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 :)

Into Guatemala

What a great first day in Guatemala!

I must admit to feeling a bit of trepidation last night and this morning. The Guatemalan borders are renowned for being burocratic and the necessity for bribes. Also in recent years there have been a high number of armed robberies on some of the roads around the popular tourist areas. So although this is one of the countries I'd been really looking forward to on this trip my excitement had been tempered slightly. This day has allayed that.

I got a reasonably early start to the border and in no time at all I was done with the formalities and on my way cycling down Guatemalan Highway 2. This was the quickest and easiest crossing I've had and if the 20 pesos I did pay for the privilege of my 90 day visa was a bribe it's the best one ever as that's less than one pound and significantly less than the 20 dollars for the US or Mexico. The most difficult thing was convincing the emigration officers that I didn't need them to give me free water and drinks :)

The people here have continued the open curiosity and friendliness I'd come to expect in Mexico Almost everyone I pass on the road gives me a wave or a word of welcome and when I stop there's always someone to ask where I'm going, where I've come from and so on. Tomorrow I turn inland and head into the mountains to Quetzaltenango and then spend the next few days heading through the highlands on my way to Antigua.

Border Time

It feels a world ago that I crossed the US border into Mexico at Tijuana and the time has come for my next border transit - into Guatemala. I'm sitting in an internet cafe no more than 200 meters from the border so if all goes well I'll make a speedy crossing in the morning and be on my way into the Guatemalan mountains. I don't mean this to sound negative towards Mexico, but I'm happy to be moving on. Mexico has been an amazing experience, but it's been a very long one, acounting for not far off half of the total trip distance, so I feel ready to move on to the next place.

My last two weeks in Mexico have been the best I've spent here. To get to Oaxaca I had a few days of hellish cycling. Temperatures were into the 40s, there was a strong headwind and the terrain was my least favourite - big hills and valleys. Don't mistake me, I don't mind going uphill and quite enjoy a big climb (I've got some monsters coming in the next few days), but it's really sapping both physically and mentally when you spend all day climbing 100m to 200m hills, one after another after another after another with no flat ground to recover on and the knowledge that at the speed your going you'll not make it to where you need to be before dark without really thrashing yourself. To put it into perspective, the highest building in the UK, the Canary Wharf Tower is 235m from top to bottom. So its like climbing slowly up that, then getting the lift down only to start climbing again and doing that for a whole day. On the nice hills you'd only have to climb half of it. And at the end of it all you're still at the same altitude so don't have any big fun downhill to get excited about. But, anyway, it was worth it because I spent a few great days in Oaxaca and as you'll see from some of the pictures it's a really pretty city with lots of colonial architecture and a really nice laid back feel to it.

So fresh from four days of rest and having lightened my bike by 8kg by shipping home my camping gear and a few other things that hadn't seen enough use to justify being carried I came across the best road I've ridden in Mexico, and some of the best scenery, which has brought me to the border. I was planning to write more and might add to this in the next few days, but it's getting late and I'm hungry so I'm off to find what treats this town has to offer (unfortunately I suspect the answer is few).

Rolling With the Mexican Punches

When I was planning this trip I did so with a pretty high expectation that at some point along the way I'd have some of my stuff stolen and, unfortunately, a week ago I was proved right.

What I hope is that I've now got a tick in the 'have something stolen' box and it's not big enough to fit two ticks. Basically, I lost a bit of cash and some of my electronics. The biggest ache it's caused is I've lost all my photo's south of the US border including the Baja ones. That's a real pain because there's little chance that I'm going to cycle across a desert again to take any more!

My phone was also taken, so if anyone tried to get in touch with me over the last week and didn't got a response don't worry, there's a chance that it's not because you're on the blacklist ;) I've got a mexican number, which is the only one I'll have now for the rest of the trip. The number is +52 7531 206595. Also, I've lost most peoples numbers until I get back to the UK so please send me your number if you can.

I'm still cruising down the Mexican coast and for the last week have been passing through some really undeveloped and beautiful coast. Think big pacific breakers rolling onto white sand beaches backed by coconut palms and the imposing bulk of the Sierra Madre mountain range. To change it up I was in manic Acapulco for the last couple of days and I'm on my way to Oaxaca which is a much older, something of a cultural centre and known throughout Mexico for the quality of its food. I'm also looking forward to Oaxaca as it's inland, in the mountains so I'm hoping will give me a break from the heat and humidity and a different type of scenery.

