From our roadside parting I headed north paralleling the coast, avoiding the capital city of Managua, and twisting down roads that, despite the pockmarked surface, were quite the roller coaster ride. All along my route I had a string of towering volcanoes on my right and the pacific ocean on my left, although not always within view. Just before sunset I found my way to a backpackers I had heard about located in the little coastal town of Jiquilillo called Rancho Tranquilo.
A corridor of palm trees led me into the rancho, a large palapa with rooms on either side of an open common area. At the far end of the property was a little gate leading out to a flat beach with gray sand and waves curling in toward land stretching as far as I could see. What was missing from the picture was people; the beach was completely deserted. I think I can deal with that. I decided to stay for a day and took a stroll down the beach and into the estuary that makes the town of Jiquilillo just a finger of land surrounded on three sides by water. Take a place like this and add great people and great food and it's easy to imagine finding oneself lost here for many days.
With Rancho Tranquilo behind me a pushed north and inland to make my way to the western most border crossing with Honduras, once again in the shadow of the towering volcanoes which dominate the prarie landscape here.
I arrived at the fronterra around mid day and began the paperwork needed to exit Nicaragua and enter Honduras only to find mid way through the process that it was now lunch time and I would have to wait an hour. That's fine and dandy except that the official that I needed to submit my paperwork to simply came out of the office and stood by chatting with the money changers and border agents who had been "helping" me with the process. Hmm. With my wallet greatly lightened, I headed off across the short section of green Honduras I had to cross to find my way to the border with El Salvador. Another 30 minutes of racket and a handful more money set me free from Honduras and off I went across the bridge into El Salvador as the sun ducked below the horizon and dark rainclouds drizzled down a cooling mist.
I get the feeling that Honduras is on a whole different page than the rest of the central american countries when it comes to visitors or tourists or whatever you want to call them. It seems that they want to take as much money and time from you when you enter or exit the country. In contrast, El Salvador simply required filling out a form, making some photocopies and then I was free to ride on. I found an cheap hotel with secure parking in the town of San Carlos just ten or so miles from the border and was happy to lay down to rest after such a long day.
With sunlight creeping through the interlocking terracotta tiles of the roof, I emerged into bright sunshine and set out to make tracks as I had planned to end up further north yesterday (no thanks to Honduras border crossings). Heavy traffic, at least the heaviest I've experienced in a while, accompanied my morning travel as I made my way south towards San Salvador before I turned south to head for the coast. I stopped for breakfast at the parquero centro in the little mountain town of Santiago de Maria and had a wonderful plate of eggs, rice, beans and tortillas with coffee and freshed squeezed orange juice. mmm mmm good. With a full belly (well full enough) I headed onward finding my way onto El Salvador highway 2 which parallels the coast line several miles inland for the southern half of the country. The northern half of highway 2 is a true coastal highway that seemed to me to be someones attempt at copying California Coastal Highway1. The road twists, turns, rises and drops, following the following the contour of the coastline affording grand views of the ocean crashing onto the cliffs below. Definitely one of the best sections of road on the trip encouraging the use of 3rd gear to launch oneself out of hairpin turns and around the slow traffic. Yeehaw!
Not being able to take pictures of the sights while riding a decided to take a lunch break at a beautiful overlook. Wanting to take full advantage of my seaside comedor, I ordered up the first fish item on the menu with no idea what I was going to arrive in front of me. A large grilled fish stuffed with lots of shrimp in a cream sauce was the result of my food adventure and all I could think of was how this was something you would only find at a Legal Seafood back home. Looks like I'm all set with food for the rest of the day.
to be continued....
-Colin
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