Day 55 - Marko Round The World

Day 55 12/20/2021

Odometer 29,665 – 29,820—– 155 Miles (7115 Miles Total)

Antigua, Guatemala – El Zonte, El Salvador

Finally another country! I woke up pretty early and hit the road. I had plans to ride to Honduras south of El Salvador when I hit the road. I didnt have time to look for a place to sleep at my next destination last night so I figured I would look while riding today. My gps said I would get to the Honduras/ El Salvador border by 4pm and thats not including the border crossing hold ups which would be at least an hour at when I leave Guatemala into El Salvador. The El Salvador/Honduras crossing will be a huge pain in the ass from what Yak said on his last trip here 5 years ago.

I started scouring Airbnb and Hostelworld for a place to sleep in Honduras and there was really nothing anywhere. Shit! I typed in a little spot in Nicaragua and it was too far for my liking for the day. No way I would make it there before sunset and I don’t want to be riding in the dark here. So I gave yak a call and talked to him for a bit about what to do. He said I really needed to go to this little beach town in El Salvador called El Zonte. My original plan was to go here but I really need to make up time to get to Panama by New Years to get my ass to Colombia. I said screw it since there was no where for me to sleep near the next two border crossings. I found a nice Airbnb on the beach here in El Zonte and it was 2 hours drive after I would cross the border into El Sav. Perfect. I can catch up on the blog and relax here before the long ride tomorrow.

I got to the border crossing and tried to prepare myself for what might be hell. I did all the paperwork for the motorcycle and myself in the Guatemalan side and started riding to the El Salvador side. I got there, showed my bike release papers from Guatemala and parked my bike. I got my passport stamped and then went down a few more doors for the customs part to get my bike in. I waited in front of a window for about 15-20 minutes while the border agents were playing with a volleyball in the office. They clearly saw me and im waiting there like an idiot with my papers in my hands. I was getting annoyed. Come on people stop playing games and get to work you have a pretty important job here. Well after about 20 minutes they gave me a piece of paper to fill out in Spanish. That was fun to figure out all the info I had to type in. Once I was done with that I waited around another 15 minutes, walked the agent out to my bike to show him the VIN number and then he went back to his computer for a while. He came back with the papers and said I was clear to go. It only took maybe an hour to 1:15 for the whole process on both sides. Not bad.

I hit the road in El Salvador to get to the beach and it said 2 hours to the beach. The roads were very nice and clean which was lovely because someone I met a few weeks ago said they did the crossing and the roads were terrible. I wonder which road he took. I turned my 2 hour ride into 1:15 since I was riding pretty hard. Tomorrows ride might be quick since I keep burning time off the ETA like you couldn’t believe.

I got to the Airbnb, checked in and unloaded. I had an outdoor room on the beach with a mosquito net and a view of the ocean. not bad for $20 for the night. I went a few hundred feet down the beach and jumped in for a swim and then sat down for lunch. These people take their sweet ass time! Took 2 hours from the time I sat down until I got my change back to pay the bill. All I got was a burger and some seafood with rice. Oh well im in no rush. I went back to the Airbnb to work on the blog, lay in the hammock and went for a walk after. Got some ice cream at a shop, got a smoothie at the bar at my Airbnb and then went for a swim for 3o minutes since I felt very bloated and fat from the smoothie and ice cream!

Yak sent me a picture of the area from when he was here 15 years ago and I showed it to the owner of my Airbnb and he remembered the dogs name from the place where Yak stayed and even remembered one of the guys in the photos. Small world!

Leaving Antigua this morning!