Danny Beer - From the city of angels to the land of fire. Danny Beer, gringo on tour

Sofia wants to watch a soccer game. It’s on at four so you should easily make the fifty km to Guat. City. After a pretty interesting night out you meet Sofia for breakfast. You walk the bikes over the cobbled streets out of town. Just before the edge of town you look back. Where’s Sofia? She was right behind you. And you told her the directions. Go straight.

You wait five minutes and Sofia appears out of a side street. And away you go. Up hill. It’s not steep and isn’t very far up but you soon leave Sofia behind. You take a break at a service station keeping a lookout for Sofia. You ask the people working there if they saw her go past. No, no, they confirm. And then, when you ask again, yes, she went past five minutes ago.

You speed off in hope of catching her. Fast up hill and fast down hill you go, confident in catching her eventually. But you don’t. You ask some people coming into town. No one has seen her. So where is she? You pass a market, making perfect timing to wait for Sofia. After all, she must be behind you. But still no Sofia. You move on. There’s a turnoff to the centro. You wait there for her. And there she is. Lucky she sees you ‘cause you sure miss seeing her. Boy is she pissed though.

You make your way into the centre, find a hostel and then a bar for the soccer game. Then you leave the Chilena to watch her game while you do some shopping. As evening descends the town shows some of its character. Sure, its not the prettiest of places. But it’s nice.

Traffic out of Guat. City is pretty heavy but you manage all the same. Signs are scarce. It is mostly downhill to El Rancho with one or two notable exceptions. They are doing some maintenance just out of town. Half a tree is dropped onto the road just after a guy waves you through. Elsewhere a guy almost gets himself run over as he darts in front of you.

Sofia heads in front and once again you lose her. She never was too far behind though. Some local guy rides along with you for a while. It rains hard. Then the thunder and lightning come. You stop for a bite to eat and Sofia soon catches up. And then it’s another four km to the next hotel. And boy is it shite. But it’s on dark now and the traffic is worse than ever, not to mention the rain, so it might just be best to stay here tonight.

Lots of ascending today, especially for the last leg towards Chiquimula. The route 9 towards the Atlantic has a nice shoulder for most of the time. You stop for lunch at your favourite pollo and telepizza restaurant chain. But your burger is cold. You send it back and they reheat it. You send it back again and they give you another one, also cold. You don’t leave a tip. Tomorrow is the start of the tour de Guatemala. You see a van loaded with racing bikes. They pull up along side and hand you each a bottle of energy drink.

You get a flat. Sofia continues on. The plan is to meet up again beside the road at Chiquimula. But you don’t see her and you each spend some time in town looking for each other.

And then you find her. You find a cheap hotel but the guy won’t let you look at the room. “Why should I waste my time showing you the room if you won’t take it? He says, in Spanish. You’ve been in this situation before. Best not to take it. You go elsewhere.

For the first five km on route 10 you enjoy lots of applause from people along the road. Today is the first day of the Guatemalan cycling race and you are the first cyclists they see. You could almost be convincing if only you were headed in the right direction.

There are a lot of ascents and descents to Copan Ruinus. But seemingly more ascents. As usual in Guatemala many kids shout “Gringo’ at you and make weird noises to catch your attention.

Eventually you reach the border, pay the bribes to exit one country and enter another and off you go. You’re in Honduras baby. Just one more climb and one descent to go and into town you are. Now, where’s Sofia? Perhaps you shouldn’t have left her behind. Oh well, four times in four days you’ve played this game. You find each other in the end. And you do. But she isn’t happy so best just let her be for now.

Yesterday you saw the ruins of Copan. They were interesting and all but with all the hype generated they were a bit of a let down. Still, you got your requisite photos. Tensions remain high between your comrade and yourself and don’t really settle down again until today. Will you go your separate ways? Is enough enough? Not yet apparently. You both still get something out of this relationship. Aren’t you? Perhaps you’ve been alone for too long. You don’t know how to relate to other people anymore.

You get a lift in a pickup the ten km to the border for five Americanos. Then across the other side for little more than the same amount you get a minivan the forty km to Vadu Hondo back on route 10. Everything is fine. The van is at most half full. Then, with only maybe ten km to go you pull into a town and change vans. You jump on the top of one van and help lift the bikes over. Then you all cram into the overflowing van for the rest of the journey. As overflowing as it is there is always room to cram one more in, which they do.

Finally out of the van you cycle the twenty km into town. It is still early and you’ve spent barely two hours on the bikes but you’ll call it a day. Only twenty km till the border. El Salvador awaits.

For once you get an early start on the day. But there’s no beating that heat. It’s another 33 km until the border. And..

Welcome to El Salvador!!!

An early afternoon downpour coincides with lunch. And off you go again. Most of the way on this side of the border is downhill. The roads are good here and there is a nice shoulder to enjoy.

At last Santa Ana comes into view. Dark clouds, well, darken the sky. You find a cheap place to stay mere moments before they open up. Heavy rain and thunder is heard. Maybe stay in for a little while. You have an 8:30 curfew tonight. But why?

It’s not so far to San Salvador so you leave relatively late on the autopista. Out of town the road gains shoulders and for thirty odd km you enjoy a nice smooth mostly downhill ride. Then the road goes crap. Road works drag on and on and you find just how bad El Salvadorian traffic can be. Later on you grab hold of a slow moving truck on the ascent. Sure, it’s cheating but why the hell not.

Traffic in San Salvador equals that of Guat. city. It is a big adrenalin rush. Sofia doesn’t see the fun side of it.

You make your way into town to the hostel and off to find some food.

San Salvador is surprisingly nice to visit. The centre has a pretty cool market where seemingly anything can be bought. A couple girls say some things to you. Are they prostitutes or do they just want to sell some clothes? And why does everyone want to sell you the most ugliest clothes?