Mission Accomplished -- but just Barely

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I knew I was in for problems on Tuesday after pulling out of my hotel parking lot at 5:45 and realized I had lost a screw in my cycling shoe cleat. This was going to give me problems getting in and out of my pedals, which wasn't a huge issue, but it would sure be nicer clipped in than not. I also got a sneaking suspicion that this was going to be one of those days -- and it was.

The next problem was that the road detoriated once I left the Panamerican Highway for Tegucigalpa. This is a big deal because without a shoulder there isn´t a lot of room on these highways for all buses/trucks and little old me. I then left my map behind at one of my stops. Once again not a big issue, as there is only one road to the capital at this time, but it did layout the elevations throughout the ride. I had no idea how much climbing I would have to do on this day. I ended up climbing two passes. While I don't know exactly how high I did get, when I finished the climbing the second pass, I had a 20km downhill ride before hitting Tegucigalpa. Given that I started a sea level and Tegucigalpa was at 900m, I figured that I climbed as high as 1,500m. As things always seem to happen in threes, my third mishap was bike problems on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa. This is not the best part of town and the sun wasn't far from setting. I was starting to get nervous as the repair dragged on. Finally, after about 15 minutes I had the bike functioning again (my chain had locked up in the chain rings after changing gears). I finally arrived in the center at around 17:30. It was now dark and the downtown was in a gridlock with rush hour traffic... As with San Salvador, I just couldn't find any good hotels in the old part of town, so I started cycling towards, what I thought was the better part of town, but the traffic made this a useless proposition (it would have been faster to walk). As I was checking different hotels, I knew I was getting tired because I could no longer put two words of Spanish together nor convert Lempira (Honduras currency) into dollars (at 18 to 1 the Lempiras were now in the hundreds for hotel rooms, which is always a bit more difficult for me to translate). I finally capitulated and took a place that was at least close to the central park. To make things even worse, the elevator wasn't working and I had to haul my bike and gear up six floors... I was certainly being punished today (I´m sure Shauna is smiling by now ;-)). To bring the day to the ultimate ending, I couldn´t find anything better than a Pizza Hut for dinner (downtown is pretty dead after 20:00)...

Fortunately, the old part of Tegucigalpa, while run down is more humane than San Salvador´s downtown. I´m staying on a strip like Stephan Avenue Mall in Calgary. The other nice thing about this area is the police presence. They are everywhere. It was sure comforting walking out of my hotel on Wednesday morning at 6:00 to see four police officers patrolling the mall. Perhaps the Edmonton Police Department should take note on what to do for our 4th Street Promenade, which is a lot scarier at night than this street. It was also interesting to see the police in action. They stopped a man, who had a concealed a handgun. After checking his papers, they let the man go. I guess all part of a normal day here...

I decided to head out of town for a day trip today. Valles de Angles (Valley of Angles) is an old silver mining town going back hundreds of years. They have done a great job of preserving it and it has made for a nice retreat. I ended up spending the whole day siteseeing and shopping.

I´m headed back to San Salvador by bus tomorrow in order to catch my flight on Sunday. It was easier to fly out of San Salvador than Tegucigalpa. I would swear that our municipal airport is bigger than Tegucigalpa´s airport. Apparently, San Pedra Sula is the business and aviation capital of the country.

In total, I rode seven out of the nine days from Antigua, Guatemala for a total of 725km with a LOT of climbing. However, after crossing the Andes a couple of years ago, mountains don´t intimidate me anymore. While they are a lot of work to ascend, they are worth the effort for the scenary and the subsequent descents.

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