As I said last night we arrived in the dark and we would not have made it if it wasn’t for Regillio (Rodger,) who was an excellent navigator yesterday, he is sold like a rock:

He can’t speak or understand English, so communicating is difficult, but he is such a nice guy, he loves dancing and spontaneously start dancing when he

Last night we ate Guatemalan food which was more like a Mixed Grill, we did not eat a meal the entire day, so we tuck in and did not stop until everything was finished.

Chorizo Sausage, crumbed chicken, grilled chicken, grilled steak, prawns.

Un fortunately they tried to spoil me with my “favourite dish” and the chocolate black bean thingy got ordered again for my pleasure, only slightly disguised this time:

We considered ordering red wine from Chile, but the price they quoted was R1200-00, so we stuck to local beers:

The hotel’s reception looked very dark and dodgy but the rooms surprised me, the aircon was working well and the rooms big and the bed new and the linen very clean.

We had a coffee at 6h30 and left the hotel at 7h00, right in the middle of the school run and rush hour. we were swept up in a stream of tug-tuks, scooters with moms and the 3 kids on their way to school, the stream of motorbikes and scooters was faster and we soon learnt to go around busses and trucks on both side like water around a rock in the stream. There was pushing and shoving and jostling for positions and lots of hooters hiking letting you know they are there and then that they are coming through. The border was 237km away and Google Maps said it would take over 5 hours. At a stage I doubted that we would make it in 10 hours. But later the roads widened and we left the congested towns behind and could cruse at 100km per hour. We only had one road-change up to the border, we had to change from the one road to another around 150km int the ride, but we were separated by traffic and we did not have each other in sight, and then all of a sudden Millsy said in my intercom than we had to turn right as I was coming up to the turn, so I went past and rode back to the turn off in the emergency lane, showing the other 3 bikes to turn, but then we got to the bottom of the bridge and saw the others, waiting in the shade, but on the other side of the road, and there was a deep water trench separating us, so we had taken the offramp going East instead of the one going West. It took a while to get ua lab on the same road again, but then the road became very quiet as we were now on the road to El Salvador and not the Capital, Guatemala City. We got to the border and heard that Peens (who slept at a beach because he arrived a day early due to the date on his import Permit,) was already through the border. He was eating soup and drinking beer and giving us directions by phone as to where to park, what offices to visit and what to do where. If only we stopped and had soup there as well, but our border crossing took 4 hours today and we were starting to run late.

We were sent to got and make photo copies at the local copy-shop:

But then the copier broke and we were sent to another little place, when the lady went to get change I took this photo of her office\kitchen\living-room:

I sneaked a peek into the bedroom\garage and saw that hammocks were a real thing:

At least we had things to do while crossing the border, like truck tyre inspections:

And go to the local Bank-man:

El Salvador has accepted Byte Coin as their Currency but also accept the US dollar. It is the smallest Central American Country but also the most densely populated with 6 million people.

We never ate today as we kept on pushing, 427km plus a 4 hour border crossing is just too much to have asked for. But Doc had some friends in El Salvador that also owns a hotel and they would meet us at the border, then ride with us to the hotel, the details were sketchy. We expected to see them when we crossed but they were not there, we were going to meet at a fuel station up the road, then go for lunch, at 16h00, and then ride to the hotel, more than 1 hour away. When we got to the fuel station half an hour later they were not there, so we decided no lunch and ride towards them, but then the group got separated when the front guys suddenly rode into a town, I still don’t know why as we stood at an intersection watching rush-hour traffic go by and phoned Doc and got a Location, back on the main road from which we had turned.

We eventually all got re-united and set off towards the Capital, but soon two BMW Bikes came past us in th opposite direction and we stopped and they turned around, then we greeted each other and were introduced to Doc’s friends. We then followed them into the biggest traffic jam ever, with sections riding in the dust through the road-works, and other sections in the emergency lane which is where scooters and bicycles ride, but big adventure bikes in such a narrow lane  made for some skill being put to the test. But just as it was getting dark we rode into the hotel and we are getting ready to go for dinner. Then we decided we will have a route meeting and add our voice to the planning and make sure we have time to at least stop for lunch or breakfast tomorrow.

Signing off, from a weight losing

Fleisch