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CHAPTER 32

DAYS 74/75/76/77/78/79/80/81/82/83/84. Blur/ blur/ blur

Got the picture? Yes I have some catching up to do as you can see and the reason for the lack of creative writing is that each night I have just felt like eating and crashing into bed and somehow the energy to be witty,creative,insightful,thoughtprovoking has just not been there. Must be getting soft in my old age

So this is a little catchup synopsis of the last nearly 10 days.

Firstly it was a short trip to a down to the coast of Mexico followed by another day heading inland again to the city of Huxtla. It was there we caught up with Kens wife Shirley who flew into there directly from New Zealand.

We then did a short hop up to a mountain town called San Cristobal De Las Casas. What a delightful town with cobbled street and old European styled buildings. At the same time it is home to a large number of the local indigenous peoples and there are some obvious tensions there between the 1"haves" and the " have nots" this is Zapatista territory and the rebel movement is still very much alive. I was not game to put a Zapatista sticker on my bike panniers !

After San Cristobal De Las Casas it was across the Sierra Madre mountains and down to the coast again ready for the crossing into Guatemala. We were reminded very sharply of the fact we were back in the tropical lowland by a absolutely heavy tropical downpour that started about an hour out of our destination. The heavens opened and by the time we got to our destination we were absolutely soaked, the roads were flooded up to 12 inches deep and the streets were awash with flood waters. It was very very hazardous riding made worse by being at the end of a very long day. We gave up trying to find our chosen hotel and grabbed the first one we could find.

The last 6 day dear reader have just been a blur as we have done 6 countries and six border crossings in six days plus some serious mileage on top of it. It has gone like this -

Tuesday. Mexico
Wednesday Guatemala
Thursday. El Salvador
Friday. Honduras
Saturday. Nicaragua
Sunday. Costa Rica

And each border crossing involves about 2 hours,heat,dirt and some corrupt officials. More details later.

And then on to Panama. Why the rush? Sounds like a six day European bus tour does it not ? Well the reason is that we have to be in Panama in three days time to catch the boat the Stahlratte which makes its monthly crossing to Cartegena in Colombia a day later.

I have volumes to write about Central America covering the good,the bad and the downright ugly! So watch this space over the next few days as I put my observations together along with some representative photos

Now it is a case of dragging one very weary body off to bed ready for another tough day tomorrow. Is it all worth it you might ask ? Betcha!

Hasta Luego amigos from a tired fella !




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