Monday November 17, 2014

A good breakfast to start our day. It was hot (26 degrees) when we left the casa at 8:30 and just kept getting hotter. I struggled today – although the road was flat, the heat and the humidity and the pollution from the vehicles, got to my chest. I am suffering a little from a cold, I hope I get a good nights sleep tonight and we have a shorter ride tomorrow.

Todays ride was quite pretty for the first part and then was very rural and flat, with banana plantations.

Australia isn\’t the only place with giant road side attractions. Giant crab.

We arrived in Mayajigua at around 12:30, good time for the distance we covered, it was over 30 degrees by that time. We showered and had lunch then went for a wander around the grounds of the hotel.

We met up with another touring cyclist who is from South Africa. Leanna has been on the road for over 7 years! She has pretty much covered every continent. Awesome. We discussed the hassles of visas and the silly restrictions. There should be a special visa for touring cyclists, all you need to do is prove you have sufficient funds to stay in their country and they should let you in. We had to laugh when she said that she had problems getting a visa for Canada. She had to do it online, she sent of all the information, she received two emails saying that they had received it and was processing it and then didn’t hear any more. When she called them she was told to go online, when she went on line she was told to call them!! Oh Canada.

As we were sitting there chatting about her experiences, a group of Canadian cyclists arrived. Sixteen cyclists on a guided tour. We thought we might get to chat to them later.

The Canadian cyclists generally kept to their own group and didn’t chat to us. However, Leanna joined us for a pre-dinner drink and we had dinner together. She was really very interesting to talk to and we discussed if this trip had changed her at all. She didn’t think it had very much, although she said she had gained more patience. At the moment we live very much for the moment – How many kilometres are we going to cycle, is it hot, windy, hilly, etc. Where are we going to sleep? Eat? Etc. How water, good food and a hot shower become very important. We discussed how quickly we would revert to our former selves when we all return to our respective homes. She figured that “peer pressure” is always constant, you are encouraged to fit in, if you do not you are regarded with suspicion.

It was a lovely evening talking to a fellow long distance cyclist who was an inspiration to us. Could we stay out that long, or do we need time to ourselves? Ralf and I agreed that we don’t think we could be out for that long. We both need our own space and although we are often in our own head space on our bikes, we are still spending a lot of time together.