One thing you have to accept, particularly in these parts (Central America), is that you just have to roll with the punches and realise that things may or may not go according to plan. We have found ourselves constantly making decisions and then changing them numerous times to adjust to whatever the current situation reflects. This place teaches you the art of patience, acceptance, flexibility and to just let go of things that are out of your control – it's not an easy thing to do but we are definately getting way better at it.
Although, Big Bird doesn’t have fond memories of Honduras, we thought otherwise (but we won’t tell Big Bird that!). It had beautiful countryside, pleasant towns, our favourite Mayan ruins to date and friendly locals. The Copan Ruins are famous for their sculptures and artistic detail. We also thought the entrance walkway filled with parrots, squirrels and an animal (that even the locals we’ve asked don’t know the name of) scuttling around was really cool.
Copan Ruins
Honduras
The ride between Copan Ruinas and Santa Rosa de Copan was highlighted by a quick visit to a coffee harvesting plant embedded in thick lush jungle. Here we also caught a glimpse of an unusual looking feline. It was a young tigrillo cub, who could only be enticed to come out from his cool resting place with the bowl full of chicken. Roland even snuck in a quick pat, even though this was probably not a clever thing to do!
In Santa Rosa de Copan we had to opportunity to spend two nights with a Honduran-American family. They own and run ‘Weekend Pizza’, a restaurant making delicious organic pizzas from scratch. Claudia (Couchsurfing) had just had her boyfriend from Germany arrive and it took us back to when Roland first moved to New Zealand to be together. We actually ran into Claudia’s mother as we approached the city and immediately knew we were going to be in good company. Claudia’s grandmother was a sweetheart and ensured we were fed, washed and well rested before heading on our way.
El Salvador
In San Andres, we stayed with Mauricio and Gloria from Couchsurfing for three nights to get our bike fixed in San Salvador and help out on their property. They live in an eco village in the jungle and have a very simple and healthy lifestyle. We had initially planned to volunteer with the Salvation Army, however the contact information and address we had was out of date (the hair salon to which the address directed us to, also assured us they didn’t need any help either ). Still we thoroughly enjoyed the many new experiences of working the land and making bread with some of the local kids, learning how to prepare/grind corn and eating wholesome meals.
We also saw our first real live scorpion here. Eeeekkk.
From San Andreas the plan was to go around San Salvador, but we missed a crucial turnoff and proceeded to get digested into the belly of this congested city. And of course, who should we bump into but the El Salvador Salvation Army Headquarters. So we joined in on the service with major Wilson and his wife and got some updated contact information.
In San Vincente we joined Brad and his host family for a special El Salvadorian dinner of Pupusas, which are like Gorditas in Mexico. We thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Brad and learning some unique El Salvadorian customs/rituals. For example did you know that people in El Salvador cover all mirrors in the house when there is a thunder storm, and to avoid getting arthritis, people do NOT have showers after working or exercising.
The route from San Vincente to Amando Lopez, (don’t bother looking on a map, you will not find this tiny village) was surprisingly still blocked off to motorists due to a flood 4 months ago. We still managed to negotiate the damaged road and turn a few heads in the process. Getting off the Pan-American Highway (Hwy1) and on to the coastal Highway (Hwy2) brought many overhanging trees and beautiful views onto the country side. In Amando Lopez, we met up with Nedal, a German Couchsurfing host, who volunteers in the community. Here we had a swim in a nearby river, played and taught soccer to a group of women and had a chilled out evening. Again, guess what we saw.. .. another two scorpions, in fact one managed to make his way on a girl’s leg, very scary!
We had planned to exit El Salvador by the north, but while having a break under a tree we met Jose who had cycled his recumbent bike from Montreal, Canada to his current home of Chirilagua, El Salvador. It was interesting to learn of all the other cyclists we knew who had also made a slight detour and stayed with this very friendly and generous man. This being said, we now opted for a coastal route out of El Salvador, which meant a few more miles but less hills, not a bad trade off.
Honduras for a scond time
Only a matter of minutes arriving back into Honduras (we had to go back into Honduras to get to Nicaragua) Roland said ¨Honduras hasn’t been too good to the bike, let’s hope the next two days go ok¨. As you can guess, about an hour later…. Wobble wobble….. ¨hey, something doesn’t feel right¨…… yep, our frame snapped again in the same place as in Mexico. We think the impact of hitting the crater (oh sorry, pothole) may have weakened it. Once again, we were back thumbing a ride to get to the nearest town 20kms up the road (which is not on our list of ‘favourite things to do in the world with an extra large bike and trailor’). We found ourselves explaining to the local mechanic that our bike frame is not aluminium, bronze or any other funny metal. The weld didn’t go as smoothly as the first time so we hope it will hold out…. we only have to get to Argentina some 15,000kms away!
We eventually and thankfully made it to the beautiful town of Pespire. This really cute town, equipped with a plaza, church and friendly residents was also the home of our warmshowers host Maite. She was super great and we instantly felt right at home. While dining and finishing off some imported Belgium chocolate, we were soon in the company of another creepy crawly. A huge tarantula managed to find his /her way into our shower and presented a problem for the rest of the evening. Belinda refused to go near the washroom or our bicycle for the rest of the day.
After a naughty visit to Wendy's in Choluteca to enjoy the cool air conditioning and watch all the middle and upper class locals come and go, we cycled back into the mountains. Our last night in Honduras was spent in San Marcos de Colon and after a traditional meal of beans, eggs, chorizo and fried plantain we slept soundly in the fresh night air.