We left Guatemala by hoofing it up some serious hills in the rain. Due to weather and elevation gains we were forced to spend the night at the border, but we found a very nice, albeit simple, place to stay at a family inn. The water turned brown around 8 in the evening due to torrential rain, and there was gum stuck to the wall next to my bed, but we were dry and cool. Good enough.

In the morning we crossed into El Salvador - that makes 5! The initial ride was lovely - the weather was beautiful, the road was freshly paved, and it was 10 km of downhill! The first thing we made sure to do was stop at the grocery store. We made an unsuspected discovery of a new pastry - semita. It was just dense, flaky pastry filled with fig jam. Delish! As we continued on we felt very fortunate for our situation. The traffic here has been far more sparse, and the road conditions much better. It's wonderful to actually get to enjoy riding again.

The first city that we cruised into was Santa Ana. Rough around the edges is an understatement. It had a feel similar to Belize City - not the safest place, and not enough money to go around. We hunted for spokes for Eric (yeah, they've been breaking again...sigh...), but without much luck. In our whirlwind tour of the city we saw the huge, gritty market, and took advantage of all the fresh produce and got some for dinner. We also swung by the fancier (relatively) center of town and each had fresh fruit juice. Also delish!

The main reason for stopping in Santa Ana was to avoid San Salvador. The homicide rates are through the roof in the city, violence is often at random, and traffic and pollution are oppressive. We thought it best to avoid the situation. So, finding some spokes that would do in a pinch, we made a run for the coast. How beautiful it is! We happened to be in the right place at the right time and met Carlos. He was staying at a friend of his' summer home, and invited us on in to stay. And we did - for two days. Carlos and his family left, but we were well taken care of by Miguel, the groundskeeper, and his children. We went for early morning swims on the deserted black sand beach, ate local food, laughed with the kids, ate delish banana bread, and relaxed after a week of mentally tough riding. And, I'm happy to report, I have nearly made it to the end of War and Peace. I'm just bummed that it won't make it home to my library - we are ready to ditch the 696 page hardback sucker!

After leaving Playa Mizata we wound up in an equally welcoming but totally different situation. For the first time in my life I attended mass. Back to the beginning...As we go further south 'problems' seem to be getting heavier, so this is a part of the world that we have been looking for more help in. After getting out of a particularly sketchy town that we stopped into for a grocery store and internet cafe run, we needed to find a place to stay. The hotels in the area were through the roof because of the international airport, so we decided to humbly try the church. Without a moment's hesitation we were invited in, offered cold drinks and the TV remote, and that was that. We stayed with three Catholic priests, and one of them was giving mass that evening at the national academy for public security (police academy), so we attended even after professing to adhere to no religion! Afterword we were taken out to dinner for pupusas - delicious discs of corn and rice flour filled with all sorts of delish combinations - and horchata. In the morning we tried to say thanks by cooking oatmeal for everyone, but we were outdone by the heaping bowls of fruit, rolls, yogurt and fresh squeezed orange juice that were subsequently brought out. We tried!

We are currently in Usulutan in a quaint little hotel where a girl "From Jersy" met us at the door. You never know where you will run into English speakers! We spent our afternoon attempting to guzzle 2.5 liters of grapefruit soda between the two of us; cooking beets, rice and a can of pork and beans; heating and pouring olive oil into Eric's ear to relieve the ache he has had; watching the lightning illuminating the volcanoes in the distance; and desperately trying to catch up on internet tasks.

I can't believe that we have come so far and yet so little. We always overestimate how many kilometers we can do in one day even though we have had 5 months of practice, so it always feels like we are behind schedule. And yet, we have no schedule to be behind on. So I try to enjoy all the moments that come to us, enjoy the fact that we have no timekeeping device, enjoy when things get tough, enjoy the obnoxious yells that we get, enjoy making good and bad all relative, and love knowing that the goal is everywhere in between our start and finish points.