I've also now managed to upload some Mexico photo's from my new camera. Happy days...

Many Milestones

It seems that with trip milestones, when it rains it pours. In the last few days I've finished the ride down Baja California, posted my biggest daily distance at 200km, crossed the Tropic of Cancer, crossed over to mainland Mexico and cycled more than 5,000 km. All of these add up to make one very happy Ant.

I'm happiest about having cycled through Baja and being on the mainland. I covered the 1,550 km of Baja in exactly two weeks and posted my biggest day of the trip on my way to my final stop in Baja, La Paz. La Paz is a lovely city that sits on a large sheltered bay over which the sun sets each night. With a poulation of 170,000 it's big by Baja standards and comparatively quite cosmopolitan. I think it had the first coffee shops I'd seen in Baja.

I got on the ferry from La Paz on Sunday evening and woke up on Monday morning in Mazatlan (well, I should say the last time I woke up on Monday morning I was in Mazatlan. A combination of thrift and the beautiful night sky meant I decided to sleep on the deck of the ferry rather than get a cabin. Problem is mexican ferry employees aren't shy and many of them, on realising it was a gringo asleep on the deck, decided to wake me up to practice their english and tell me thier life stories).

Anyway, the difference between Baja and the mainland is dramatic and was imediately striking. Everywhere you look here there is verdant greenery. On every hill, mountain and in every valley there's a deep blanket of trees, palms, bushes and grass and the river beds actually have water in them! When I look around at this landscape it says to me "Look at all the life I support". When I looked at the barren rocks and cactus fields of the Baja desert it would say to me "Be very careful Ant. Be very, very careful. If you slip up and get this wrong I'll have to properly f you up". I'm not denying the desert has it's beauty. It certainly does, but it was just a very difficult thing to cycle across and getting into a different climate has really highlighted that to me.

Not that the climate here is all that good for cycling - the temperatures are in the mid 30s and the humidity is high so it's very sweaty work - but it doesn't have the debilitating effect that the midday desert sun did. Another significant factor here is the population density is greater so there are more towns and cities and therefore the logistics of food, water and accomodation are that much easier. Overall, I'm really enjoying travelling through here. The scenery is beautiful, the food is excellent and the poeple are just fantastic.

Having cycled 5,000 km is also a big milestone, because it means I've crossed the halfway point of this trip. I expect to do a total of somewhere between 9,500 and 10,000 km: another 2,200 odd in Mexico and the remainder in the rest of Central America.

Still not having much luck uploading photos, but will keep trying.

Bienvenidos a Mexico!

What a crazy place! And not for any of the reasons people told me it would be. I had no probems getting through Tijuana, the drivers have been excellent and given me loads of space on the road, I've met no corrupt policemen or soldiers and can't imagine anyone here getting worked up enough to make me feel threatend.

No, this is crazy because of the terrain and the weather. As I write this my thermometer is hovering around 40C and this isn't the peak heat of the day. I crossed the border early on the 4th July and for the first night I stayed at Ensenada which is on the coast and so a bit more temperate, but since then I've spent the rest of the week cycling through desert. Strangely, the heat isn't the worst thing on the bike. You obviously need to keep drinking to stay hydrated (and although places to stock up can be far between I can carry enough when needed). The the worst thing is on the bike you're in the open all day so you're exposed to the intensity of the sun which can be brutal, especially in the early afternoon. So I've modified my cycling tactics: I aim to set off around 6am each day and cycle hard to get where I want to be before the sun really kicks in and if I can't get there in time then find a shady spot to sit out the hottest part of the day and wait for it to cool down into the low 30s before finishing off.

