January 26 :: San Miguel, El Salvador

January 26 :: San Miguel, El Salvador :: 100km / 1702km total

Very little sleep due to the heat, but still I was on the road very pre-sunrise, pressing hard towards San Miguel to avoid the worst heat of the day. Again the road stayed mostly flat, and the ride was uneventfully easy. I´m feeling healthier every day in all respects, I guess my second wind is coming on.

Rolling into San Miguel was quite the culture shock. My Lonely Planet guidebook had mentioned that, due to the hard work ethic of El Salvadorans, this country is poised to be the richest of Central American countries. I hadn´t noticed much of a difference so far... until I rolled into San Miguel, the country´s 3rd largest city (Hamilton-sized). The first thing that hit me was a traffic light. I hadn´t seen a traffic light since leaving Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Then, a megamall with all the Western trappings... Cineplex, endless food joints, and shopping galore. And a Comfort Inn across the road! I grabbed a nearby cheaper hotel, with A/C, and checked out the mall. I couldn´t believe how busy it was, at least the big food chains (Wendy´s, Pizza Hut, etc), with prices about equal to that in Canada. There were lineups to get into some of the restaurants, with wait staff serving drinks to those standing in line outside, 35 degrees C. It was pretty surreal, having come from the small, poor villages along my route, to this. Walking around the mall, though, I realized that not many people were carrying bags of items purchased... it seemed that many were there just for the experience (and definitely the food). The music in the mall was all Western (Alanis Morrisette, Dire Straits, etc), and half the stores had signs and paraphenalia in English! The wierd thing about this was that no one SPOKE English... the few transactions I made at the mall were as laboured as everywhere else in Central America (not including English Belize), with my English/French/Spanish hodgepodge tumbling out of my mouth, complete with sign language, to get the message across. A very odd experience, but not too unlike that what I´ve seen elsewhere in very different parts of the world. Like it or not, English and Westernism is often perceived as representing quality, money, and status, so its no surprise that stores use English as a marketing tool, even if both customers and staff have little idea what´s written on the sign they´re standing beside.

From here its only about 3 or 4 days of cycling to the end of my trip, Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Sigh. I guess I can´t complain... this time next month I´ll be on a very different cycling trip in Tuscany, Italy!