Finding Freedom...World Wide Ride

Good to see you've been enjoying the beautiful riding here!

I'm the guy from Canada you met on the street in Antigua, riding down on a KLR. I'll be following closely for tips on the road ahead!

p.s. did you see the bathroom in the Macadamia farm? Coolest john ever.

Hello again! Yes and I even took a photo!







Hope to see you on the road some time.

Good to see you've been enjoying the beautiful riding here!

I'm the guy from Canada you met on the street in Antigua, riding down on a KLR. I'll be following closely for tips on the road ahead!

p.s. did you see the bathroom in the Macadamia farm? Coolest john ever.

Here is the front of the line on the Guatemala side. We parked by the security office and had to get our Guatemalan vehicle importation permits cancelled. After this was done we obtained the countries exit stamp in our passports.







There sure is a lot of action at the border.








These guys really liked our bikes and were happy to pose for a photo.




The crossing here is fairly easy and just requires some copies which are easily obtained just across the street.






The SAT official had a great hat on when he came out to check the VINs on the bikes.

Crossing the river to El Salvador.











Arriving at the El Salvador Customs and Immigration we found very friendly officials and signs everywhere telling you that there is no corruption there. The signs were true.

















I wonder how long these guys waited at the border?



And how long has this guy has been parked in the no parking zone.




Almost done with the El Salvador vehicle temporary import permit. Just checking the VINs.







One bike done!



Now the other two!! All three bikes in about 90 min. Thanks Dan and Orvar…..I just waited with the bikes.

Now we are on the loose in El Salvador. Thanks to Julio and Mario for route suggestions. We left the border for a short ride on pavement to the 14 km “road” to the El Imposible Park. The dirt was the easy part. It was the steep hills with very bumpy cobble stones that was the challenge.



































We arrived hot and sweaty at the eco lodge almost at the top of the road.






Luckily they had cold beers and a cool natural spring pool for a dip.



We walked the last km up the road to the national park.

We went for a hike thru the jungle to the miradors.























We also had a great view over the jungle to the ocean.

We celebrated our first night in El Salvador with a drink of Orvar'’s special whisky brought all the way from Sweden.





We were up early for the ride back down to the highway.



















The cobbles sure are easier downhill.

We headed down the CA-2 and then east up the 15 to Apaneca and Salcoatitan where we had breakfast.















We went up thru San Isidro dodging potholes and then drove up the paved road on Volcano Santa Ana to the national Park Cerro Verde.






We headed to the mirador above Lago de Coatepequue.









We went down to the lake side for a swim and a lemonade.

Hola Sara, good to see that you got finally Lord Daniel out on a hike

Julio

As you know that is not an easy feat. I lured him with beer.


Sara

We were down and out for a few days with 1 sick team member, but now we are back to full force. We spent 2 days at a nice hotel in Santa Ana while Daniel was ill. Once he recovered we had our route planned out.



We planned to meet up with Mario and the other riders from the Touratech rally at Apsunga. This is a riverside day resort with a nice restaurant, rafting, swimming, and zip lines. We spent the day in the shade drinking lemonadas.











Orvar was keen to try the newly finished road& that he had seen on the net. The first 30 km is a beautiful newly paved curvy mountain road. As is usual in Latin America finished is a relative term and we were stopped several times for construction delays. We finally arrived at Casa Lecha after dark and we all managed to park in the garage.
























Fernanda is the hostess with the mostess. She remembered that my favorite food was lasagna and she had made that for dinner for us. The next morning she made her famous fluffy pancakes. Mui Rico!




The view of the volcano and our new BMW El Salvador hats.

After much family discussion on lake verses volcano we decided on lake for the Sunday outing. We drove to lago Ilopongo to the beach. Again Fernanda was prepared with all kinds of food and drink.



This is such an amazing spot on the lake.











Fernandita and I sunbathed and hung out in the hammocks.









Mario took us on a tour of the lake and for a swim out in the middle of the crater Lake.















The girls adoring Lord Daniel.



Pool noodles make it so much easier to swim with your drink!



We turned around at the cross and powered past the lake shore.









Then Fernanda whipped us up a massive Paella on a gas burner.






Tomorrow is bike maintenance and riding up the volcano.

We had a great experience at Motorider in San Salvador. Mario Lecha has an amazing shop and team of mechanics. They fit us in at very short notice even though the shop was very busy. He also had the synthetic oil Daniel wanted and that we had been looking all over for in the last 2 months. They are also the Touratech outlet so we could get a few other items we needed.










Poor Chicko had to "freshen up" the heads of several of my skid plate bolts in order to be able to remove them for the oil change. They had been sheared off from millions of tope!



Adding a worldwideride sticker to the window.



Mario trying out Loulou, but I'm pretty sure he will not trade in his 1200 anytime soon. Maybe it's the pink flowers??

Mario, Daniel, Orvar, and I rode up to the San Salvador volcano. Mario is pointing to the crater he has at his coffee finca on the slopes of the volcano.





We hiked to the crater rim in the Parque Nacional El Boqueron.







The crater is very steep and there is a smaller crater in the bottom from a more recent eruption.












Daniel had put his helmet on a bench, but it went for a dive and rolled down the hill. Luckily not on the crater side.







We stopped at the mirador for a drink.To the left of the tree you can see the stadium that is just down in front of Casa Lecha.



Daniel must be fully recovered since he ordered a mint Frappachino at Ben's coffee.

Seems like you guys are having a real hard time over there with Mario ...


Mario congrats, your shop looks great I hope you start working soon on BMW also

It has been great riding with you guys, will show you some of the beaches here now !!
Thanks Julio, we will start doing basic maintenance on BMWs , we have the 911 diagnostic tool now.
keep on riding
Happy Valentines day to all ADVrs !!

You are right Julio!! We are. Too bad so many riders just race thru this country.

Mario''s shop is nice. His guys are top notch. Orvar got new Touratech panniers also since the old ones were flapping like wings after El Impossible :)


Happy heart day!!




Saralou

We had heard there were some German riders in El Tunco so we all went out to meet Katja and Jens.



It was great to hear some of their stories from the last 2 years.





We enjoyed a few beers and some oysters at sunset.











When we got “home” Fernanda had made us New York Cheesecake.



We had a nightcap too.

We went up to San Salvador volcano again to visit the coffee finca near the crater and then around the volcano to visit the one on the other side.









At the second finca we hiked up to see the two craters on the property that we saw on the map at the park earlier in the week.



One is huge and filled with trees. The smaller one is collapsing on itself.







On the way down we stopped for a view of the lava flows from the 1917 eruption.