Three Quick Countries

El Salvador

El Salvador was a country I was looking forward to a lot. A country that used to be deemed extremely unsafe and dangerous had in recent years turned around a lot thanks to new leadership. It was a country heading in the right direction and I had heard great things about the landscape, the people, and especially the pupusas (a wonderful El Salvadorian food).

I only made it about 50 meters before stopping for my first pupusas. A pupusa is like a very thick tortilla but with delicious fillings. My favorite was a simple bean and cheese filling, but you could get many other things such as a variety of meats. Then you would get a flavorful pickled cabbage salad and a spicy tomato salsa to pile on top of. All for the wonderful price of $0.50 each. I would eat pupusas every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

It was a short ride from the border to a beach town where my friends, Hugo and Elisa, would be. They had said there was a nice restaurant that hosted cyclists for free.

I had found them already here and sleeping on the beach. After catching up quickly I ran into the ocean for a wonderful rinse off. The water this far south is just wonderful. Not cold and not warm, but just the perfect temperature.

The restaurant is also a turtle rescue. There was a large group tour releasing some baby turtles and we were welcomed to join them. I will never get over just how cute these little guys are.

We spent the evening relaxing and enjoying the beach until the sun went down. We were told by the restaurant owners that as soon as all the guests left, we could move around tables in the restaurant and setup our tents.

I opted to sleep in my hammock of course.

A wonderful sunrise. You can see some large cargo ships in the background because we were close to one of the large ports in El Salvador.

These two sweet little chihuahuas were running around in the morning. We later learned they are mama and papa to two immensely cute little puppies.

The aforementioned immensely cute little puppies.

Also in the morning the turtle rescue was releasing about 300 more baby turtles that had hatched in the night. This was really special because it was just us and the worker.

For no other reason than it is what they must do, these little fellas charge head-on into the hardest challenge in their lives. Ahead of them, they will face countless predators with pretty much no means of defense while they are young.

It was quite a nice morning full of animals. The best way to start a day in my opinion. Hugo + Elisa and I had ridden separately to get here but we decided to travel together from here until our paths go separate ways.

The beginning had some fast and straight roads, but it would soon turn into a coastal and mountainous route along a wonderful section of the El Salvadorian coast.

Coconuts are the best fuel for biking in this heat (35C).

There were lots of rivers coming from the mountains and heading to the ocean. One great thing about El Salvador was that the rivers were starting to get much cleaner compared to Guatemala. The pollution here was noticeably much better.

We arrived at a hostel called Hammock Plantation where we decided to stay for two nights to enjoy the beach some more. I wanted really bad to sleep in my hammock here, but sadly I was not allowed to.

There were a few hostel cats here and they were also big fans of the hammocks.

The local beach near the hostel. After the hot day and lots of climbing, we cooled off in the ocean. While swimming a local introduced himself and talked to us for a while. He was born in El Salvador but moved to The States a few decades ago when El Salvador was not safe. He still lived in the States with his family and children but was visiting for vacation. He was extremely nice and wanted to talk to us about the history and progress of El Salvador. It was something very common among El Salvadorians, they were very proud of the current state of their country and they were very welcoming to tourists.

There were these natural pools built into the side of the cliffs.

We walked along the cliffs to the next cove. There were lots of vacation and rental properties here. This is a very small section of the El Salvadorian coast and it is very popular and busy.

After a day off, we continued our ride along the coast.

The coastal riding was short lived and we soon had to head inland. We wouldn’t be seeing the coast again until the Nicoya Peninsula of Coast Rica, two countries away. We had to hop on the PanAmerican but amazingly, this section had a bike lane.

We had seen on our map that there was a very large river that we thought would be a great place to camp on.

After eating pupusas, we hiked down below the train bridge and found a perfect area to set up the tents, far enough away from the highway to be quiet.

It was a wonderful campsite, except for the fact the wind was incredibly strong and loud. I had tried to sleep in my hammock but had to get out in the night and setup my tent to sleep in because the wind was just too much for the hammock.

