Merry Christmas Eve Day from El Salvador!

Written 12-24-09 5 a.m.

We don't always have internet access so this starts 12-22

OK so we didn't make it Lake Atitlan but did make it into Guatemala.

Left at 6:30 with cool temps but semi-clear skies. We are up in the higher elevations here and it really keeps things cool here. That fact makes this area popular in the heat of the summer. The lady from the hotel (check previous entry pic of hotel) offered to lead us out of town in her minivan so we wouldn't get lost. That saved us a lot of time that could be spent wandering around. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal but most large towns can be a challenge to get back to the main highway. It eventually warmed up and we enjoyed specatacular scenery cutting through and around mountains particularly between Tuxla and San Cristobal de la Casas.

James, as he likes to be called, always wants to lead and I really don't care as long as we don't get lost because of carelessness or go too slow. Anyway mike told him he needed gas but James said that Mike had plenty and proceeded to ride on. I was hanging back stopping to take pictures now and then and came upon Mike stopped and out of gas. We siphoned gas from my bike to Mike's and made it to the mext gas station. Mike was very gracious to James during that situation and now he stops when asked. James seems to have a knack for finding hotels which is appreciated.

The rain suit is only used for a wind break against the cold. I feel my clothes selection for the trip has been appropriate and haven't had to use my warmest coat yet. I maybe forgot to mention I had purchased some rubber boots in Walmart when Brownsville to be used during rain. They are fairly tall and really did the job for $18 and are very stylish! Might remember to post a pic at some later date hah hah.

Back to riding-we road most of the day taking fairly frequent breaks for gas or drink or potty or food or....well you get the idea. We were stopping too much to make many miles. To be fair down here with all the mountains, small roads, small towns and speed bumps it takes many hours just to get 200 miles in a day. The crossing from Mexico into Guatemala went pretty smoothly with the exception of myself. Apparently when I entered Mexico from Brownsville, Texas immagration did not give me a reciept for entering my bike as a tourist just passing through. This meant I had to pay the $21 then so it wasn't such a big deal.

Approaching the Guatemalan border. Some might notice my new helmet here. I left my old one in a taxi while shuttling around in Veracruz.

While waiting in line to cross in Guat these kids and I entertained ourselves by practicing English and Spanish and by playing with magnets.

Getting my bike fumigated at the border

The small passageway immediately after crossing into Guatemala

KLR parked while getting Quetzallas at the bank

I thought it was supposed to be warm here!!!

The hotel owner (yes we are cold)

We didn't make Lake Atitlan or even our next shortest choice. We made it just over the Guatemalan border and got a room at dark at a roadside hotel. It wasn't great but had a shower and three beds and only $25 for the three of us so that was all that was required.

We were up at 6 and I noticed the trip thermometer indicated a brisk 38 degrees. Eeyow! I ws hoping things would be much warmer down here. Fortunately it did warm up a couple of hours later and we were rewarded with blue skies and light winds. Today was the best day for riding so far. We only did about 230 miles but the scenery was amazing. By the way the internet conneciton here is incredibly slow so i will load pics later. Towards the El Salvador border it was almost tropical and I was down to a t-shirt and sunglasses. I know, I know, always full body armor, helmet, riding boots, etc. but a large part of riding motos for me is the freedom of minimalism. The border crossing out of Guatemala was very easy. As with all borders first you check the bike out of the country, so they know you didn't illegally import it and not pay the taxes required, then you check yourself out. Then you usually go across a narrow area, in this case a bridge, fill out loads of documents for both yourself and your moto. They check VIN numbers and license plate of the moto and make sure all numbers match. They also thoroughly check all your personal paperwork. Guat to El Salvador was a quick one only taking 90 minutes.

This scenery is not hard to take! I'm am the richest man in the world!

They use American dollars as their currency here so we only had to unload our Guat quetzallas to money changers this time.

These Guatemalan kids wanted to touch the moto so I said yes if I could take their pic (and give them magnets)

Because you REALLY don't want to be riding here in the dark we picked a place just 20 miles over the border called Uhuachapan. To get here you ride a tiny paved road along many volcanos and I'm constantly challenged to keep my eye on the road by the beautiful scenery surrounding me. It was about an hour before dark and we found a very nice hotel for the three of us for $53. It is probably one of the best here with high ceilings, nice tile and woodwork, updated bathroom but it still has the two-wire waterheating system. If you are unfamiliar with there the water is heated by being run past two electrical wires to heat it. The more water flow you demand though decreases the amount of heat in the water so usually these kind you don't crank on a lot of water or you will freeze. Zoe and I have seen these in Brazil and they aren't as scary as they sound. We pulled our motos right into the hotel lobby for security-pics later. There was a girl cutting hair across the street so Mike and I quickly showered and got our heads shaved. Not really, she did a nice job.

After a full day of riding with all it's challenges of dodging trucks, tuk tuks, cars, bicycles, pedestrians, topes, and the navigating and border crossings we are pretty tired so after Skyping Z I was ready for bed pretty early.

This a.m. we ride through El Salvador and maybe do another border crossing. I'm not sure as maybe I am wearing the guys out but the more we lag the longer it will take to complete this ride and we still have many, many miles to go

Have a Merry Christmas everybody! I hope you are happy and healthy. Enjoy your families and friends and count your blessings every day. You have no idea how lucky you are. ...and Zoe...I love you more than ever and consider myself the luckiest guy ever to have you to share life with even when we are apart. You are something special to understand me! John

Oh yeah, dead dog count-7