For those in the know….. Ciudad Pedro de Alvarado, Guatemala > Frontera Guatemala/El Salvador > Pan Americana 2 > Pacific coast road > Puerto de la Libertad > Zacatecas > Usulután > Playa del Coco > La Union> launch to Potosi, Nicaragua.

With memories still smarting from our entrance into Guatemala, we intended to set a better example on the next border crossing. The last had to be an aberration, a lack of concentration, and some unfortunate timing. This time we would be crossing at first light, we could even see the border barrier from the hotel room we had rented.

Many hotels have a secondary business; some are pharmacies or beauty parlours, others are hardware stores or party planners; this one’s was a lorry-park.  As such, it had, of necessity, an armed guard.  As to whether they stayed awake, I can’t say.  What I do know is that all those drivers were sleeping, chatting, you-tubing on the verandah outside our window, and It took some planning to negotiate our bikes through the strewn bodies in the gloom the next morning.

It would appear that we have two nations that speak unto one another.  Leaving Guatemala took moments, long enough for the officer to apply a stamp and add a piece of paper.  Now to complete an entry to El Salvador.  Pedal up to an official standing by the road. A  welcome, a glance at my passport, extracts said piece of paper I got mere moments ago, and she tells me I’m good to go.  Twenty seconds max.

Relaxed.

From such are positive first impressions created.  One that carries on as we head away from the border. The geography is similar to that which we’ve left behind, but the whole atmosphere is different. You feel it immediately.

Relaxed.

Kids are heading to school, immaculate in pristine uniforms, three to bicycle, four to a moto. A horse cart trots past hauling milk churns to the creamery; a black Brahman bull, dappled in the shadows of a shade tree, chews meditatively on a sugar stalk.  The first ‘Chicken Bus’ passes: sedately, quietly, fumelessly.  Positively unsettlingly.

Relaxed.

Then the first of many cane trucks growls by, tandem trailers that have that ‘suck – blow – suck – spat out’ effect, which could be disconcerting if it wasn’t for the fact that El Salvador has some of the best roads in Central America, and they all come with a two-metre asphalted hard shoulder.  There for the wandering herds of cows, diesel cans awaiting the tanker, occasional bullock cart, and two well satisfied Bike Tourers.