Central America

One of the problems of cycling the length of Africa is that it sets quite a high, or long, bar for subsequent endeavour. When we were plotting another long bike ride, we knew we wanted to do it unsupported, which means we can travel less far per day, whereas in Africa we had a support crew who pretty much did everything for us except ride our bikes and hand wash our unsightly and frankly horrifyingly pungent clothing. This therefore meant we were looking for something shorter - ruling out South America and the Silk Route. The conversation ran something like this:

Protagonist 1: “How about the US or Canada?”

Protagonist 2: “Not adventurous enough. We’d only have to speak English...unless we go West to East in Canada. How about Europe? It will be summer.”

P1: “Way too comfortable at this stage of our lives. Save it for when we appreciate the finer things in life. South East Asia?”

P2: “Way too gap yah. Australia & New Zealand?”

P1: “Cycle across the outback? We’re not nearly tough enough and I don’t think Paul Hogan would come with us. Central America?”

P2: [Looking at map] “It’s...it’s...well...it’s a bit...I don’t know...small?”

P1: “Throw in Colombia. And Mexico.”

P2: “Too big.”

P1: “Part of Mexico.”

P2: “Deal.”

And now here we are, several months, moodswings and kilometres later, having cycled across Central America. It doesn’t count as a continent as far as we can remember from our 1988 world atlas (Wikipedia tells us it’s the southernmost “isthmus” of North America, whatever an “isthmus” is…) but it’s the next best thing. And it’s been a serious, but spectacularly wonderful, challenge. 4,000km of challenge to be precise.

Start and the End

Part of the attraction of Central America was the huge variety in such a condensed space - we have got serious bang for our mileage buck. We have had mountains, volcanoes and valleys. We have had lakes, rivers and thermal springs. We have tasted tacos, jerk chicken, fijoles and maize (sweetcorn to us) in every imaginable form. We have seen capuchin monkeys, heard howler monkeys and been riveted by sloths lazing up in the trees. We have snorkeled through fantastical corals, cast magic spells with the phosphorescence in the sea at night, gazed at dolphins sweeping past our jetty and trod carefully around mounds of crabs. We have seen toucans sleeping and swooping, heard parrots squawking and been captivated by the colours of countless birds we couldn’t identify. We have been hypnotized by the sounds of the forests and jungles as we ride past, with cicadas and crickets on the percussion, monkeys on the bass and birds performing the solos.  We have met current or descendents of Mayans, Aztecs, Creoles, Spaniards, African and more recently Incan. We have yo-yo’d from ocean to ocean - the Caribbean in Belize, to the Pacific in Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica, back across to the Caribbean in Costa Rica and Panama, back again to the Pacific in Panama and we even fitted in a final flirt with the Caribbean in San Blas. Whew.

Sunrise

Sunset

Frijoles

Pineapple Empanadas

Toucan

Sampling the many varieties of local beer has also been an important responsibility but one we have stepped up to with vigour and, we would like to think, with some distinguishment. All countries have at least one national beer - some have three or four but all brewed by the same company and tasting virtually identical. They lack much flavour but when drunk cool after a hot day’s riding are absolutely fabulous. From Guatemala on, we have also encountered an emerging micro/craft brewery scene, which have made some great red and golden ales, as well as stout. We look forward to tasting what Colombia has to offer.

Ode to Beer (in pictures)

One of the misfortunes of our timing is that we are here in the rainy season, and are missing summer in England, I'm not sure we were paying much attention when we worked out our dates. The rain started to trickle just as we left Guatemala, burst forth in El Salvador, demanded mercy in Honduras, abated in Nicaragua to give us a breather before striking back with vengeance and drenched us consistently every day in Costa Rica and Panama. At first we kind of enjoyed it. It made a nice change from the searing heat. We are far more used to cycling in rain than melting in 40° heat. On the whole it is a nice warm rain that cools us down as we ride. Although on occassions it is a brutal, all invasive assault and we have to stop as we struggle to keep our eyes open to see the traffic.  In those instances, the sky goes so black it feels like retribution is being delivered.   When it gets so heavy we can’t see the traffic, and are therefore assured that the traffic definitely cannot see us, we look for shelter to wait it out.  It does also make the surface more slippery, which Ali’s elbow and knee can testify to. 

These are surmountable problems and we wouldn’t have minded too much. What has worn us down is the constant challenge with keeping our kit...I won’t say ‘fresh’, just not stinking and damp. Once the day’s rain has passed, the sky stays cloudy and the air wet so nothing will dry until the following morning’s sunshine. One has to evolve to survive. We have done this, albeit somewhat tardily, by turning our bikes into glorified tumble dryers, stringing clothing on bungee cords on our panniers in elaborate setups. This does mean they get dusty, but it also means they dry - which saves both our noses and our bottoms (cycling repeatedly in wet shorts is not something we will elaborate on but its effect is not pretty). The other downside of the rainy season is it has robbed us of the treat of beautiful sunrises. This is one of the huge highlights of being let loose in the outdoors all day, every day. Early in the trip, as we had witnessed in Africa, we saw truly breathtaking sunrises, with a beauty that deeply moved us - with the rains, the clouds are only burnt off once the sun is high in the sky and the pinks, golds and purples are long gone. We’re hoping a change in land mass will yield a change in weather.

Eco Tumble Dryer

Our natural mindset upon arriving in Panama City was not to stop, pause and reflect on this milestone, as the adventure, in our minds and bodies, is the whole ride from Cancun to Quito; we are already, therefore, focusing on our flight to Cartagena and thinking about the myriad logistics the next week or two entail. However, having chatted about it we want to try to make Central America a distinct milestone and achievement for two reasons: a) it is; and b) if we don’t, we fear the Colombia section of the journey will feel like the twilight of the trip and we’ll start thinking prematurely about the end, diminishing our emotional presence and enjoyment in our surroundings - and Colombia will make an excellent surrounding.

Farewell Selfie

So this is Central America signing off. Our next adventure started three days ago. We’re taking five weeks to cycle the length of Colombia. We’ll keep you posted.