May 25th, 11:30pm local time
Huixtla, Mexico
GPS: N15 08.514, W092 28.975
Distance Traveled: 682.82 

We managed to make another three countries today – El Salvador to Gautemala to Mexico, and we're finally into the last spanish-speaking country on this trip.  Even though the language barrier remains and we still have thousands of kilometres to go before the States, it feels as though we're almost home.

I've noticed that the experience we have crossing borders colours the perception I have of that country for the duration of my visit.  I hated Honduras for no reason more than the customs guards were complete buttheads, even though it's a beautiful country and we were only in it for an hour and a half.

Even though the El Salvador border was longer and more frustrating than Honduras, because it wasn't corrupt, and also because of the border guard we met that had lived in Red Deer, I came away with a positive perception of El Salvador.

El Salvador was a cool country simply because we drove the entire length of it, and were still through it in four hours, and that includes getting slightly lost when driving through the capital city, San Salvador, and some time spent messing with Rob's bike.  His tire is constantly leaking, and we have to pump it up every time we stop for gas, sometimes more often.  It's wearing his tread away very quickly – he's almost got nothing left.

We stopped in a city in Guatemala for dinner at McDonald's, just before a massive thunderstorm rode through, and we noticed a motorcycle dealership across the street.  Justin and I went to order food while Sean and Rob went to the bathroom, and accidentally ordered eight supersize meals.  That was too much food.  We ate all of the burgers, but couldn't finish the fries and we ended up giving the drinks away.  Justin kept mentioning that he hadn't had McDonald's for over a year and a half, and complained about how this would mess with his digestive system.  It did, and a couple hours after we drove out of that city, we had to stop for a very long time while he abused the bathroom at a gas station.

The dealership across the street didn't have any tires, but knew of a place in Guatemala City that had what we needed.  Unfortunately, it was Saturday and the place closed at 2pm, and we were an hour away.  We wouldn't be able to make it on time, and they wouldn't stay open for us, not even for an extral four hundred dollars.  Justin bought a tire that's way too small for our bikes, but would fit – maybe – just for an emergency.  With that, we were off to try to make Mexico before sundown.  

Guatemala is a dirty country.  It seemed like every corner had a pile of broken bottles, plastic bags &amp; other miscellaneous trash.  Nothing seemed to be burning, but that may be because we were driving through along with a rainstorm, which sucks.  We managed to hit the Guatemala/Mexico border just after sundown, but the border guards were eating their supper, and we had to wait for thirty minutes before they'd talk to us.  

I've never encountered anybody as seriously dedicated to uninterrupted meals as border guards in Latin America.  After they'd finished their meal on the side of the road, one guy told us that the border was closed, and we'd have to come back tomorrow.  At 9am.  This would cost us huge time.  He finally agreed to let us through if we each paid him $20, and with that we left Guatemala.

We attracted a large crowd while we were crossing out of Guatemala, mostly money exchangers pushing us to change our cash.  Justin usually resists changing money at borders until he can confirm the exchange rate – especially after Dad got ripped off to the tune of $100 when we crossed into Peru.  We had to buy some Guatemalan money to pay for something to get intot he border, so Justin changed a $20 for just enough Guatemalan, and asked the exchange guy to give him the rest in pesos.  He agreed, after numbers were displayed on a calculator.  Justin handed him the $20, and he gave Justin the 20 Guatemalan whatevers, and then refused to give the rest of the exchange in pesos.  Just a little bit dishonest.  We had needed to change a large amount of money into Mexican pesos, but with that Justin announced 'no mas cambio', and flipped the cheat the bird.

With that, we were finally out of Central America, and on our way into North America.  What a difference that made for crossing borders – the buildings were clearly marked, we weren't surrounded by a crowd of border-losers or money exchangers, and the guards spoke english and were very polite.  The only problem was that we had to buy permits to operate our vehicles in Mexico, and we had to drive thirty kilometres to the station where we'd buy those.  No biggie – it was right outside the town we'd planned to stay in, and the guard assured us that it was open 24/7.

He was wrong.  The checkpoint where they check for the permit was open 24/7, but the bank where we had to buy the permit was closed, and wouldn't open again until 9pm.  After much discussion, the guard at the checkstop allowed us to go on, but cautioned us that Mexican police would be a problem if we got pulled over.  

It's odd how sometimes a political border makes a huge difference in the geography of a region.  When we crossed into Nicaragua, the terrain changed from an extremely wet rainforest type setting into a much drier, flatter area.  The same held true for Mexico – the semi-rain-forest terrain we'd been in since Nicaragua suddenly disappeared, with sandy desert and cacti appearing on the side of the road.  The rain stopped, too - within five kilometres of us crossing the border.  A very nice change, too, was the fact that we'd seemed to leave all the scattered garbage behind us.  Mexico is a much cleaner country than most of the others that we've driven through, which was nice.  

We're almost home – stop for tires in Mexico City (we'd planned on avoiding it, 'cause it's so big, but we desperately need tires – Rob's almost bald, now, and Sean isn't far behind).  We'll be in El Paso, TX in two days, and we can't wait.

Ryan Noble,
Huixtla, Mexico