Gary has suffered frequent and urgent need for a bathroom throughout the Taco Tour, and today was no exception. When we stopped to refuel about half an hour after breakfast, he turned pale and said "I've got to go - now". He raced inside to collect a key to the bathrooms, then trotted over to the door. He was only inside for a minute, when he came back out with an anguished look on his face. "No toilet paper", he cried, and ran inside to purchase some from the store. We were already laughing, but had tears rolling down our face as we watched someone else calmly walk inside the toilet and lock the door just as Gary came back out of the store clutching his precious roll. Gary nearly had a coronary on the spot, before spotting the vacant ladies bathroom and trying the key in that door. Thankfully, the lock turned and salvation was at hand.
We had a long haul to cover 200km from San Miguel to near San Salvador, then on and up to Suchitoto. Local news was that two bridges were still washed away and impassable, but we decided to see for ourselves whether we could get through on the bikes. This turned out to be a good move, as the bridges were certainly in need of repair but thoroughly traversable.
(volcano just outside San Miguel)
(cacao beans being dried on the road)
We not only made it to Suchitoto, but decided to continue further and to stay up in the cloud forest for the night at a resort. The climb was reminiscent of the roads in Guatemala, and we all enjoyed the series of curves and switchbacks leading all the way up to San Ignacio.
(bridge enroute to San Ignacio)
(stunning and wild mountain scenery)
The resort is quite simply stunning, perched high in the mountains on a large and wooded property. The rooms are expensive at $20.50 per person - but hey, we no complain ...
We set off from the lobby to explore some of the nearby mountain tracks within the resort, and thoroughly enjoyed potting along and admiring the landscape. Stopping for a quick photo (below) turned unpleasant for Ty when my bike happened to be parked directly on top of a freshly squeezed cow pat. What else would a mate do? Ty spent some time scraping his clothes clean and emptying his helmet (yes, it was in the perfect catching position).
Matthias suggested that we would would probably still have enough time to make it up to the summit of a nearby mountain on the bikes, so we headed off up a concrete track that looked promising. The twists and turns on this track were quite incredible, and much of climb was spent in first or second gear. There was also the occasional 'obstacle' to negotiate.
The concrete eventually petered petered out and we were left to finish the climb on mud
The effort was richly rewarded at the top though, with some incredible views down the mountain just as the sun was setting.
The trip back down the mountain proved to be considerably more challenging. On one particularly tight bend (170 degrees), Ty went in quite hot on the muddy surface. The timing was unfortunate as he met a bus coming in the other direction. Both saw each other at the last minute and braked heavily, not easy to do on the slippery mud. It simply was not possible to stop in time, and Ty managed to scrape past on the left side of the bus by less than an inch. The driver's eyes were like dinner plates, and there was a chorus of "loco gringo's" from the passengers.
In an attempt to recover his 'street cred', Ty promptly tried to do a wheelie over a bump in the road. This would have been quite impressive had he not missed the gear, very nearly falling over the front of the bike and running over himself. As it was, his face ended up very near the front mudguard with backside pointing at the sky. To his credit, he did do this in front of an appreciative audience.
The steepest part of the descent was taxing for the bikes, with both Gary and I suffering brake failure as the brake fluid boiled. We were left reliant on engine braking to get us back down the last few kilometers. No danger, but it sure gave Us a 'surprise' when we first leaned into a switchback to find that we had no brakes,
Having a quite dinner at the resort this evening, as we will be heading into Honduras tomorrow morning to load the bikes on the trailer.
Location:San Ignacio, El Salvador
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