government to come to terms with the role its military played in the civil war. Of course, the military and right-wing opposition party have condemned this move.
I personally am of the opinion that a democratic government can not have secrets. Usually, they are secrets of an unsavory, antidemocratic nature that would enrage the population. The Freedom of Information Act (F.O.I.A.) of the United States was written with these thoughts in mind but is very limited in its power to shine the light on government activities. The U.S. government can use national security as an excuse to keep documents permanently classified. Unfortunately, the governments darkest and most unsavory secrets are classified thusly. I tried playing devil's advocate to think of a scenario where information should be classified. At first, I thought of keeping the information about invasion forces secret but then I realized that the government has no business invading anyone. Then I thought about keeping the president's security detail secret but I realized that the president shouldn't make anyone so mad that they would go through the trouble of hiring the small army necessary to assassinate him/her.
If I were in power, one of my first moves would be to eliminate the C.I.A. and N.S.C. They are not democratic institutions. A quick look at the history of C.I.A. supported coup d'etats and counterrevolutions should sufficiently prove this. I don't think that C.I.A. agents who die in the line of duty are heroes. They die because they are meddling in affairs that they shouldn't be meddling in.
Since Ralph Nader has entered the election, I might actually vote. He comes the closest to approximating my views. I might end up frustrated with the absentee ballot process, though, and give up. I am, and will always be, unrepentant about voting for Nader in 2000. There was not a large difference between the Bush/Cheney ticket and the Gore " I decry global warming yet live in an opulent mansion that has a larger carbon footprint than a small city/ Lieberman " I'm a war hawk that is endorsing the Republican candidate in 2008" ticket.
Day 145 ta: 2206 kt: 77.1 gps: N 13 degrees 43.651' W 89 degrees 59.014'
It is very hot where I am today and I drank a lot of water because I did not want to repeat yesterday's flirtation with dehydration. I can't wait to climb back into the mountains.
Crossing into El Salvador was, to my pleasant surprise, painless and easy. The money changers didn't try to rip me off and, as it turns out, the stamp in my passport is good for Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicauragua. The downside to this is that I only have a little less than two months to enjoy the rest of Central America as I burned a whole month in Guatemala. I haven't noticed a whole lot of differences here though Chicano chic seems to be in fashion among the youth here.
Day 146 ta: 4175 kt:63.1 gps: N 13 degrees 51.664' W 89 degrees 47.474'
So far, El Salvador is not half bad. The travel guide, which I inherited from an Aussie flying to Canada, makes it sound relatively expensive. Granted, I have only camped but I was able to stuff myself at a pupuseria for $1.15 For those of you who don't know. A pupusa is a gordita by another name. The presentation is slightly different, though. A pupusa is sealed and served with a vinager cole slaw while a gordita is open and served by itself.
I underestimated the amount of time it would take to get to Apaneca, El Salvador today. I am camped pretty close to it in a coffee plantation. My campsite is well elevated so I should be pretty snug and cozy in my sleeping bag tonight. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to see la Laguna Verde before I go to el Cerro Verde National Park.
There was an article recently in the New York Times about how the United States imprisons 1 in 99 adults. It imprisons 1 in 35 hispanic men and 1 in 15 African-American men. I just wanted to make a couple of points about these statistics. First of All, our government should not imprison nonviolent offenders. The powers that be can come up with better, more creative solutions for drug offenders , thieves, and the likes. Second of all, I do not believe that blacks and hispanics commit crimes at a higher rate than white people. I believe that their higher rate of imprisonment rather reflects systemic racial profiling by police and their lack of quality legal representation due to their higher rates of poverty. In fact, I am willing to bet that if you did this same study using family income as an indicator, you would probably discover that poor people are imprisoned at a rate similar to blacks and hispanics. Ask any homeless person in the U.S. and I am sure that he will tell you that being poor in the United States is, indeed, a crime. Any why imprison so many people anyway? So we can have higher crime rates than Europe and most of Asia. I am tired of seeing the government resort to the same old, facile, "tough on crime" solutions to the problems associated with crime. Maybe we should attack poverty through expanded educational opportunities instead.
