The border crossing into El Salvador was our slowest yet. It took almost three hours due to "lunch breaks" relaxed officials, and just an overall inefficient process. It was however, not chaotic and crazy like the Guatemalan crossing, which proved to be nice. In our down time we sat in the shade by our bikes, drinking fresh coconut water with cinnamon out of a plastic bag that we purchased for .35 cents from a woman pushing a cart around the grounds. It was a hot day and the waiting time in the AC area was a nice chance to cool off. As we approached the El Salvadorian border from Guatemala the line of semi trucks was backed up for more than two miles. It was quite the sight as we rode past them in the wrong lane for what seemed to be about 15 minutes. In the time it took us to exit Guatemala only a few trucks had crossed, leaving me to believe some of them have to wait days to cross the border. We always trade off watching the bikes as the other goes and takes care of the next step in the crossing process, but since this border was really relaxed and there weren't many people walking around we decided to both go in at the same time to speed things up. During this time Nate found an old man who was just sitting around looking bored to watch our bikes for us. With some simple Spanish and hand signs Nate had the old man, machete and all, sitting next to our bikes with a watchful eye. He was more than happy to get the job, in fact it was probably the most exciting part of his day. We always had an eye on them from a distance but we were confident that our new friend would take necessary action if need be. When we were all done we gave him .75 cents, to which he was very happy and waved good bye.
El Salvador! We had finally made it to the country we were rushing to get to! Extra days in New Mexico at my parents house and unexpected delays along the way had put us behind schedule to make it to El Salvador. Nate had a few friends waiting for him and we wanted to get to El Salvador with as many days left as possible before they had to fly home. It was about noon when we finally crossed into the country and we were excited to get to San Salvador, the big city in the country, and finally be at Ligia's (one of Nate's good friends) apartment and get off the bikes for a while. We had been riding long days, covering many kilometers and knowing we'd have a break from that soon was all we needed to push on for the last few hours. We made it to the out skirts of San Salvador. Of course that's when Nate's bike got a flat tire. With in 30 seconds his rear tire was completely flat. We managed to weave through the traffic and find a place to pull off the road. At my parents house we took our wheels and tires off and taught our selves how to fix a flat for moments just like this. With in 20 minutes we had Nate's bike balancing on one of his side cases, rear wheel off and tube patch kit out. We worked quickly as we could but it was clear that the light of day was going to run out quickly. After about 2 hours we had a new tube in the tire and the rear wheel back on. We hit the road again, riding the poorly lit night streets of the city. Left turns, right turns, up and over the hills until we finally found the correct street. As we turned onto the road Ligia was actually pulling out in her car, about to go search for us. Luckily we caught her and finally we had made it! It felt so good to be "home" after so many days of riding and long hours on the bike. Ligia, our wonderful host, showed us in, and we settled into our own bedrooms, cleaned up and passed out. It was a the best feeling in the world.
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