But despite the weather and hilly terrain this I've been making good progress - I've covered 900km of the Baja peninsular in the last eight days and I'm now in the verdant oasis town of San Ignacio. In fact, it's probably because of the weather as I'm not all that inclined to hang around. Also, this is perhaps the first pretty town I've been through. Most are just a half shanty type sprawl along the main road, but San Ignacio has a lot more character and still retains some of the original town built by the Spanish Jesuit and then Dominican missionaries around 200 years ago. It's also very green and shady with date palms everywhere, which makes a nice chage to cacti. I can't upload photos easily here, but will put some on to give you an idea in the next major town I pass through.

So, although I'm not inclined to linger in Baja, overall I'm enjoying the experience of cycling here and I'm settling into the Mexico leg of the trip.

Adios USA

I spent my last two weeks in the USA with a week of surfing in San Diego and then a road trip through inland California to spend a few days at Yosemite national park. In San Diego I stayed at Pacific Beach in a hotel with a balcony overlooking the ocean, the beach and the amazing spectacle that is the boardwalk. This is one massive parade of beautiful people all trying to draw attention to themselves, but whilst trying to portray the image that they are in no way interested in anyone's attention. Quite a challenge, eh? I was definitely the odd one out with the intentionally scruffy beard and shaggy hair I'm trying to cultivate (so I look poor and not worth robbing in Central America). The surfing there was great though and after seeing so many people in the water all along the coast it was great to finally get a good board and join them for a few waves.

So, it's time to leave the US. In total I cycled 3200km through Canada and the USA in 40 days. In many ways I'm sad to be leaving. It's been an amazing experience - I've seen so much beauty and met so many great people all along the way, but the essence of travel is to keep the memories and move on to the next destination. And for me that next destination is a very exciting one - Mexico! I'm really looking forward to the culture change and can't wait to get into spanish speaking territorry...

(The picture shows local Carnies working hard on Pacific Beach a little bit more impressive than what I managed with a bottle of stove fuel, but not as impressive as what Leigh managed when he accidentally set a whole 6 foot by 3 foot camp table on fire :)

California

I've been on the road now for one month and one week and have cycled 3,000 km, which means the US leg of the trip is nearly over. I'm in LA at the moment and will be heading down to San Diego, which is my last port of call in the US, in the next few days.

The journey through California has been astounding. It's a big state (about 1000 miles from the north to the south) and the terrain and landscape is accordingly diverse. Every day there's been something new to take my breath away, be it the giant redwoods in the north, the wildflower meadows in Mendocino, the rugged coastline of Big Sur, the palm trees and golden beaches of the south or the warmth and hospitality of the people I meet each day. I could go on, but you'll get a better idea from the pictures.

I spent three days in San Francisco, which was a real highlight. Portland and Seattle were both very nice cities, but of all the major ones I've passed through San Francisco has been my favourite as it's got such a chilled out atmosphere. My next stop was Santa Barbara and then Ventura, where I stopped for my first day of Californian surfing. The further south you get the better the surfing becomes so I can't wait to get to San Diego where I plan to spend a few days catching some waves. I'm also toying with the idea of somehow gerry-rigging a surfboard onto my touring rig and taking it with me as I head south. There are only 2 issues with this: 1) how to do it; 2) given I'm unemployed and technically I'm also homeless if I do something crazy like cycling with a surfboard I think that puts me firmly into hobo territory. I'm not sure if I'm quite ready for that yet...

"...Driving down the 101, California here we come..."

Since I crossed into California a couple of days back I've not been able to stop singing the OC soundtrack. It's repetitive as I can only remember one line from it, but I still think that'll keep me going for the next thousand miles or so to the border. I love this place already and I've only been here a couple of days.

About a week back I started bumping into more cyclists heading down the coast and have been riding as part of a growing posse since. At one point we even had a dog and a herd of cows running with us. Five of us rolled into the small college town of Arcata last night and while waiting at a set of traffic lights we were offered a garden to pitch our tents in and in the morning fed with the best pancakes I've had this trip (and I've had a lot of pancakes this trip!). Jo and Mike - thanks for the awesome hospitality!

The riding has been a mix of rugged coast, sandy beaches, grassland and through redwood forests. Biking through these giants is truly incredible!