Day 147 ta:2446 kt:48.8 gps: N 13 degrees 42.924' W 89 degrees 43.277'
Day 148 ta: 3242 Kt:68.1 gps: N 13 degrees 42.595' W 89 degrees 12.708'
Day 149 and 150 I stayed in San Salvador
Day 151 ta: 1371 kt: 58.1 gps: N 14 degrees 07.654' W 89 degrees 08.923'
As usual, things don't always go as planned, or rather, plans change. I wanted to go to Cerro Verde National Park but I got sidetracked. I did manage to see la Laguna Verde but I wasn't overly impressed.
On the way to Cerro Verde, I stopped in a town called Juayùa where I found out that there is a weeked gastronomic fair. I, of course, had to stay because I figured that I might discover some new foods. There was one food that was new to me. It was called a rigua and consists of fresh corn pressed of all of its liquids, cooked inside a banana leaf, and then grilled. It was good but didn't change my life.
I didn't make it out of Juayùa until the early afternoon but it was still enough time to make it to the National Park. The only problem was that the entrance was not well marked. I missed it when I was zooming down a long hill.
When I rode into San Salvador, I thought it would be nice to stay for a couple of days. I didn't do too much other than watch T.V., surf the net, and talk with fellow travellers. I figure that I earn the right to some serious downtime since I exert myself so much on the road.
San Salvador didn't seem much worse than any other large city in Latin America. Contrary to its reputation, there are not large groups of Maras lurking around every corner. In fact, the city has many large American-style shopping malls filled with U.S. based chains. San Salvador is more prosperous than one might expect. The area around the central market seemed a little sketchy but I had a good time getting myself lost in the labryntine hallways.
It seems like the relationship between Colombia and Ecuador and Venezuela is deterioration after Colombia crossed into Ecuadoran territory to kill a senior F.A.R.C. commander. Both Ecuador and Colombia have mobilized troops on the border but I don't think that it is any more than chest-beating and posturing. This may not be front page news in the U.S. but it dominates headlines in Latin America. I don't think that this will affect my travel plans but I will, nonetheless, be monitoring the situation closely.
Day 152 ta: 4198 kt: 48.1 gps: N 14 degrees 26.224' W 89 degrees 10.997'
Day 153 ta: 4076 kt: 42.1 gps: N 14 degrees 31.276' W 88 degrees 56.936'
Crossing into Honduras yesterday was quite easy. I have developed a system for dealing with money changers: I make them quote how much money they will give me and I don't show them the money until I agree to their terms. I am always ready to walk away. I think that I will start gathering a group of them and let them compete for money. The only surprise for me was that I had to pay the Honduran entry tax in a Salvadoran government building.
I stayed the night at a hotel since the lodging is cheap. They had a television with cable and the other patrons and I ended up watching a bunch of American movies dubbed in Spanish. Good fun was had by all.
I got a late start because I was working on trying to solve the problem of my rapidly deteriorating tires. My solution has been to contact as many bike shops and hotels as possible that are south of my present location until I can find someone who can receive my tires for me. Hopefully, I will solve this problem by the time I make it to Colombia.
The area I rode through today is a legitimate cloud forest. After ascending to 5,000 feet, I could barely see more than a 100 feet ahead as I was right in the middle of the clouds. Of course, jackass drivers still pass in the opposing lane even though they have no visibility whatsoever. When I finally got to the top of Honduras's highest paved road, I was rewarded with the strongest headwind I have ever experienced. Judging by the movement of the clouds, I was in the midst of a wind that was moving by at least 20 miles per hour. I couldn't rest my bike on its kickstand it was so strong. Fortunately, the wind was only at the very top. I rather enjoyed my descent. I rode past lots of wildflowers. Many villagers had planted extensive orchid gardens as this is the ideal climate for them. They were quite lovely. I am looking forward to going through more cloudforests in Honduras.
Day 154 ta:4138 kt:51.3 gps: N 14° 47.562' W 88° 46.781'
I have been slacking. In all fairness to myself, I have done of 4,000 feet of ascent the last three days in a row. Maybe I subconsciously want to enjoy the mountains for what they are worth. I take frequent breaks just to stare reverently at the stunning scenery.
I should probably make it more of a point to eat prepared meals whenever possible in more rural areas. I ended up ascending a mountain for another 20 kilometers today after I had the opportunity to eat earlier on. By the time I reached the top, I was running on fumes.