Biking through one of the cities in El Salvador. Right after taking this photo a very kind security guard handed us all many bottles of water for free.

We made it to a small town in the mountains. We saw a large soccer field and went in to ask if we could camp in a nearby grassy parking lot. We met an incredibly kind person named Jorge. He was born in El Salvador but moved to The States a few decades ago during the turmoil in El Salvador. He had gone there with nothing and through extreme hard work and determination, he was now very successful and was at the head of a large construction company in Texas. He had a great way of staying motivated and was very charismatic. He helped take care of us and got us a place to camp and access to some bathrooms and a shower. We talked to him for a bit and heard a lot of his story before going to eat many pupusas and calling it a night.

Camping at the soccer fields. This was our last night in El Salvador. It is a very small country and only took about four days of riding to get through. It would have been nice to see a bit more of the country and to go slower, but as I had said before, my eyes were on South America.

Honduras

This river was the border of El Salvador and Honduras

The welcome to Honduras wasn’t the best, as it was the longest border crossing yet. Most other border crossings had been a breeze with little to no line at all, sometimes taking as little as 5 minutes. This border crossing took nearly 3 hours.

After finally making it through the border, we were welcomed to some very nice roads. This was still part of the Pan-American Highway, but it was so much nicer than Guatemala and El Salvador. There was such a nice shoulder and the traffic was minimal.

The scenery was also really nice, we were surrounded by some small mountains and grassy fields.

We made it to a small town where Hugo and Elisa had a contact at the local Red Cross. They had hosted some other of my cyclist friends before.

They let us stay in the extra room with beds and access to a shower! The people working here were nice, even though they were messing around with us quite a bit. I could tell the guy was testing my Spanish and wasn’t making it very easy on me. It made me a bit frustrated because I do like to learn and practice more but he seemed to more enjoy confusing me and making it hard to understand.

We walked around town a bit and it was very pretty. We grabbed some street food and some snacks before going back to the Red Cross to sleep. I was already missing my nightly pupusas from El Salvador. This was our only night in Honduras as the section we were traveling through was very short, only about 130km. We will be crossing into Nicaragua tomorrow evening.

We were planning to get a very early start in the morning because we had a goal to get to Leon, Nicaragua for Christmas and it would involve a couple of long days.

Near the border, Elisa had a mechanical issue with her bike. Her shifter was no longer working and she was stuck in a single speed. We were close to the border so she decided to tough it out for the rest of the day and reaccess tomorrow morning.

We had only spent one night and two days riding in Honduras. It was a country I didn’t have many expectations for but it turned out to be really nice. The road and riding were scenic and safe. We had met some locals and they all were extremely nice as well. It was also one of the cheapest countries yet. It’s a country I’ll come back and explore more deeply one day, especially the Caribbean coast which I’ve heard is beautiful.

Nicarauga

In the past two days, we had been in three countries. This was a huge contrast to my previous progress and it felt good to be moving so much. The border crossing here was also pretty long, but not as bad as entering Honduras. I think it took around 2 hours.

About two years ago, I had spent around a month in Nicaragua. I was visiting some friends who had a long-term rental in a surf town called San Juan Del Sur. During that time, I rented a motorcycle and got to see a lot of the beautiful parts of Nicaragua. Since I had already seen most of it, I was planning to go straight through the country on the Pan-American in just a few days riding.

After crossing the border, things felt very different very quickly. Nicaragua is the least stable and poorest of all Central American countries and you can feel it. The houses and buildings are much more primitive and horses and buggies are a common means of transporting goods and people on the roadways. The roadway is a bit more hectic because of this with lots of traffic from many vehicles going at different speeds.

Even with all this, Nicaragua is a wonderful country to visit and is one of my favorites. It has some of what I think are the best and most remote beaches of all the places I’ve visited so far. Ometepe is an incredible geographical feature. An island of two volcanoes on the largest lake in Central America. Along with countless other volcanoes scattered throughout the country.

