A heads up: now that we’re out of Mexico our regular cell service isn’t working like it used to. The easiest way to contact us is on WhatsApp. You can look up our phone number to contact us there.
We had taken a day off in San Cristobal when Mark came down with a little cold. We were glad I hadn’t gotten sick as we rode into Guatemala, but simultaneously worried that he might have gotten dengue since it didn’t seem to be contagious.
We rode into Guatemala with two other touring cyclists who we met that morning and then all of us stayed with at a Warm Showers just across the border. Our host’s family owned a hotel, so the accommodations where our own rooms in his families business! It was a great welcome to Guatemala with good company to share the evening while we planned our route for the next few days.
The next day we climbed all day, enjoying the mountain views and struggling to find our breath in between black puffs of truck exhaust on Pan Am 1.
After camping out near the noise of the highway we would spend the rest of our time in Guatemala trying to avoid, we woke early and rode through one of the coldest mornings yet high in the clouds. Since it’s the main through way for most of Central America, Pan Am 1 is busy all throughout the state. Many cyclists choose to ride it because it is well graded, unlike many of the other highways in Guatemala which frequently reach grades of 10% or more.
Despite the more challenging climbs, we found almost any alternative to 1 to be preferable. It usually meant a less direct route and a lot more climbing, but we were happy to cover a few less kilometers in order to avoid the traffic and car exhaust.
Despite our best intentions, we still ended up on Pan Am 1 occasionally, and even decided to ride into the capitol, Guatemala City, to stay with a bici casa, a house open to touring cyclists. We loved our stay, but the riding and out of the city was incredibly challenging: busy, loud and filled with car exhaust.
It took us a full afternoon just to get out of the city, but we were glad to be out and onto some calmer roads. I had caught the cold that Mark had had (we no longer suspect it was dengue) but felt okay to keep moving.
After riding through Mexico, it felt odd to be approaching boarder with El Salvador so rapidly, but we felt excited to continue moving through Central America. The day before we planned to cross into El Salvador, however, still sick with a cold, I got stuck by a terrible bout of food poisoning. After a night voiding everything inside my stomach (we were thankful we had paid for a campsite with a toilet) we rode 8km into the next town and found a hotel room where I laid in bed, not daring to move any further away from the toilet than I had to. I was able to keep down fluids, but was still struggling to eat that night when Mark, apparently experienced a somewhat delayed reaction, started experiencing his own intestinal evacuation experience. We paid for another day in the hotel, and only left to buy hydravida (pedialite), ginger ale, and crackers.
After two days in the hotel, however, we were ready to leave. Not exactly back to 100%, we got back on the bike and headed for El Salvador and a Warm Showers host in Concepcion de Atacó.
It was a challenging day, both of us fatigued and still struggling to eat much, but we showed up to our gracious host’s house around 5 with a warm welcome from an excited pack of pet dogs. Eduardo kindly cooked us dinner, rice and veggie chicken nuggets, the perfect meal for us as we got over our stomach problems and we went to bed early after enjoying some fun conversation about touring in the US and Mexico.
We’re excited to see more of El Salvador and continue moving through Central America!
Check out our route on Mark’s Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/markandnic
And our photos at our Google Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8sK1ryrupSjneZ9BA
Thanks for reading! -Nic