Day 155 ta:2812 kt:82 gps: N 15° 17.347' W 88° 29.884'
I had several flats today caused by faulty rim tape. It kept sliding over and exposing the innertube to the spokes. The first time I just replaced a section of the rim tape. This only made the problem worse and caused a second flat. The second time I replaced all of the rim tape with a double layer of electrical tape. It is holding now and, hopefully, I will be able to make it to San Pedro Sula, Honduras by tomorrow. It is a large city so I should be able to remedy the problem there. I also discovered that two of the innertunes that I was carrying were nonfunctional trash. They were labeled "German type" valves and looked like prestivalve tubes from the drawing on the box but I should have examined them further. I should have examined them when I purchased them. Oh well, they were cheap. I am now down to one innertube and a hundred patches.
It seems like the standoff between Colombia and Venezuela and Ecuador has cooled off somewhat. Moreover Colombia killed another senior F.A.R.C. commander or, rather, a defector brought in the severed hand of said leader to prove his death. I am somewhat worried that we might soon see a F.A.R.C. counteroffensive of shelling of major cities or, worse for me, and increase in kidnappings.I continue to monitor the situation. I hope that the Colombian government doesn't think that it can successfully defeat the F.A.R.C. by killing off all of its senior commanders. Instead, this will only accelerate its transition from Marxist insurgency to drug cartel. This transition has already been occuring since before the fall of the Medellin Cartel. The F.A.R.C. would also probably lose its Colombian identity and become a destabilizing force in all of the Andean nations. They will go whereever the enforcement is laxest or most easily bribed. The F.A.R.C. will only disappear when the insatiable demand for cocaine from the United STates decreases. That will never happen because that would require an intelligent drug policy that attacks demand instead of supply. Our current strategy is the complete opposite of that and puts food on the table of many a drug baron.
Day 156 ta:2729 kt:78 gps: N 15° 29.921' W 88° 00.624'
Day 157 ta: 1568 kt: 63.4 gps: N 15° 34.604' W 87° 36.903'
Getting to San Pedro Sula was simple enough. The road to the city was mostly flat and it wasn't ridiculously hot and humid like the guidebook promised. The highlight of my day was when a young boy, who belonged to the owners of a restuarant where I ate, exclaimed, "Hombre feo." or ugly man and hit me in the back of the head. I shot him a very dirty look and he didn't bother me again.
In all fairness to the little boy, I am starting to look a little grungy. My beard now measures over 3 inches and my moustache is sun-bleached. I am starting to enjoy my vagabond experience. It still isn't enough to keep the beggars and conmen away, though. They only see my pale skin. My goal is to be so grungy looking that beggars give me money.
When I arrived in San Pedro Sula, I immediately made some new friends. When I was on the side of the road, looking at a map of the city, I met Nora and Luis Fernando, an elementary school teacher and her grandson respectively. Nora helped me find a bike shop and offered a place to stay for the night. I got lost looking for her place. All of the streets are numbered but it turns out there was more than one intersection of 7th Street and 14 Avenue in the quadrant of the city that I was in. I eventually was able to find her house by asking directions along the way. I almost ended up in one of those tragicomic situations like Clark Griswold in American Vacation where he takes a wrong turn and asks directions in a bad neighborhood only to have all of his hubcaps stolen. To limit the possibility of this happening, I only asked from people who were on the job: a security guard, a taxi driver, and a group of policemen. The latter group bought me some sugar cane juice and told me I was in a dangerous neighborhood which was pretty obvious from all of the thuggish looking kids walking around. I ended up with a machine gun escort to Nora's house so I felt pretty safe.
I found out after the fact that San Pedro Sula is where the most infamous Mara Salvatrucha massacre took place where a group of men machine-gunned 27 bus riders to there death for no apparent reason other than to gain notoriety. What I did not know is that this massacre occured two days before Christmas. Most of the victims were returning from Christmas shopping for their families. That is fucked up. This massacre was recently in the news again because a court just convicted the two men charged with orquestrating the massacre.
I left San Pedro Sula pretty late today after surfing the internet and eating brunch. The scenery was flat and uninteresting until I crossed through a crossroads at the town of El Progreso. Afterwards, the flat terrain was replaced by jungle mountains with crystal clear streams of water flowing down the slopes every kilometer or so. I am camped next to one of these lovely streams right now, staying out of the rain. The rain is not super heavy but it hasn't relented for the last hour or so. Hopefully, it will stop raining by the morning.
