Canada to Panama, On A Bike!

Last monday, after 135 days and 10,080 km on the road I cycled up onto the middle of the Bridge of the Americas. This the bridge that spans the Panama Canal, the only break in the otherwise continuous land mass of North and South America. This was a significant moment, because as I cycled down the other side I entered Panama City, my final destination on what has been a truly amazing journey!

I'll add more thoughts to this in the next few days.

Am I Going North or South?

I started writing this when I reached Costa Rica (2 weeks ago now), but in my haste to reach Panama I couldn't find time to finish it. So here it is now, better late than never.

Arriving in Costa Rica from Nicaragua was quite culture shock. The border area was a complete zoo. The vast majority of traffic across it is clearly trucking, but it didn't look like they had any sort of organisation going on. The border area itself was like a massive, unpaved, truck parking lot and finding the way in and out and the respective imigration buildings was much more of a challenge than you'd think it should be at an international crossing point. However, once I was clear of this and the 2 mile long que of trucks on the Costa Rica side it became quite clear that I'd moved into a different region of Central America. But before I eleborate further I should go back and mention a little of each of the countries I've passed through since Guatemala, because, although there are many similarities, each country has it's distinct differences so deserves a few of my thoughts.

After leaving Guatemala I spent my first night in El Salvadore at a ragged little beach town called El Zonte with some fantastic surf. It convinced me to stay for another night. The attitude towards me as a westerner seemed a little mixed. I had one guy pull over on the side of the road and try to give me $10 (not an insignificant sum in El Salvadore) "para agua o Gatorade" - for water or Gatorade - but in the towns I certainly drew some less friendly looks. Given the sheer number of guns in the country left over from the fairly recent, and bloody, civil war it can be a bit disconcerting, but the El Salvadoreans are a small, slightly built people and the sense I had of being some sort of giant in their midst gave me a degree of confidence.

I then crossed into Honduras, but was only in the country for a total of twenty-four hours so can't claim I really got too much of a feel for the place. In the region I passed through they must see very few tourists as I was a massive novelty. In every village and hamlet I passed through kids would run out of the houses shouting "Gringo", often followed by "goooobye" as I passed. Gringo is a bit of a mixed word. It can be offensive, but it is also often used just as a discriptive term (for example phone companies call their plans with cheap calls to the US Gringo Plan). These kids certainly didn't mean offence and said it in much the same way as you might say "wow, a hefalump" if an elephant trotted past you on Regent Street. But even so, the sheer repetition did get quite tiresome.

Of the central american countries Nicaragua lays claim to least of the obvious attractions of the region like ancient ruins, the best beaches, big volcanoes or national parks, yet often seems to be the favourite of people travelling through the region. I liked it a lot. Of all the colonial cities I've passed through Granada was the most striking and charming. It's clear that there's a good deal of money being spent on maintaining and restoring the architecture and the result is a town with universally clean and attractive streets, beautiful facades and the feel that it's still in it's prime rather than the feel common to many old colonial cities of still trying to hang onto the glory days whilst loosing the battle against gentle decay. Leon, however, is a facinating contrast. At one point it was the capital of Nicaragua and in the last centuary has been a hotbed of revelution. During the many decades of civil war it was a centre for the left wing revolutionaries and suffered heavily during the periods of intense fighting. Unlike Granada there's little cash for renevation and the war scars are clearly visible everywhere you look. In all the places I passed through it's been hard to envisage the civil wars they've had. It just doesn't feel in keeping with the places, people or atmospheres. In Leon it felt remarkably recent and real. It wouldn't have felt out of place to have seen guerilla fighters cleaning their rifles, smoking and laughing on street corners. And the most interesting thing is that wouldn't have been scary. It's hard to explain, but it's as if revelution is a part of Leon, as if that's what the city wants and expects and is cofortable with.

Then on to Costa Rica! Costa Rica is the exception in that it's never had a civil war and as I travelled through the country it became apparent just how much war and corruption has cost the other countries I'd been through. The feeling that I'd somehow slipped back into the USA was hard to shake off. Small towns had air conditioned malls, houses I passed were in good repair, the cats eyes on the road were still cats eyes rather than broken bits of plastic and I saw the very comforting site of ambulances travelling the roads. Although a lot of central america is adopting an americanised culture, Costa Rica has the polish that makes it feel much more like it's part of that culture. By polish, I mean the small details. Hotel rooms provide a good example. I'd become quite used to finding rooms that were qute nice let down by something like a toilet without a seat, broken electrics, leaking sink and so on. I don't mean that I was bothered by this, just that it only required a very small extra step to take a place from being ok to being nice, but there seemed little inclination to do this. Anyway, Costa Rica is a very pretty country and has some amazing wildlife. Many birds, butterflys, monkeys armadillos, iguanas and so on both in the many national parks and along the side of the road. Would be a great place for a family holiday. The beauty of central america, but with the facilities and without as much violent crime.

Thankyou Guatemala...

... for rekindling my joy in riding.

This joy had nearly been drowned in the sultry, sweaty, grimy toil of cycling in the tropics, but every morning in Guatemala when I climbed into the saddle, started pedaling and felt the fresh, cooling breeze on my face I knew it would be another great day.

I'd initially planned to stay in Guatemala for only 4 days, but once I got up into the highlands (mostly I was cycling between 1500m and 3000m altitude) I ended up staying twice as long. The combination of great riding, great weather, great activities and the great people I met along the way was just too aluring to allow me to rush.

The climate is perfect at that altitude with dry heat during the days and cool evenings and nights. I even got some real alpine conditions with low clouds, drizzle and 10m visibility - my waterproof jacket got it's first outing since leaving Oregon 7000km ago! And the scenery is truly stunning punctuated by huge volcanoes soaring above the fertile green plains, many of them still active and smoking. I spent an afternoon climbing one which is a mass of fresh rock and even fresher lava. It's strange feeling the heat coming up through the soles of your shoes, looking down at the rock you're standing on and seeing it's only a couple of inches thick and that's all there is seperating you from the glowing magma below it. Check out some of the photos for the other fun things you can do with molten rock...

So after a fantastic stay I (reluctantly) left Guatemala and headed back to the lowlands and into El Salvador. I can't feel too bad about it though as El Salvador has some of the best surf in Central America and I spent a fantastic day yesterday sampling some of it.

I'm now on route to Honduras. Here I hope the ginger beard will come into it's own. President Manuel Zelaya would never be able to grow one as a disguise so I hope it'll facilitate my smooth progress through the border crossings and any roadblocks I stumble upon :)