Photos: Sugar cane fields, the Pacific!, Miguel and his family, corn fields, two of the priests and their 4 dogs, the watermelon we purchased for 25 cents

Hola Guatemala!

Number of sneezes in Belize:
Merilee: 11
Eric: 128

Eric has what one might call an unusual sensitivity to exposure to sunlight. If only we had kept track in Mexico...

The night before leaving Placencia we re-ran into some folks who we originally met along the highway. Unfortunately we didn´t get to spend much time with them, but it was great to meet more wonderful people. One of them was herself a cyclist, so perhaps we´ll convince them to meet up with us in some other fun country!

We left our little sun-kissed paradise (the last day it was finally sunny, so we hung out on the beach!) early on a rainy morning and had fun cramming all of our gear into a little water taxi...it´s like being at the grocery store and having the heaping cartful of everything, and everyone behind you is just antsy for it to be all over with. Luckily, nothing moves very quickly around here, so it was no big deal.

That day we rode 100+ kilometers to arrive at PG. Yeah, people are so laid-back that they don´t even take the time to call their town Punta Gorda. And there we met Mags. I thought he said Max at first, but then he lifted up his shirt and, lo and behold, his tattoo identified him as indeed Mags. This man with dreds as long as my arm works for a local inn, but it was more expensive that what we were looking for, so he invited us over to his house. We knew we´d have to pay something, but we figured it would be more fun than hanging out in an overpriced hotel room. Although he was a bit of a strange fellow, we spent the night safe and dry, and in the morning he offered us coffee and hot dogs. We packed up all of our sodden things (more overnight rain), bought tickets for another water taxi, got our passports stamped and went to Guatemala. I mean seriously, how boring. This whole country hopping thing is already getting old.

Well, what can we say about Guatemala...everyone is amazingly friendly and kind, we get blessed with cloud-cover every morning, and the scenery is beautiful. I think. You see, we don´t really get to look around. We have spent the vast majority of our time here trying not to get killed on the road. We are too young to die! Plus, I don´t think my parents would be happy if they had to assume responsibility for all my student loans. But seriously, the traffic is horrific, and trucks choose to run us down rather than slow if it is obvious that we have no where to go. It is the oddest thing - people give us all sorts of waves, beeps and thumbs up, but then whiz past us at 60 mph 6 inches from our handlebars. WTF? If only people drove as friendly as they are on the sidewalk.

Good stories from Guatemala:

Amidst a barrage of scooters, bikes, semis and vans, a small red car drove by, a young boy poked his head out of the window, and gave us a smile and a peace sign. That made my day!

Eric went into the market at lunchtime to look for a bit of food, and I stayed with the bikes. I sat next to a little boy of about 4, and he immediately asked what my name was. I told him, asked his name, and then he asked me what Eric´s name was. I answered, and he was quiet for a bit. After a minute he looked at me and said, ¨I thought his name was Gringo because his hair is like this,¨ and he made a gesture with his hand indicating Eric´s long locks.

We stayed at a hotel last night for the first time in 10 days, and there was in it the most amazing fan we have had the honor of using on this trip. We slept like logs. And we only paid $5.

When we got to the hotel, we chatted with the owner a bit. While we were there her son got out a package of cookies and gave us each one. Cute!

We continue to completely confuse people. Guys? Girls? Today we got a ¨Hey Honeys,¨ and Eric, according to our plan, replied with a bass ´Hello!´

Picture this: Eric and I by the side of the road, stuff strewn everywhere, traffic whizzing by. What are we doing? Truing Eric´s wheel. With the ukulele. F# people.

Anyway, that´s life as we know it for now. We´ll be crossing into El Salvador tomorrow, so we´re excited to see what that brings. For now we are off to cook and buy soda - we are thoroughly addicted!

Photos! Well, what little of Guatemala we saw; A butterfly hitching a ride with Merilee, A parrot hitching a ride on my bike, pregnant women sign, burning trash, and a church. That is all there is to Guatemala!