The Pacific Proper

I left Portland midday Tuesday to make the short hop down to the coast. Turned out though that the short hop wasn't short by any means and included a big mountain range to cross. Oops! Added to this the headwind and showers were back with a vengeance so I rolled into the quiet little town of Tillamook that evening after 100 odd km. Tillamook had all the facilities I needed. Would have been great if any of them were still open! Perhaps I've just got too used to big city living, but it was a little odd to find every restaurant and cafe in the town closed at 8pm. The Tillamook area is very big on dairy farms and produce and it's known for the production of that bright orange plastic cheese the Americans know as cheddar. Strangely they seem proud of this.

I set off the next blustery morning with the distinct impression that the weather gods had it in for me and clearly favoured Kris "Kannonball" Kumar who rode with me from Seattle to Portland and was treated to beautiful conditions. The self-importance of this was happily dispelled when the sun burst through and the wind switched to the north making for fantastic riding conditions. It's been this way since. I got down to the coast and had my first sight of the uninterrupted Pacific Ocean, stretching blue to the horizon without any islands or headlands between me and Asia. Since then I've had this every time I look to the right.

This is a fantastic place to be riding. Check out some of the pictures to see just how stunning the Oregon coastline is, with it's mix of rocky headlands and vast stretching golden sand beaches. All along here are state campsites, just moments from the beach and charging four or five dollars to stay the night. The people of Oregon have also continued the friendly gregariousness I came to expect in Washington with many drivers even pulling over at the side of the road just to find out what I'm doing and where I'm going.

From here my route continues straight down the coast. In about 250 miles it goes from being the Oregon coast to the California coast, but not until San Francisco is there another big city so plenty of time to make the most of it.

On The Road

I reached Portland, Oregon, yesterday evening and today I'm taking a well earned rest day and chilling out in the city.

I'm super pleased with the last week. I've been running to a tight schedule, but managed to cover the 320km from Vancouver to Seattle in 3 days and the 340km from Seattle to Portland in another 3 days.

Seattle proved to be a mid-point for the week in many ways, not least of which was the weather. I spent the first three days slugging into a strong headwind, which makes it feel like your constantly going uphill as the bike just doesn't freewheel and you have to work to keep the momentum even on small downhills. It also rained! A hell of lot! I made a fortuitous last minute packing decision to throw in some waterproof trousers as they got an outing every day and saved me from the worst of it. For all those who complain about how much it rains in London, it rains much more here - probably about on par with Wales. The difference is though, that in Wales it drizzles a lot, here it just sheets down and it was sheeting down big time when I reached Seattle. What's surprising is despite the rain, there's a big bike culture in Seattle. There's also big hippy culture. There's loads of them. Nobody could give me a definitive answer why that is, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact you can legally grow weed in your back garden there.

Leaving Seattle, the weather was the complete opposite with a gentle tail wind and temperatures in the mid twenties. The road is also ridiculously flat once you get out of the centre and so the first days riding was great. That set the tone for the next couple of days, with glorious sunshine and beautiful countryside. So I cruised on down to Portland, posting my biggest day of 150km to get here on Sunday evening. The main things to note about Portland are:

1) It has even more bikes than Seattle.

2) It has the biggest bookshop in the world

3) For every person in Portland there are three tramps. This is because Oregon treats the homeless better than many other states so it's a bit of a tramp magnet.

Hmmmmmm....

Guess I should add to the below that this assumes I can go through Mexico. A lot of people have asked me what I'm going to do about the whole swine flu thing. The answer is, I'll wait and see. It'll be a couple of months before I'm at the Mexico border and I figure by that stage the picture will be clearer. Also, if I'm honest, I'm not too worried by the swine flu - I'd be pretty pissed to get clobbered by something as soft sounding as bird flu, but I figgure if this one's good enough for a swine, it's probably good enough for me :)

Approx Timeline:

10th May - Vancouver
14th May - Seattle, Washington
18th May - Portland, Oregon
Mid June - Crescent City, Californina
End June - San Francisco
Mid July - Santa Barbara and LA
End July - San Diego
End Aug - La Paz, Baja California, Mexico
Oct - Guatamala and El Salvadore
Nov - Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica
Dec - Panama. Huzzah!

Got to stick a massive disclaimer on this - Ant accepts he's not done nearly enough planning to create as acurate a looking timeline as this and takes no responsibility for any shit that arrises from people putting too much trust in it ;)