Advertisement
Published: November 15th 2009
Edit Blog Post
My first two days of cycling have been punishing to say the least (thankful Shauna isn´t on this ride or I might be single by now :-)).
The day started again around 6:00. I was still tired and still not 100% from my food problems from Saturday morning. This was indicative because I took my first nap of the day at the 25km mark! I usually leave the siestas for the heat of the day, but that wouldn´t be the case today. The scenary hadn´t changed much from yesterday. The biggest difference was the level of poverty out in the countryside. Homes made of wood, mud, and corrugated metal seemed to be more of the norm. Another thing that was interesting was that I haven´t seen any Salvadorean flags anywhere or any tourists until La Libertad.
Breafast was good with two pupusas from a street vendor. These are tortillas filled with cheese, beans, or meat. You can add a salad or sauce for more flavour. They also only cost $0.25/piece. Two of those and an orange juice for $1!
The last 60km would be very different from the first. As I approached La Libertad, the coast line became
very rocky. I would climb 100 to 200 meters and then decend down to the next river. This cycle must have occurred a dozen times. The big plus, though, was the scenary -- breathtaking.
I finally stumbled into town around 17:00. Fortunately, I was able to find ONE good hotel. Once again, dinner included seafood. I had a fabulous bowl of shrimp soup -- one that could give any Thai soup a run for its money. It had five jumbo shrimp in a broth that had onions, tomatoes, egges and a spices. If the heat and humidity wasn´t making me sweat, this soup sure was! The soup was $15, but it was a meal in itself.
Riding all day in this kind of heat and humidity means literes and literes of liquids. I usually start with liter or two of fresh orange juice. As the day moves on, I switch to Gatorade for the next one or two. I end up the ride with water. In total, I think I´m going through more than 6 liters of liquids in a day.
No one seems to have change here. After dinner last night, I gave the waiter a
$20 bill for a $17 meal. He had to leave the restaurant to get some change! Afterwards, I picked up some water and detergent at the local supermarket, and the largest bill in the register was a $5! This might have something to do with the number of robberies in the country. Nearly all businesses of any size have an armed guard with a shotgun outside of it. I will find out the answer to this, though.
I was having problems with my gears, so I thought I would take my bike into town to have a mechanic look at it. No matter what prep I do to my bike before I leave, I always seem to have some kind of problem on tour either from the plane trip over or things just adjusting as I start to ride. On past trips, I have had good luck with using mechanics, as it has amazed me how good some of them are no matter what the actual bike shop looks like -- not so this time. I took my bike to two shops, and the mechanics didn´t have a clue. They actually made things worse. My first clue should have
been their inability to figure out how the gears work (I have the shifters integrated into my brake handle).
I have a few errands to do this morning, and I hope to head out the beach for the afternoon. La Libertad is the surfing capital of El Salvador. :-)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.18s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 17; qc: 67; dbt: 0.1096s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb