Thursday, 15th October pm, El Salvador: 4hr journey becomes 9hrs
Well, campers, the high of meeting and successfully interviewing Rigoberta Menchu is short-lived. We have to hit the road for El Salvador. Nothing crazy about that, I hear you say, it’s only about 4 hours from Guatemala City to San Salvador. Well, yes. But not when you travel like the Clears travel: nothing works as easily as it should. For starters, it takes us ages to leave anywhere. So we’re still buffooning around (writing emails for research, making phonecalls to sort stuff in San Salvador, Skype-ing my parents) until 2pm. Then we set off. Then the heavens open. Again. Big, fat drops of rain which overwhelm us and blind everyone.
We stop in a Burger King in the ‘burbs (a Burber King, if you will) and I GET RECOGNISED by the lady serving me. Yes, people, our appearance in the national paper, Prensa Libre, means that along our route, people know our story. This is my 15 minutes of fame! All hail Warhol! We hide in Burger King, read the article and lunch (standard issue burger for lunch. How depressing. These are the bits that you don’t hear about).
Back on the road when the rain eases up a bit and we head on to the Guatemalan border with El Salvador (a bridge across the Rio Paz). It’s better than the one with Mexico, but still it takes ages. And, of course, while we’re at it, darkness drops like a black inky curtain. Sub-optimal. I’m tense because we still have 200km to drive. Mike is trying to be upbeat, but I become toxic so I warn him, and put in headphones to spare him any ludicrously unjustified wrath. And it’s then, right then, that the tyre gets a puncture. 5 minutes into El Salvador, on a steep ascent, in the pitch blackness, in the middle of nowhere, miles from where we are hoping to get to (which happens to be dinner with Mark Beaumont, the cyclist doing the same route as us for the BBC). NOT COOL. That bloody carter key (all you buffs out there should know what I’m talking about – because I don’t) – the same one which took 20 minutes to get out in Yuma, takes half an hour this time. All it is is a tiny little pin which hold the wheel in place. It’s tiny. And irrelevant. And a pain in the arse.
Sorted eventually, arrive with Mark at 11pm. Too late for dinner, but there’s always time for beer. Good to catch up with him – last time we saw him was Moab, Utah. Very nice to talk to someone doing a very similar thing.
October 17th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Hi, guys…
Since the day we met, I’ve been afraid for you both. I’ve done a fair amount of motorcycle riding in foreign lands, and there were MANY times the romance didn’t live up to the reality. And I was doing it on a modern dirt bike, not a Russian war machine.
Mike and Alanna…If there’s any way you can adjust your schedule, it will really help if you can slow down the pace. Two days on, one day off, something like that.
And honey, I don’t know about the bi-polar thing (hope not, bad news), but you two are in a situation that would make anyone a bit crazy. The good part? The toughest experiences always make the best stories.
GOOD LUCK! DO NOT drive at night.
Joe in San Jose, California
October 17th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Hi, guys,
Our experience in Mexico ( and, amazingly, in Colorado) is that it ALWAYS rains in the afternoon during the rainy season. If you could manage to get going earlier and plan on stopping in the afternoon until the rain stops, you might find it easier. The good thing about being in a sidecar is that you don’t have to worry about the rear wheel throwing muddy water up your back.
Loved the interview in Guatemala, looking forward to your further adventures.
un abrazo,
Patty
October 18th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
So far I have only traveled on a motorcycle in the US and Canada. Yet, I do not like riding at night for fear of a break down in an unknown area. In a foreign country and not speaking the language,… yikes!
A cotter pin, must be the rear wheel, the pusher. I am going to look that one over to see how it could be made easier to get to and remove. A spiffy tool perhaps? And I am getting those really thick tubes.
Hey, you guys be safe out there!
Following along,
Lester
October 19th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Thanks to all three comments! Agreed that driving at night is horrible, yet somehow we have been repeated caught out. That night with the breakdown in El Salvador was by far our worst. It has also rained every afternoon – late in the afternoon, usually as darkness is falling. Water collects in the sidecar like a bathtub. Also, not ideal.
Lester, with the cotter pin, Mike is now trying inserting it from underneath (rather than above) so that when it comes to trying to unbend the pin, it is easier to see – rather than it becoming mangled immediately by the effort to remove it as it has done both times so far.
Sadly, Joe, there is no way that we can slow down. We have squandered our time up north and now need to get going hard to make it to Ushaia by Christmas. It’s really frustrating, but we’ve made our beds…!
Thanks again for taking the time to comment. Patty, a big hello to Don and the dogs; Joe and Lester – happy biking! Alanna x