El Salvador seems to be doing pretty good

Pupusa-maker making pupusas. El Salvador. 

Guatemala

The family I stayed with in Cacahoatán, Chiapas gave me the contact information of Óscar, their neighbor in South Carolina. Óscar is well traveled and has many contacts. I stayed with Óscar's friend Guillermo, in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. 

From Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango was actually in the wrong direction, but I went anyways. 

When they heard about my trip they fixed my bag for free. Thanks. 

13 July 2023

Before Quetzaltenango.

Quetzaltenango city center. 

The Quetzal is the awesome-looking green natuonal bird of Guatemala. It's also their currency name. 

Quetzal illustration on currency. 

The -tenango suffix means 'land of'. So Quetzaltenango means 'land of the Quetzal'. But most people call this city by it's Mayan name, Xela (SHELL-ahh).

This was my host in Xela. 

His name is Guillermo. Guillermo owns a propane-tank-filling company. Trucks of propane from elsewhere in North and Central America arrive at his facility. They are emptied into a large tank. Then, smaller tanks are filled with from the large tank and delivered locally to the users. 

This a scale which weighs the small tanks to see how full they are. It says that Guillermo's granddaughter is not yet full. 

The propane is used almost exclusively for cooking. 

They had a greenhouse also, as a hobby. Most of their neighbors also grew plants, only not as a hobby, but as sustinence. 

With Guillermo's family I visited a volcanic lake:

We descended to the lake with two toddlers. Taking care of a toddler would be much more work than bicycle touring, I think. 

Despite being born here, they hadn't seen a Quetzal bird. 

Guillermo gave me lots of things, including this flag of Xela:

He says that for two years, a long time ago, Xela was an independent political entity. And this was their flag during that time.

Guillermo asked what my favorite food was and I said I like bananas. So he bought me many, many bananas:

Thank you Guillermo and family! 

16 July 2023

Leaving Xela, I helped these cyclists fix a flat tire:

They gave me route advice and wanted to pay me for the help. 

Parque Centro America, Sololá, Guatemala. 

I descended to Laguna Atitlán.

Stars over Atitlán.

A local chef explained that there is a special area where the Quetzal lives, but it's owned by some Canadians. So you have to pay for a tour. He also said that I was there at the wrong time of year to see the Quetzal anyways. Maybe Quetzal is not real, but a mythical creature. It's like nobody has seen it. 

Lake Atitlán was very beautiful, but very expensive, so I only stayed for one night in a campsite (75Q / 10USD).

18 July 2023

Then I continued towards Antigua, another very popular tourist destination in Guatemala.

Typical looking small town.

Antigua.

Antigua was a primary administrative city during colonial times. It's known for the beautiful old buildings and ruins, which apparently have baroque influence.

Does it look like Bach sounds?

The building were indeed beautiful and old. The streets were also old; mostly rough cobblestone. I wonder if cobblestone has benefits other than durability. Because it's pretty unpleasant to ride a bike or even walk on.

My Warm Showers host, Thomas, in Antigua, Guatemala.

Thomas rode his bike across Eurasia, then from Canada to Guatemala. Now he has a 3 year old daughter here. 

Compared to Mexico and the US, the route options are pretty limited in Central America, which funnels more cyclists onto the same roads. Since the pandemic, Thomas has hosted over 150 cyclists. And it shows. Sometimes it felt like he knew what I needed before I did.

There is an awesome overnight backpacking trip close to Antigua which he recommends. Instead of doing the hike, I got sick and spent 4 days laying around his house. 

Not unlike this dog. 

Great view from his balcony. 

View of Antigua.

Erupting volcano.

Tamale, cheese, plantain.

23 July 2023

I eventually left Antigua, still sick, and now impatient, too.

Thomas gave me the contact of some folks who host cyclists on the coast.

They had a van with a hammock inside where I slept. I shared it with a few moth balls and a baby chick🐥 which found it's way inside.

Guatemala seemed more densely populated than most of Mexico. Which made stealth/wild camping more difficult. But just talking to people I was invited in frequently and had no issue finding a place to sleep. Thank you. The roads were mostly paved and mostly very steep. Riding at high elevation is possible, which mitigates the heat, at the price of tremendous elevation gain.

Two interesting facts about Guatemalan currently: 

The 1 Quetzal coin comes in two different thicknesses.

The 200 Quetzales bill has sheet music printed on it! The national anthem, I think.

El Salvador

Everyone had good things to say about El Salvador, so I decided go. 

Most people I talk to say that El Salvador has recently become very safe and calm, due to a very good new president elected four years ago. This is such a surprising positive story, to have a politician everyone seems to like, and who apparently really improves things for people. 

The first morning in El Salvador. This beach side resort let me sleep in the hammock and gave me pupusas for free.

Pupusas are the food of Guatemala. 

Pupusas.