Scorpion drama

And now, something you've all been waiting for! Merilee and Eric versus Scorpion on the big screen!!!!

Fixed Bikes, Paradise, and Scorpions!

In response to the last blog, yes, my wheel is fixed!!! I had to brave Belize City again, and perhaps I will never have to go there again in my life. But, I am forever grateful to the Chinese stores of the city because they helped me find what I needed.

Anyhow, we traveled to Placencia the next day after I had my wheel fixed. We rode the first half of the day in driving rain. The water poured down the back of our legs in streams and our shoes became little ponds that our feet were stuck in. The wonderful thing about Belize is when the sun comes out though everything gets dry real quick. So after the sun came out we dried real quick. Placencia is described as paradise. It pretty much is, nothing but beach cabins, coconut trees and endless beach with blue water. Merilee and I set up our tent under Miss Grace's porch so we could escape bugs and the frequent rain downpours. We made dinner consisting of plantains and egg and cheese sandwiches. Quite yummy really.

This morning we woke up, ate our giant oversized cookie shaped fortune cookies, (another great thing about Chinese stores) and went to breakfast. I got mistaken for a woman again. Nothing funnier than some dude thinking he is real suave and smooth to realize that the ladies he just said his sexiest hello to are actually one dude and one lady. We ate fry jacks with beans and chicken. Fry jacks are triangular pieces and fried bread. Think bengets (spelling?) or just fried chewy bready goodness. We also got to watch some of the Tour de France. We feel somewhat related to those bikers when they are in the mountain stages.

Later we swam in a warm ocean and then went back to shower. Last night, in our bathroom, there was a scorpion. It was gone this morning. This afternoon, it decided that the best place to hang out was right above the shower head. I very hesitantly took a shower under the scorpion. As I shampooed my head, I would only close my eyes for mere instants lest the scorpion decide an aerial attack. Leaving the shower I warned Merilee of our friend. Well, she was not about to shower below our friend. So out comes the broom. With a few timid swipes she manages to thoroughly piss off the arthropod. (Interruption: Have you ever tried to write a blog while someone is number twoing next to you? There is no door, just a curtain, you do the math...) Finally Merilee takes a stand and knocks it down. Now in the shower stall a scorpion is running around, but with a few skillful sweeps of the other end of the broom the scorpion is out the door running away on the sand. Merilee and Eric 1, Scorpion 0!!

So, ten minutes after we shooed off the scorpion I am sitting trying to get the internet to work. All of a sudden a big black bug lands on my shoulder. Of course, I freak out thinking it is a scorpion and desperately try to shake it off. I manage to fall over, bang my shin on the concrete edge, and drop the computer in the process of ridding myself of a harmless gecko. Sheesh, my heart was racing!

pictures...Blue hole, Water goodness, sexy siblings, and forget train crossings look out for the plane!

Stranded in Belize

Eric's wheel drama has come to a head. For the first time on this trip we have to backtrack a bit. Luckily, just on a bus. After a ridiculous number of broken spokes due to a bulging rim, we have hit the end of the road without professional intervention. So, he's headed to Belize City eeearly tomorrow morning in the hopes that it can be fixed, and I'm going to make a mad dash for the end of War and Peace while chilling under the rooftop palapa (think open-air thatched roof bungalow) where we are staying. We'll keep y'all posted as to the outcome...In the meantime I'll just say that we are enjoying Belize - it's not a bad place to be stuck for a couple of days! The rhythm of life here is very laid-back, you never know what languages are going to pop up around you (Creole, Spanish, English, a variety of Mayan dialects, Mandarin in a Chinese grocery store, Tamil, etc.), and right next door a woman sells homemade baked goods out of her house. I'll take it!

PS Tomorrow we will be braving the most extreme adventure of this trip thus far...tap water!

Central America!!!!

