So, I need to get an update out, so many things are happening and its hard to keep it up to date, even in my journal. This trip has been such a wicked time.

A recap of whats happened:
Thursday, May 27th
Left Itzapa. Road through some beautiful areas, did about 70km. Beautiful areas included a 15km climb in the pooring rain while overlooking an awesome lake.. a feild of coffee plants, where I stopped for a snack and a break, with some very intesely noisy insects. That were big. And flying around me. Kinda scary. That night was the first night I actually camped, found a beautiful spot on the side of the highway above the road, surrounded in FIREFLIES.. didnt see anyone else the entire night.

Friday
Road over 100km to the El Salvador border.. wow, that killed me. So brutal, so hot, so many hours of riding (I cant remember how many but it was a lot. Left early in the morning and the sun was going down when I got there.. took a couple of short breaks in the day.) It was all on the PanAmerican highway too.. which, as it would turn out, is a very nice highway to bike on. Often the paved shoulder for cyclists is as wide as one of the actual car lanes.
In the afternoon, I noticed that my rear tire was starting to riiipp.. shit! Not good when you have many many kilometers to go, and A LOT of weight on the back of the bike. But, one of the coolest things about Guatemala is that because so many people are forced to commute on bicycle, there are more bike shops than there are gas stations. Even on a highway in the middle of nowhere, I got a replacement tire for CDN$6 in abnout 2 minutes from noticing the rip. I didnt change the tire, however, it was still ridable.
That night, I actually slept between the border for Guatemala and El Salvador. It confused the border people the next morning, when I had stamps from the day before. I paid three fifty US that night to stay in a small room in someones building.. it looked like a hotel that had stopped being used as a hotel.

Saturday
Pedaled very, very slowly into El Salvador. About an hour into the ride, I stopped and asked a woman for some clarification on the roads I was meaning to take. She gave me the directions I needed, and than asked if Id like some water. I said yes. As we walked to her house near by, I was offered fruit. And then bread with a yogurt filling. These things were brought out to me by her son. I ate all very happily.. as I hadnt found breakfast yet that morning..
I was then offered a shower. being on my third day of crazy sweating while riding for hours in the sun, I definately said yes. They helped me bring my very heavy bike inside and gave me a towel. I showered.. wow, it felt really weird, and awesome to be clean. I even wrinsed out some of my clothing.
Sidenote: The showers here in El Salvador are mostly of the pila kind. A pila (pronounced Peila) is a large concrete sink (probably 200L cap.) that is filled up with water, and then used for bathing, washing clothes, washing dishes, and in some cases, storing live fish... so, I showered by using a pail and a bar of soap. Rinse, scrub, rinse some more.
After I showered, she offered to wash some of my clothes. I couldnt bare to do that, they stunk so bad.. (maybe thats why she offered) so I said no. Her son tried to track down a map of El Salvador for me by calling one of his friends, but it didnt work out. As I was leaving, she gave me a big bag of mangos for later on in the day (they lasted me 3 days) and frickin US$5 which lasted me 2 days.
Unfortunately I didnt get her name, I should have. Ill be going back to visit her on my way back through El Salvador (I have to go back through. I was made to promise, by numerous people.)

So, later that day, after buying an El Salvador tourist map (which really, really sucked.. or, maybe just El Salvador in general sucks for navigation, if youre not interested in takeing the route everyone else is taking) I stopped for a break in a small town to change over my tire, which was progressivly getting worse. A couple of people off the street (which turned out to be very awesomely bike savvy) helped me out, and the process of stripping down the gear off of my bike, wrestling with my overly large/heavy/burly rear rack, putting my decent front tire on the rear, putting the cheapy tire on the front, and getting it all back together took only half an hour. As I was loading the stuff back on to my bike an elderly woman (whom I guess had overheard the details of my epic adventure as I was talking to the people who were helping me with my bike) came out and asked if I was hungry. I said.. yes! She envited me inside, and her and her husband sat me down at a table where a very very tastey looking beautiful lunch had been laid out for me. I ate until my stomach hurt.. wow.. food was so good. I still cant really believe that two things like that happened in one day. And I wasnt even staying the night! (foreshadowing..)

Her name is Edna Torres, from Turin, Ahuchapan, El Salvador.

I thanked these people so much, what an awesome experience to have while riding by your self for a first time through a foriegn country.

So, that night, I ended up in a little bit more dangerous area of El Salvador (lets not forget that this is a very violent country, as far as gang warefare goes) so I was forced to sleep in.. a dance club. And, as I wrote in my journal later that night, what can you do when youre exausted, sweaty, smelly, and needing terribly to rest? DANCE! I slept about 2 hours that night, I was up very late helping the guys there set up and take down sound equipment, flirting with strange girls, and crazy dancing to disco music with a good friend I made.

Sunday
Woke up, crazy groggy, stumbled around physical exertion and lack of sleep, and slowly packed my stuff. Due to me sleeping there and all the employees going home I had to drag all my gear and my bike over a 6 foot concrete wall.
Started riding, in search of breakfast. Started feeling better, fresh air an exercise work wonders. Met up with a random sandex-bearing overweight roadbiker dude (theres a lot of them here. In Guatemala too.)

Sat down outside of a gas station for an hour, and ate some pizza.. it was there where I made the decision to continue on riding, and not go back and persue the job offer that I had in Antigua. I could have road back the way I came, and caught a bus from Santa Ana, El Salvador, to home, and made it to work on that monday morning, which I probably needed to do if I wanted that job because getting ahold of them by phone and email was not working. After I left that gas station, I felt so, crazily happy.

That night, I found a guard shack that was watching over a horse ranch.. or rather, they found me. I was wandering around with my bike looking for a quiet place to camp when I guy wandered up to me, with a shotgun in hand. He asked me what I was up to, I told him I was looking for a place to sleep.. he offered me a bunk in his cabin with him and his son.
I said.. sure!! It was awesome, apart from the bugs in my bed that were biting me all night. There was also one of the most violent storms Ive ever witnessed that night.. lasted all nite. I was happy to be inside.

My times running out for today, but theres 2 important things were said to me before I left on this trip, and I wanna repeat them:
Never give up and stop, and
Never refuse help that is being given to you along the way.

I have refused help, someone offered me a ride in a car. And there was the clothes washing thing. But this trip has been so challenging and difficult at times, from all the heat and bugs and things..

El Salvador has proven to be one of my favorite countries. Ive had continuous amazing experiences with people being incredibly generous and welcoming, wherever Ive gone. Sure, the cities are dangerous, but the countryside is not, people welcome you with open arms. Ive stayed away from the cities, and so far the most dangerous situation Ive been in is when a BIG SCORPION.. yes, SCORPION, 6-8" long.. cruised out from underneith a set of drawers I was sitting near, and started walking towards me. I stopped what I was doing, my mouth dropped open, and I just stared.. as it cruised along, the elderly man I was staying with yelled at me saying it was dangerous and pushed me out of the way, and gave it a thunderous stomp. His wife was laughing at me, because of how much in awe I was of it.. It wasnt moving fast or anything, he was just cruizing along doing his cool scorpion thing when a large rubber boot removed his internal organs.

Anyways, right now Im about 25km from the Honduras border, and probably 150km from the Nicaraguan border (!!!) . So Imma bust out. Love you guys, until next time.

Tyler