This was the first of several “not so pleasant” riding days
for me. It rained. All day.
Many times there was very poor visibility. There was no doubt I’d be riding with my
jacket on. Plus, it was colder, so the
jacket was welcome.
We started out at 7:00am from the campamento after a sub
sandwich breakfast. Yes, I know that sound odd as breakfast food, but, honestly, it
was quite good. Plus, it’s filling and
easy to digest – which are good things for “bike food”.
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| Leaving San Pedro Sula |
Once again we started out all together – in rush-hour
traffic in San Pedro Sula. That made for
a few upset car drivers, but it worked well to keep us safe. At the point where the racers started, it
looked like we would have some good highway with a nice shoulder to ride
on. We did. For about a mile before the road detoured
onto some pretty dicey road. Lots of
mud, no shoulder, high traffic, and rain.
Ah, Honduras… Nothing much to do
but tuck your head and ride. And so I
did. I was riding much slower,
respecting the rain, and being passed by lots of people.
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| Abe, Levi, and Michael -- cycling from Paraguay back home to Indiana |
I was thankful for the mirror on my glasses so that I could
keep an eye on the vehicles coming up from behind. It was very foggy and I was
concerned about visibility. I was
wearing my HiVis yellow jacket, but that was only a minimal comfort. More than occasionally vehicles were going to
be passing too closely, and at least I would have a chance to steady my bike
from the backdraft. This went on for too
long for my comfort. To say that I wasn’t
enjoying myself too much would be a bit of an understatement.
Right at the 30-mile point, I was at La Barca. The road gets wider there and there is a
pretty decent shoulder. Oh, and a hill. Nine miles long. Yes, from La Barca all the way to the turnoff
for Santa Cruz de Yojoa it’s all uphill.
Actually, it’s still more uphill past the turnoff, but I’m getting ahead
of myself.
The hill’s not steep, just long. So you climb, and climb, and climb. And then climb some more. Being able to ride on the shoulder was good
because this stretch of road is completely straight and cars, trucks, and
buses go as fast as possible here to make up for any time they’ve lost on any
other part of their journey. Or, just
because they can go fast.
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| Cars, trucks, and bikes -- together in the rain |
Just past the turnoff to Santa Cruz de Yojoa I decided that
I had had enough. My knees were hurting just a bit
and I was cold. Thankfully, that was
right about the time the bus was coming up behind me. As they pulled over, I told them I was done
for the day. My bike was put on the accompanying
pickup truck which already had 3 or 4 bikes on it.
We got to Naturaleza, at the lake, and it was time to find
my luggage and rummage through it for some dry clothes. That didn’t really take too long since I knew
which bus my things were on. I changed
and then completely rinsed out my cycling shoes – they were covered with
mud. Oh, and speaking of mud… I have
never, ever, ever had mud and sand on the INSIDE of my cycling shorts before. But there it was when I changed. And if mud
and sand were inside my shorts, then… Um, never mind.
Lunch was being served at Naturaleza. We waited for the final folks to come in, dry
off, eat, etc.. We had a bit of time to
wait before getting on the buses and heading back up to Santa Cruz de Yojoa,
where the day’s event was. It was also
determined that our bikes would stay at Naturaleza overnight since that was our
starting point the next day. Good
decision!
Last year, the event in Santa Cruz was awesome! A big ol’ party! It was also where I tore the ligament in my
knee when I slipped in the rain. This
year, it had to be held inside because of the rain, but the town still put on
the Ritz for us. They offered us some
little appetizers and hot coffee when we got there and had some great dancers
lined up to entertain us.
After the presentation, we got on our buses based on where
our sleeping destination was: Panacam or El Cortijo del Lago. Neither place was large enough for the whole
group, so we divided. I had chosen El
Cortijo. When we got there, it was too
dark to see just how beautiful the place was, but our rooms were clean. Very clean.
I took my shower and then set all of my wet clothes in front
of the fan that was near my bed. I was
hoping to get things dry enough to put in my bag without worrying about them
growing. I was also trying to get my
shoes dry enough to wear in the morning.
I succeeded on both.
Dinner was nice.
Afterwards, everyone just stayed at the tables and enjoyed each others’
company. Soon, someone was singing for
the group, followed by some others, then some stories. It was kind of like being at camp.
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