We've noticed a recent complaint from one of our blog followers about our lack of posts recently. We intend to address this. The reader shall remain nameless, but you can find said comment on the San Cristobal blog... :c)

So, we've made it to BELIZE! And man does it feel strange to speak to everyone in English. But let's start at the beginning: Customs. Suddenly the whole world grew 6-8 inches. There were black people (I think maybe we saw 5 in Mexico). And we weren't the only white people. And we were not allowed to take in fresh produce, so we sat our cheap-asses down on the floor and consumed everything we possibly could rather than surrender it. That's just how we roll. We also, apparently, roll in the rain. It rains a lot here. And people drive like locos. It's actually quite scary.

So our first night in Belize was shared in a guesthouse with a German brother and sister travelling together, and some rowdy Mennonites. It seemed odd to me too. The following day we headed to Belize City, which is probably the roughest place I have ever been to. Buildings are all wrapped up in barbed wire, stores sell their wares from behind re-bar, the poverty is all too apparent The closest vibe I've ever encountered would have to be New Orleans, but like the poorest sections of the city. If this had been the first place we had arrived we probably would have shit our pants about it and panicked. Luckily we've got a bit of experience under our belts, and day 2 in the city wasn't as jarring. The city takes its day of rest very seriously, and we had to work hard to find a little place to watch the World Cup (go Spain!). We actually landed in a big place - Princess Hotel and Casino. Ha! Anyway, we'd like to show you some pictures...oh but wait, there was pretty much no way that we could take our camera out at any time. We decided to keep both the camera and our peace of mind, so we left it behind when we went out. Sad :c(

The following night we stayed at the Tropical Education Center which is where we had our closest encounters with potential mosquito borne illnesses and the Pacific Northwest - we met a guy from Portland Oregon at a random campground in Belize. That's just how it goes. And back to the bugs...O.M.G. Yeah, it was that bad. Bad enough that I just typed omg. We were lucky enough to be able to escape into the screened dining room, but when we had to go back to the tent it was full-on war. We have oh so much respect for Deet now.

Yesterday we continued on with the intention of making it to Blue Hole National Park, but instead met some kids at a bus stop in Armenia. Did we mention that we changed continents? Their dad came by a little later, in charge of his fruit stand nearby, and offered us a place to stay. So we spent the afternoon reading, writing, fixing Eric's wheel (again) and relaxing. After the sun had gone down a bit we went to the park and played with the kids, and then they took us to the creek where we splashed around in their own private swimming hole. They even went into the grove and got us all mangoes - absolutely delicious! In the evening we ate with the family - fried egg, beans, handmade flour tortillas and banana chocolate fondue for dessert. We braved our hot, soggy tent that night, but it was worth it to have had the opportunity to hang out with a Belizian family.

In the morning we all ate oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, and then we were off again with some delicious local bananas in tow. We stopped at the Blue Hole park just down the road to explore St. Herman's cave and take a dip in the limestone sinkhole filled by an underground spring. Oh, and by the way, every place that we have been to recently where the water is supposed to be blue...not so. Rainy season = brown water. But, after sweating up a storm in the jungle we were happy to be able to splash around and cool off, especially since we had the place to ourselves!

