Border guard at the El Salvador - Guatemala border
Day 72 Friday June 20
Left Sonsonate, El Salvador
Temp: 28 degrees C
Sunny
Shortly after seven we were on the road without breakfast hoping to compensate for the two border crossings we had planned to do today.
The El Salvador to Guatemala crossing went without a hitch and we were clear of it in jig time!
We hadn’t gone far on the Pacific coastal roads of Guatemala before we found that the further we went the worst the roads got and the bikes took an awful beating. Then just as we got near the Mexican border some jerk with a beat-up half ton jammed us in an intersection and refused to move. He gouged my right rear hard-bag and twisted my front road-peg around! ……my first experience of “road rage”, I wanted to tear his head off and shove it up his ass! What really got to me was that it was intentional and malicious. I had done nothing whatsoever to provoke him. There are low-life polluting the gene pool no matter where you go!
The Guatemala countryside is beautiful....
People selling fresh fruit as the traffic slows for a topé.
The Guatemala/ Mexico crossing went very well also, with the exception of the “fumigation officer” who insisted that my bike had to be sprayed with industrial strength agricultural pesticides all over. WE had a bit of a set to when I refused to let him do it and insisted that he only do the wheels. We finally settled on me paying him the required fee without him having to do the job and getting the clearance certificate needed at the last check point before entry. Then we were through and heading up the west coast to Tapachoula on some of the roughest road in Mexico. To top things off the skies opened up and we were hammered by what can only be described as TORRENTIAL rain! By the time we pulled into Tapachoula the water in the roads was axle deep and we were making such a wake that the water was splashing over our knees and Denis flooded his spark plugs and was stuck out in the middle of the round-about in the water in the middle of the road with car drivers honking and getting growly. The heat of the engine finally dried the plugs enough to start again and he managed to limp the last hundred yards in to the hotel.
Kilometres - Daytrip: 405km total: 16,331
Gas: $ 22.27
Lodging: Hotel Lacantum $ 64
