Since leaving Mexico over a month ago, I have traversed many different countries and encountered many different people along the way. In Belize I met a cyclist couple twice, both times they were casually biking across their country for training on two different days. But the moments that stick out to me the most are the ones I wasn’t expecting.
In the planning of this trip, I made the decision to avoid going to El Salvador. The news in the US probably hasn’t said a good thing about that country probably since……. ever. And as I was making my way through Guatemala I heard from multiple cyclists I knew that I would love El Salvador and that I had to go there, like so many other times on this trip I changed my plans and continued further west to El Salvador. My first feeling upon entering the country was minor sadness, because they don’t stamp passports and I really want to collect as many of those as I can. With that minor setback behind me resumed my pedaling and found that I like it there. Most of the people using the road, be them pedestrians or drivers were very courteous to me: waving to say hi, giving me a thumbs up and encouraging me on a huge climb, to offering me water if I was dehydrated. This is very different from the picture that US media portrays. 
On my second day I arrived in Santa Ana and found the most amazing hostal to stay at, Hostal Casa Verde. There I met a Dutch couple, an American guy and a Mexican girl. The Dutch couple bought a van in Mexico and is driving it south to Panama where they plan on selling it before continuing their travels. The van, it turns out, has made this trip before as it was recognized by some locals along the way. We all wondered how many times it has gone back and forth across Central America. The following day we took the van up the volcano to g
o on a hike to the top. It was a beautiful sight, inside the caldera had bluish-green colored water, steaming at the bottom and just south of the volcano was a deep blue lack that the previous week had been the same color. After the hike we drove down to the lake to have a few post hike beers to enjoy before heading back to the hostal, and Seamus is really liking that beer! The final bit to the hostal was an exciting adventure of navigating flooded roads that looked and acted like raging whitewater rapids; both are effective at transporting things but rapids tend to care not where you want to go. Thankfully, we made it back safely albeit a bit wet. Once this group of friends left to other places I had anticipated leaving myself the following day, however that didn’t happen when a friend I met back in Chetumal So I ended up spending an extra night catching up and swapping stories with new friends.
After leaving El Salvador I spent a hot minute in Honduras before entering Nicaragua. Nicaragua has been in the news a lot recently with lots of protesting and violence in the streets due to civil unrest. Luckily I did not see any of that or was just able to avoid it in general. I did get to spend a lovely night at El Campamento, a hostal/campground run by two French surfers in El Tránsito. They are super nice and have lovely artwork inside. Plus we swan in the ocean and made sand castles. After we tired from swimming we came back up to the porch and relaxed drinking a beer and watching the sun set below the horizon. 
Elsewhere in Nicaragua I ran in to lots of cyclists out on training rides, who would slow down and chat with me for a bit before speeding off into the distance because this biketourer goes a bit slower than the road biker, shocking I know.
While I have thoroughly enjoyed going to places I knew about and wanted to visit but had never been like Yosemite, Denali, and Chichén Itzá; but it’s been places like Bacalar, Santa Ana, Guadalajara, and many more that were never on my radar to visit but I quickly fell in love with. I love so much about this trip that I have learned so many new things about the world and myself; saying yes to new experiences, seeing things I maybe didn’t know existed only a few short weeks before, and meeting new friends to share them with.