A Farewell to Mexico

It is virtually impossible to believe, but we are no longer in Mexico. We ended our stay with a bang - 2 overpriced tacos, one last crappy instant Nescafe, and more rain than we knew what to do with. After leaving Palenque we continued on toward the Yucatan. We were planning to go to Merida, but we ultimately decided that it would be better to make a run for the border, so we headed East. Our first stop was Chable, a town that we had been warned against - "I would never stay there ever." It turned out to be, for all we could tell, a very friendly little place, and we slept safe and sound on the police station floor. They seemed to take a liking to us right away when we arrived, and quickly swept and mopped a little area for us to stay in. We even got a shower and the use of the kitchen. Sweet! And then we got to Escarcega. Odd place. It was one of the few cities in Mexico where we felt ill at ease...but we made the best of it watching TV! to our hearts' content in our sunny ( = hot) little room. Oh yes, this room had an interesting set up - a fan that was inclined to behead Eric and a bathroom with very little privacy - the walls didn't extend all the way to the ceiling, and the shower came dangerously close to plunging over the top. But the bed was super comfy, so we slept like rocks. One of our memorable moments along this section of the trip was in Con Haus. We pulled over to ask some people on their porch where we could ask about finding a place to sleep, and they wound up taking us in. We watched telenovelas, drank strawberry soda and slept on a comfy mattress in a house paid for by illegal aliens working in the US. Yup, everything seems to come full circle. Anyway, the southeast of Mexico hasn't been as open as the northern part, so we felt especially lucky to spend one of our last nights chatting with a local family. In the next town we slept in the clouds. Basically fog set in for the evening and never lifted, so we had a damp night on the roof of the police station. The officers were all friendly, though, so we stayed up way past our bedtime talking about all sorts of random things. Speaking of random things: locusts. They are EVERYWHERE and they have a death wish. They were literally covering the road where we were riding, were gigantic, and had a penchant for launching themselves into our spokes. Crunch! Our last stop in Mexico was quite enjoyable. We found a (relatively) cheap hotel with wifi (but just in the lobby) and parked ourselves on the sofa for the vast majority of the 40 hours that we were there doing research on...Central America! And how to vertically true a wheel. We'll let you know when we ourselves find out. Want to know frustrating? In the dictionary it says "Eric's back wheel." Who knows how many flats, who knows how many broken spokes, who knows why the hell Schwalbe marathons take multiple people and way too much elbow grease to take on and off, who knows how fast the tire will go bad because it keeps attacking the fender...arghh!! And now comes the moment when we disseminate our great knowledge of the vast and mysterious country of Mexico. Keep your wits about you, this is gonna go fast.

1. It is difficult to maintain one's prestigious membership to the Solid Stools Club at any given time
2. Asses never cease to be funny - hee haw just doesn't begin to do these sonorific animals justice
3. Asses never cease to be funny - I haven't laughed about shitting and farting in my entire life as much as I have on this trip alone
4. The people of Mexico are downright awesome. Period.
5. Mexicans, my friends, know how to properly use sugar. Coke never tastes good, but Manzana Lift sure the hell does.
6. When was the last time you saw a horse pull up to a gas station?
7. Food, food, food!!!
8. "Salina Cruz is only 12 kilometers away. You'll be there in about 10 minutes." "It's about 100 kilometers to Gomez Palacio, so you'll be there in about an hour."
9. Gender is very important, and people here often stick to their roles. We seem to confuse people. The simple sight of Eric's blonde flowing locks often turn us into a female duo, although there was this one time that I said "Good afternoon" to a gentleman and he responded "Man or woman?"
10. We are foreigners, so therefore we have money to burn. People have tried to sell us, while riding, food, drink, toys, watermelons, taxi rides, caged birds, guitars, etc.

But in all seriousness, Mexico was an amazing place to be. I had no idea that I would be so enchanted by it, and we never could have imagined the amazing kindness that we encountered here. The best analogy that I can come up with is that it felt like crowd surfing. We were passed safely along by the hands of hundreds of people, from those who simply waved or said hello to entire families that opened their doors and hearts to us. We will be working hard for a long time to come, and I mean that in an incredibly positive sense, to put all that good energy back into the world around us. I am excited to see the ways in which that manifests itself. A la gente de Mexico, un monton de gracias! Hemos aprendido tanto de ustedes, y por todo estamos realmente encantados y agradecidos. Que les vaya superbien a todos y que esten de lo mejor!

San Cristobal de Las Casas

Really I have no idea where to start to write this blog. There is no good way to try and describe our stop in San Cristobal, especially in an hour alloted by the Cyber net! Which also means this will lack photos, and those are dearly needed to understand how wonderful of a time we had. As Merilee said eariler, we stopped to visit my friend from Americorps (Fuck yea) Fergie, and we ended up staying a little over two weeks.

