Cyclo-crossing to El Salvador
I am finally cycling again. The remains of the storm are still visible on the Guatemalan roads, creating obstacles more similar to a cyclo-cross-race then a long-distance bike journey. My first challenge on this obstacle course is a landslide that has torn off a big chunk of the mountain road I am traveling on. Two kind men help me to carry my gear across the obstacle of mud. The second one is like a ditch where a small bridge has collapsed and I have to walk the bicycle through a shallow river, further down the road a bigger bridge is dangling down in the river and I follow a dirt road across some wooden planks, which serves as a temporary passage.
The tropical storm of Agatha and the volcano eruption of Pacaya, two natural disasters that shook this region a couple of months ago, has left their marks on the population and the country. The green landscape is simply cut off at places, leaving a scenery in diameter. Brown mud tracks are twisting down the mountain slopes until they fall into a ruined infrastructure. Most of the main roads have however been cleared up after the storm and the streets have been washed clean of the volcanic ash after the eruption. I hike up to the base of the Pacaya volcano and stand there in awe of this fantastic and dramatic scene. I do not see any red lava flow, but I climb on dried lava rocks that are still steaming with smoke. In some areas it is as hot as a sauna.
The largest obstacles to overcome on my track has been a virus on my computer and food poisoning in me, but thanks to some help from my new friends both of us manage to recover. When I am all well and the computer has gotten a hard-drive-transplantation, I leave the altitude in Guatemala for the sea level in El Salvador. In this area it also as hot as a sauna. The heat wave in combination with the rainy season creates a different type of obstacle that I need to get used to, but it is wonderful to be cycling again. El Salvador is new terrain and I am eagerly looking forward to the next leg of this cyclo-cross journey through America.
Peace
Härligt Hanna! Måste bara skriva nu när jag såg den där bilden där du faktiskt går på ångande lava-sten. Galet. Men fantastiskt vackert.. Och så klagar vi över snöstormar..
Massa svala kramar! /Sparris
Tack för den svala kramen, jag fick susa genom en hel dag av svalt duggregn följande dag. Härligt.