Food I tried in Mexico and Guatemala:

Taco - corn tortilla with meat and sometimes vegetable or maybe some cheese

Quesadilla - corn tortilla with cheese and meat and maybe bean or vegetable

Gordita - big corn tortilla fried, then cut open. cheese, meat, bean, vegetable inside

Tacos dorados - a taco but rolled up and then fried

Flauta - a taco dorado, but longer

Empenada - corn tortilla with bean and cheese, fried

Burrito - very rare, and small compared to a burrito in the US. 

Tlayudas - big tortilla with meat and cheese and vegetables, fried over open flame

So what is a pupusa?

The pupusa is a corn tortilla with beans and cheese and meat. Served with pickled vegetables and a red sauce. 

I love all the food I've tried in Mexico and Central America. But it is difficult to differentiate between food categories, as many dishes are a rearrangement of the same ingredients.

In central America I have encountered more plated food:

I took a small back-road towards San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. 

You can see above that my reflective vest was not secured properly. I lost it soon after taking the picture. 

Over the years I've had several reflective vests:

Vest #1, Montana, USA. Given to me by my mother. 

Vest #2, Oregon, USA. Given by driver in Ontario, Canada. This one had pockets.

Vest #3, Chiapas, Mexico. Given by a family from Mexico City, Mexico. 

Vest #4, Lake Atitlán, Guatemala. Given by a trucker in Chiapas, Mexico. 

Vest #5, Honduras/Nicaragua border. Given by a highway worker in El Salvador. 

After losing vest #4, I asked a highway worker if he had an extra vest I could buy. The man took off the one he was wearing and gave it to me. Perhaps reflective vests are provided freely by employers who require them, because they seem easy to come by. 

I was invited to stay in this house, San Julián, El Salvador. The owner was staying elsewhere and just asked me to lock the door when I left. Thank you. 

More backroads to San Salvador. Bike pushing was required.

This man was interested in talking to me. 

I had trouble communicating with him. Then I learned that he was nearly deaf, after being injured by a bomb in 1984. Many people who do heavy lifting in their work here wear a sort of wide belt around the torso, not unlike what's used for weightlifting at a gym. This man's belt was made of a large ratchet strap. 

Jaguar crossing?

I arrived in San Salvador and found camping in a large park, next to the 24 hour security. 

Contrary to my expectations, San Salvador was a very nice, modern city. 

New bike lane, San Salvador. 

Well marked, controlled intersection. 

Clean streets.

Green building.

El Salvador uses the US Dollar as their currency. I wonder what the economic implications of this are. Also, how do they get US currency? Does it come via drug trade? If so, how do they get an appropriate distribution of denominations?

I notice my rear rack is broken, although I can still ride. 

So I ask the gas pump attendant if he knows someplace that could weld aluminum. He asks a guy on a motorbike, who gives me directions. I follow his directions a while, then ask a police officer. The police officer asks another fellow who points down the street. I rode a block and ask another person on the sidewalk, who points in the direction. Getting close. The next person I asks works at the workshop where they can weld aluminum. 

For getting directions like this I think it helps to just constantly ask people, instead of following the first person's directions all the way to the end. 

It took far longer to uninstall and reinstall my rack and luggage than it took them to weld it. I was ready to ride again in under an hour and they didn't even charge me. 

Rack welding.

I've been told it it very difficult to weld aluminum with a torch. This guy made it look easy. 

Then I explore the city a bit. 

Government building.

Market.

Somone told me the new president wants to basically get rid of busy street markets and move all the shops indoors. He also said a lot of people got put in jail under the new president. He also agreed that things are much better here since the new president. 

Construction project.

They are constructing a massive new library, adjecent to the central square. And it's construction is supported by China. 

'ASSISTANCE FROM CHINA

FOR A SHARED FUTURE'

I left San Salvador and got permission to camp behind this church.

Clearing mud from the drain after heavy rain. They ask me what I eat. "Well in El Salvador, I eat pupusas! Same as you and everyone else here!" 

Breakfast for $1. Rice beans, bread, plantain, cream. The cream has the texture of sour cream and flavor of whipping cream. 

El Salvador. 

Friendly kids. I was clear that they may NOT touch the cooking stove. 

Watermelon salesman.

If an El Salvadoran watermelon salesman drives 80 miles to work at 20mpg, the price of gas is $4/gallon, and he sells a watermelon for $1, how can he possibly afford to give me one for free?

Perhaps because he worked in the US for 40 years?

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Yesterday I saw two guys on a motorbike and the one on back held a sort of oversized garden cart behind him. In retrospect it was probably a chariot for traveling/transporting by horse. But they were using a motorbike in place of a horse. In the cart sat a staggeringly large pig, positioned awkardly, with two hooves hanging out front of the cart. They puttered down the bumpy dirt road, hit a pothole, and the pig started squealing like it just lost it's firstborn. 

I was unable to photograph or video this scene. 

Sometimes my inability to capture moments such as this discourages me from photography. But perhaps remembering and capturing everything isn't really so important after all.