What we did, well... We made lots of good good food, our friend from Oaxaca, Arturo, came out for a few days to visit us, we ate paletas, we walked with baby Cora, we ate tacos, we danced a bit, watched others dance, played dress up and dance to Lady Gaga, rediscovered our love for youtube and wireless internet, got called a few derogatory names, tried not to get hustled in markets, saw tigers pass through the main plaza, drank coffee, made no less than 20 thats what she said jokes a day, had a BBQ, took care of three crazy kitties, supported the taming of no less than 10 wild kitties, woke up late, and.....SLEPT on an amazingly comfortable bed!!!!! So thankyou again so so much Annie and Fergie for puttting up with us for so long. And Americorps reunion next summer, it is on!!!

Anyhow, the pictures we have tell this all perhaps much better than I ever could! OK onward!

So, we finally drug ourselves away from San Cristbal in a torrential downpour. The highway was sloppy, our clothes were sloppy, and every passing car looked on incredulously at two biking Gringos. The road was beautiful though even in the rain. We made it up to high country farm land. Green pastures and ranch houses set on the top of tree covered slopes falling down hundreds of feet. Quite amazing, but I cannot even begin to fathom the work that goes into farming on those terrains. When we made it to Oxchuc, we gave all the townspeople a treat for their eyes as we sloshed in and stayed at a comfy posada. I think I enjoyed the best shower of the trip there.

SIDE NOTE VERY IMPORTANT!!! To all travelers going through San Cristobal: I lost a sock to a crappy Lavanderia, NEVER go to the blue lavanderia on Real de Guadalupe!!!!! They claim to cover lost clothes (it says so on their sign) but they would not cover mine! It seems insignificant, but I now have 3 socks for the trip! WTF. Anybody ever found smart wool in Mexico?

Ok, so then we went to Agua Azul, but thanks to emense amounts of rain it should probably be called Aqua Cafe. But, here we found our first taste of Mexican tourist traps. We paid more than the acutal entrance fee, and as well as some Zapatistas. Although, I admit I trust they are doing more good than the roving people in the park trying to make a buck. But, you pay a park entrance fee only to pay to use the bathrooms, stay under palapas, and get hounded by people saying one thing than more saying another. Ok, on the bright side, the falls were beautiful and Merilee and I (got the grammer right that time!) almost blew ourselves up. I currently have much less leg hair beacause of our brilliance.

The story is this, our stove, which runs on either white gas or unleaded fuel, was filled with unleaded gas. Our pump cup, the cool thing that helps us pressurize the fuel so that is comes out properly is broken. So we were lubricating the pump cup (ahemm.. that is what she said? anyone...) and got a little gas to come out. YAY! Problem solved. So we are starting the stove but the flame goes out, but we can still hear the gas so we are trying to relight it. But...it takes a moment because our matches suck!! Well, I kinda forget that car gas (being as this is the first time we have tried to light the stove with it) is much much more flammable than white gas (whose fumes just disapate). So when the match finally lights, gas fumes are everywhere and so is the fire which Merilee and I have just started on the wooden community platform in the center of the park. Go us!! So I am like get the water!! We are kinda dazed. I am mourning my curled and burned leg hairs. But! But!!!! Instead of throwing water on the stove we let the gas burn off (beacuse we still want to eat) and the stove is working!!!! We win! So we make rice with squash and kale, and top it with eggs and serve it in tortillas. Arent you jealous?

Anyhow, it is what it is. Yesterday we made it out of the mountains in Chiapas. Advice for anyone looking to bike through Chiapas, take a motored bike. But, we made it to Palenque and saw the ever famous Mayan ruins here. And they are pretty amazing (ahemm Pictures!). I don{t think I made it clear though, the mountains were taking a toll on us. And the weather, but we made it and I am pretty proud of that.

Well, we hope now that our ride around the Yucatan will be reasonably flat and perhaps we will even make good time.

Homework! If anyone hears of a hurricane heading to the Yucatan Penninsula, let us know. Please.