Day 158 ta: 2111 kt: 138 gps: N 15° 47.179' W 86° 47.581'
Day 159 ta: 53 kt:6.8 gps: N 16° 05.547' W 86° 53.502'
Day 160-167 I stayed in Utila
Day 168: ta:1243 kt:54 gps: N 15° 41.545' W 86°30.265'
Day 169 ta:1274 kt: 59.2 gps: N 15° 26.668' W 86° 22.571'
I wanted to get to Utila as fast as possible so I could find a dorm before the rush of Semana Santa vacationers arrived. I knew that all of the beach towns were going to fill up and that all of the banks were going to close. Being that this was a potentially disastrous situation, I decided it was better to hunker down in one place for a while.
I was interested in scuba diving but the cheapskate in me was saying that maybe I would just snorkel since it was cheaper. As soon as I put my face in the pristine water though, I knew that I was about to spend a lot of money on my scuba certification. I even took the advanced course so I can dive deeper and at night.
The coral reef here is an extension of the Belizian reef which is the second largest in the world after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. When you first peer into the clear blue Carribean waters, an explosion of shapes and colors overwhelms the senses. Fishes of every color swim through coral formations of every shape and size. I saw parrot fishes, angel fishes, damsel fishes, stingrays, starfishes, barracudas, sea cucumbers, porcupine fishes, groupers, and many, many more fishes representing the entire spectrum of the rainbow. After spending a lot of time underwater. I am officially hooked. I now want to dive in the Phillipines, Indonesia, and many other places.
Utila is an interesting place that attracts an interesting assortment of people. The islanders mostly speak English with a Carribean accent but many speak Spanish as well. Scuba diving attracts people of all sorts. I roomed with party animals and Mormons. A couple of doors down, there was a small contingent of U.S. Army soldiers who were stationed in Honduras. Throw in a bunch of Europeans, some Canadiens, and Latin Americans and we were all one big happy family. One of the soldiers told me I was the craziest man that he ever met which surprised me because I figured that he would probably know some marine who base jumps into war zones or something like that. He gave me the number for the U.S. Army base in Honduras in case I need to be evacuated in an emergency. Hopefully, that won't be necessary.
I am now back on the road. It seems like the rainy season is fast approaching as it started sprinkling and then pouring in the afternoon. I decided to wait the rain out instead of use my rain gear. If it starts to rain every day, which I think it might, I will probably start carrying my rain gear at the ready and ride in the rain. I am warm and dry right now and grateful for being so.
When I was setting up camp today a woman came and told me I was in a dangerous place to camp. To emphasize her point, she told me that the authorities had found a dead body in the same general area. I wasn't too scared since I figured that the body was dumped there rather than murdered on site. To allay her fears , though, I moved my still empty tent behind some bushes where it was better hidden. She even checked in on me later. I have a guardian angel.
Day 170 ta:2684 kt: 38.6 gps: N 15° 17.357' W 86° 30.320'
Some days are smooth sailing with lots of flat ground and beautiful weather. Today was not one of those days. It rained most of the day and when it wasn't raining it was infernally hot and steamy causing me to peel off all of my raingear. To call the road that I rode on a dirt road would be too generous of a description. It was more of a mud road. When I asked a policeman which road to take to La Union he pointed at this road and my heart just sank. I saw buses riding down it though and I figured I could make it if they could make it. I am sure glad that my new tires were knobbies and not slicks. My traction was pretty good on most of the road but there were parts where I was sloshing around in mud pits. My favorite part of the day was when I came to a fork in the road that had no clearly labeled signs pointing the right direction to La Union. I took a guess, chose one direction, and asked the first people that I saw if I was following the right direction. They told me I was so I didn't have to turn around. I am now sitting in my tent and wearing dry clothes and hoping that it doesn't rain anymore tonight.
