It Was Too Hot To Swim

Usulutan – La Union, El Salvador

This was supposed to be an easy day. ((“You were supposed to be this great thing. . . And yet, he gains.”) Who can identify that movie? Hint- it’s an easy one if you’ve been following this blog…)

Less distance (57 miles today versus 77 yesterday) and, because we were closer to the ocean, flat. 

It didn’t turn out that way. I mean we started out fine. A little bit of rolling and a little bit of a headwind, but basically easy riding – with a big volcano to our left (north of us), just to make it interesting. 

Then we took a turn toward the coast. Really should have been a descent to the ocean – or, at worst, a flat.

But no. Central America is just not built like that. Somehow our flat day disintegrated completely; I think we ended up going up for about 6 – 8 miles. And not a gentle grade either. 

It was pretty and all. But this was supposed to be a beautiful beach day – not a breathtaking – and I mean breathtaking in every sense of the word – mountain day . . .

Worse, it was hot. Yes, we went up and the air is generally cooler the higher you go. But when you start out near sea level you have to go up for a long time before it really starts cooling off . . .

Today was painful – but not THAT painful that it was actually cool at the top . . .

When I crested the hill I threw my bike down to wait for Diana, drenched in sweat. There happened to be a few guys sitting there chatting. One of them was Santiago. He inquired about our trip and told me that he lived for a while in New Jersey. His kids and grandkids live in Virginia. He wished us a safe ride and sent us on our way. So nice.

By the time we started heading down the hill on the other side our plan to go to the beach in the middle of our “leisurely” day was in tatters. Too hungry. Too thirsty. Too tired to bike the extra six miles round trip to the beach and back. 

I thought it might be better to sum up our day with some original verse:

The shade there was not,

It was too hot to swim,

So we sat on our bikes, 

All this hot, hot, humid day.

I rode there with Diana,

We biked to La Union we two,

And I said, 

“How we wish we had pupusas – that’s true.”

Too hot to go to the beach,

And too humid to ride these hills,

So we sat on the bikes,

We did nothing but climb.

So all we could do was to 

Bike!

     Bike!

          Bike!

  Bike!

And we did not like it.

Not one little bit.

Copyright pending.

We did actually try to go to the ocean at one point. We were too tired and hot to go to the official beach, which was further – so we were just going to go to a nearby embarcadero (boat launch in Español) to see if we could jump in to cool off.

When we arrived we were greeted by Will, a man we would soon get to know.

”Greetings friends.”

”Umm, we’re trying to get to the ocean.”

We could see the ocean at this point – it was just beyond all these men tending to their fishing nets.

Will explained that this might not be the best place to access the sea – the tide was low and it was kind of dirty. And Will didn’t have to explain that it smelled fishy – that was pretty obvious . . . Yep, not the place to go for a quick dip.

Turns out that Will lived for 28 years in Maryland – right next to the naval academy. He went to Annapolis High School. And then he was the chef at a fancy restaurant right there – not an El Salvadoran restaurant – American fare. 

Will moved back to El Salvador about three-and-a-half years ago (sounds like a COVID move – guessing the restaurant shut down for a while and Will re-examined his priorities). After he moved back he bought a number of fishing boats and now he has a bunch of guys working for him. Again, guessing that Will saved enough working as a chef to come down here and start his business with cash. Anyway, his crew catches a variety of fish and generally ships them to San Salvador each day.

Will is a Trump fan. 

“The economy was really good when Trump was in office,” he explained.

Not sure how he feels about Trump’s new tariff ideas – but I guess they wouldn’t affect Will’s business in any event. 

Will’s other big contribution to our day? He told us of a restaurant in La Union that would have good seafood. Restaurante Bahia. 

We had to negotiate one more big climb in the heat – but we finally made it to La Union.

Just finished our meal at Bahia. Right on the water overlooking the islands that we’ll be boating through tomorrow. Fun music. Nice atmosphere. And good seafood!

Did I mention how beautiful El Salvador is? It’s hard not to love the terrain here. Verdant green. Rolling hills, verging on mountains – but not quite as harsh. Ever lurking volcanoes. And wonderful generous people around every corner. We will miss El Salvador – it was a wonderful and quick four days . . .

Prepping for an early morning tomorrow . . . We need to be at the dock at 7 a.m. in order to get our immigration stuff in order for our departure from El Salvador before the boat leaves for Nicaragua. Sounds like the border patrol people in Nicaragua can be a bit of an adventure – so we’ll see . . .

But we’re excited. Once we arrive in Nicaragua we have a pretty short ride – really hoping it will be flatter this time – and then two nights in an airbnb on the beach . . .