Hey guys!
The last few days have been sooo packed with everything that’s been going on so I haven’t had any time at all to write this… Sorry! I think I’m just going to do today’s blog because it’s pretty late and I won’t have time to recap all that’s been happening!
Another problem is the lack of wifi… and whenever we do have wifi it’s been very weak and only for a few minutes at a time, sometimes once a day!
I remember going to the Tikal ruins two days ago in the jungle and they were really cool! They were wayyyyy bigger than Tulum and Palenque! We felt like we had the place to ourselves as there.were hardly any people there. Dad said there were way more visitors when he was last here in 1991 on a previous motorcycle trip. He also said that the road leading from Tikal down to the valley on the way to Guatemala City was one of the worst motorcycle roads he’d ever travelled on back then and he was so happy to see that it was smoothly paved now 22 years later.
I also can remember all the animals that would attempt suicide on the front of the bike on the highways such as dogs (so many dogs), horses, a cat, a herd of pigs (yes, a herd of pigs) and, at one point, a peacock. We spent a lot of time steering around random beasts crossing the road.
Today dad woke me up fairly early as we planned to cross the border between Guatemala and El Salvador. We had spent the night at the house of the Castellóns, a family that mom and dad stayed with on their bicycle trip 20 years ago in Zacapa, Guatemala. As soon as we arrived they greeted us like long-lost family! We were able to get cleaned up (lots of dirty diesel buses and trucks on the roads today!) and then they took us in their car over a mountain pass in the dark to their son Willy’s house where he and his wife had a huge meal waiting for us. It was really fun but we were exhausted by the time we returned to Zacapa.
In the morning, their granddaughter Katie made omelettes and pancakes for our breakfast while dad and I geared up the bike. Breakfast was really good and dad and I each had a coffee. During breakfast Willy arrived on his big red Suzuki motorcycle to ride with us to the border. Awesome!
Before we left I swallowed a Benadryl pill (I had been bit by a horsefly in Tikal and I’m allergic) and then we left! We got gas and on the way to Willy’s house I started falling asleep… Like, nodding off every few seconds. When we arrived at his house I had another coffee before leaving to the Guatemala-El Salvador border! By now we realized that sleepiness was one of the side affects of Benadryl. When we arrived at the border we thanked Willy, said goodbye and I was given instructions to sit by the bike, in the shade, and wait.
So I waited.
After a while dad came jogging out of the first building and we moved to the next building and we then heard a man calling to us. We turned towards him, dad threw his hands up in the air happily and shouted in Spanish and then they hugged. I was still totally confused.
Dad explained that the man’s name was Nelson and he wanted to ride with us into El Salvador! He was a member of the BMW motorcycle club in San Salvador, the capital city. The other buildings, even immigration, weren’t that bad to deal with. It took a few hours until we could cross but at least we didn’t have to pay any extra money! Dad said crossing into El Salvador has changed because they used to charge a lot for each passport stamp and vehicle papers, etc.
True to his word, once we left the border and officially crossed into El Salvador Nelson rode with us all the way to San Salvador, the capital city. We rode past the active Santa Ana volcano and visited Lake Coatepeque, a beautiful volcanic crater lake. Then we rode through crazy traffic into the capital city and he helped us find a nice hotel for really cheap.
There was a tiny salon inside the hotel and once we were settled in I got a mani-pedi and dad got a back massage to work out the remaining aches from his truck incident back in Palenque. I got my toenails painted teal and my finger nails painted red and green with an extra coat of glitter (because I just adore Christmas).
After the salon I showered and Nelson picked us up for dinner in his sports car. I had veggie pasta and a mocha and dad and Nelson had steak and coffee. I loved the resturant!!! It was really fancy and everything was all prim and proper and there were even gigantic leather sofas in the middle of the bathrooms! All of the waiters were dressed in suits and ties and would pull out/ push in my chair for me and put my napkin in my lap and brought me a lovely rose! We had crème brûlée for dessert and it was delicious!
After dinner dad and I got a ride back to the hotel and were soon in our beds, too tired to do anything because it was after midnight… BUT since I felt bad about being so busy lately and I love all my sweet little blog muffins I just had to update :).
Thanks for reading and being patient! Again, sorry for the lack of update!
In my defense, the time here is 1:17am because I had to finish! Bye everyone!
~Holly J