The sun was setting as we crossed the border so we hurried to the first town a few kilometers away. We first asked a Bomberos (Firefighters) to camp but they turned us away. We then went to a trucker stop and they kindly let us camp for free. They had a restaurant where I quickly ordered a Toña, the national beer of Nicaragua and probably my favorite beer of all. It is the perfect mix of flavor while being light and refreshing.

The truck stop has this pup, Mac, as a guard dog, but I don’t think that line of work is best for him as he was the sweetest and cutest pup ever. He loved attention and wouldn’t stay away from me.

Elisa’s mechanical issue required them to try and hitch a ride toward Leon because it was very difficult for her to bike as a single speed. It can be hard to find a ride that can fit three bikes and three people so I decided to take off alone on my bike and meet them there. I told them to stop and scoop me up if they had a ride that could fit me, though.

After biking for about an hour, a large truck pulls up next to me and Hugo leans out and tells me to hop in. They managed to get a ride from a huge truck with plenty of space for three bikes. The cabin was small and there was only Hugo, Elisa, and the driver in there so I got to sit in the back with the other worker.

In my opinion, this was the best spot. The other worker and I stood up and watched over the cabin and felt the wind in our faces. Sadly, that wind quickly blew away my favorite hat. We had wonderful views of this massive volcano.

We were able to ride with them about 60km to a city only a two-hour ride from Leon. Elisa felt confident doing that ride with her single speed so we rode into the city together.

We arrived in Leon on the 23rd of December and planned to spend three nights enjoying the city and the holidays together.

We stayed in a new hotel that we had entirely to ourselves. We cooked some meals together and enjoyed a nice break after biking pretty hard the past week.

Christmas in Latin America is so different from the States. In the States, it is a time to spend at home and inside but in Latin America, there are huge fairs and parties in the city center. Everyone is outside and enjoying wonderful street food and lights.

Street food was abundant, delicious, and cheap.

The church at the center of the city was having a beautiful session.

After our few days off, plus an extra, it was time to hit the road. Sadly this was also the time that we had planned to split up. I was trying to get to Costa Rica quickly in a few days and Hugo and Elisa were planning to go slower and visit Ometepe. We had been traveling together for about two weeks and it was really nice. We all got along so well and traveled similarly. We knew we would see each other again sooner or later on the trip, but it was still a sad goodbye.

I took off ahead and was trying to cross to Costa Rica the next day. I was shooting for a big 130km day which would be my biggest day since getting back to biking.

I had made it the distance I wanted and was feeling strong. The next morning I woke up with a horrible sore throat and felt weak. I ended up laying in bed late and struggled to get going. I think I had something like strep throat and every swallow was painful. I tried to head towards the border still, but with each passing kilometer, I only wanted to stop and rest.

While slowly chugging along, Hugo passed me. Turns out our goodbye was rather short-lived. We all ended up deciding to go to a nearby city, Rivas, together and get a hotel there. It would be an easy day for me and it would be nice to spend another day together.

The next day, they headed a different direction towards Ometepe and I headed the short distance to the border of Costa Rica. This time it was actually goodbye for the time being, but we estimated we would see each other in Panama.

While getting closer to Costa Rica I felt the landscape change. It started to feel more jungly and I was noticing more wildlife, especially birds. I was looking forward to Costa Rica as I was taking a nice route along the Nicoya Peninsula that involved lots of gravel roads and beautiful free beach camping. I had been to Costa Rica before, but it was a rather sad trip with an ex-girlfriend that only lasted two of the originally planned seven days because she had confessed to me she had fallen in love the previous week with her sailing instructor. A story that I think is quite funny in hindsight. Anyway, I was looking forward to forming a new memory of Costa Rica with this trip.

I will end this section of the blog here and will continue about my time in Costa Rica and Panama for the next one. I’m currently in Panama City right now preparing for my ambitious crossing from Panama to Colombia with my good Polish buddy, Kacper, whom I met in southern Mexico. I will share more about the later…

Thank you all for following along.