Day 171 ta: 2168 kt: 30.3 gps: N 15° 06.263' W 86° 34.087'
I woke up this morning to yet more rain. After several long ascents, I had sweated so much that my rain gear was practically useless. When I finally found a place to eat, I stayed for and extended period of time so I could dry off and ate four portions of food since I had been subsisting off of cookies and almonds since the morning before. After I finally made myself leave, I managed to reach the leeward side of the mountain where it obviously hadn't rained in the last couple of days because the cars still kicked up dust. I am hoping that there is no more rain on the 100 kilometers or so of dirt road that remains. I was pretty miserable when I was cold, wet, and hungry. I am a firm believer that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.
Day 172 ta:2441 kt: 48.2 gps: N 14° 52.240' W 86° 39.531'
Day 173 and 174 I stayed in Tegucigalpa
It rained a little bit at night but, other than that, it was dry all day. Thank the lord, Hallelujah. I rejoiced in not having to wear my rain gear. Once you sweat inside your clothes in the cold mountains, your raingear is useless. The towns are getting bigger which means there are more places to eat but there is still no pavement. In most of the villages here they never see white people. When I roll up on my bicycle, it is like I am a rock star and circus all rolled up into one. I am usually swarmed by locals asking about my trip. My belly was happily full or I might have bristled at all of the attention.
I am camped right now on the top of a hill on the side of the road underneath a moss covered pine tree. Tomorrow, I am determined to reach pavement again. I hope to celebrate my birthday in civilization.
Day 173 ta:3404 kt: 69.8 gps: N 14°32.543' W 86° 43.109'
I reached pavement today. Yay!! I think I now know how a sailor who has been lost at sea feels like the first time he sees land. All told, the road was about 143 kilometers of bone-rattling, tick-infested, desolate, and muddy hellishness. If my useless travel guide or GPS had given me better warning, I might have avoided the road altogether but I am stronger for having survived it. I will say, though, that it sure did feel good to go down a hill with no brakes again after I finally left the dirt.
Some of the internet cafes in the countryside might as well be filled with typewriters. They are that useless. It would often take 10 minutes for a page to load if it loaded at all. When I get to Tegucigalpa, I am going to find a true high-speed internet connection so I can watch Youtube videos to my heart's content.
It seems to me that people everywhere are so irrationally afraid. Their eyes bug out in shock when I tell them that I am camping in the countryside. They always tell me that they have found dead bodies in these parts. Usually not even a car passes by in the night. The people who are murdered are usually murdered for a reason. I am just passing through without stepping on anyone's toes. Nevertheless, the locals always seem to believe that the countryside is populated by roving bands of narcosatanists who roam the countryside looking for foreigners to torture, kill, and skullfuck. I haven't been skullfucked yet. Knock on wood. I blame the media for putting the fear in these people's hearts.
Day 174 ta: 5209 kt:111 gps: 14° 06.410' W 87 ° 12.166'
I passed through two different ecosystems today on the way to Tegucigalpa. The first was pine forests and the second, just to the north of the city, looked like it could be somewhere in Texas. It was very much a desert area. I passed through a large shantytown area outside of the city and was eager to get out. I saw what looked like a couple of glue addicts having an argument only for one of them to pick up a huge rock and threaten the other one with it. Fortunately nothing happened. I saw this all from the other side of the street as I had the foresight to cross the road when I saw these two.
When I arrived in the city, the sun was setting and I, of course, arrived in the part of the city that my tourist book referred to as the dangerous part of the city. I soon found out that the whole city is sketchy. This is definitely the sketchiest seeming city in Latin America that I have visited thus far.
I was starving so I stopped at a place that sells baleadas (Honduran bean tacos) and gorged on them. A old homeless man came up to the lady and wanted to buy a baleada but he didn't have the 35 cents necessary to buy one. He was too proud to beg and began to walk away. The lady sold him one for 25 cents instead. I bought him a baleada too as I was feeling kind of guilty after eating 9 and watching him go hungry. The sad thing is that he probably goes hungry every day. I know there is poverty in the United States but we have so much food that we throw away perfectly good food. You have to make an effort to starve in the U.S.
I found out that the itching on my head is indeed lice. I probably picked them up on that dirt road along with a few ticks and dozens of ant and mosquito bites. I bought some shampoo but if I have to, I will go to the nuclear option and shave my head. I will keep the beard and moustache, though, so I can go from a vagabond look to a satanic look. It is nice to stay in a place and not get eaten alive by bugs so I am enjoying a stay of a couple of days here in the capital.
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