As I was getting ready to leave at 7:30 am, I realized I had left my rain jacket in Jamie’s truck. Ahhhhh, there’s a major delay. I had to run down the street to the payphone to call Jamie, but he wasn’t picking up. I did this about every 15 minutes for two hours, waiting around for this deadbeat to show up.
And he finally did, at about 9:30, and then I left.
I stopped at a trucker restaurant for breakfast. I told the lady that I had a few bottles that I needed filled with water. The breakfast wasn’t good, but I got 4.5 L of water for free.
It was mostly a boring ride that day. When I stopped at a panaderia, a bread place, for lunch, a couple of small girls kept peaking out from behind a wall saying “Hello” and “How are you?”
I didn’t want to get to the border town to stay the night, so I stopped at El Obraje, a small town about a mile away. I asked at a comedor about accommodation. There was no hotel in the area, but I didn’t want a hotel anyway. I told them I had a tent. They told me I could put my tent up in the adjoining, roofed area next to the restaurant part.
I was able to wash my clothes in their big sink where they had a gutter system rigged up to bring in rain water. And then I “showered” in their bathroom, pouring rain water over the most necessary parts of my body with a basin. I took a poo in their toilet and flushed it down by pouring a basin of rain water into the bowl, as the tank didn’t work. A natural, rain water washing system.
The lock for the door.
Soap.
Toothpaste. Use everything. I cut open my toothpaste in San Pedro too.
The comedor was run by two sisters in their sixties, one of their sons, and his wife. The sisters were hard to read, and my interaction was limited because my Spanish sucks. They would mumble something rapidly, I would give them a big smile, excuse myself for my Spanish, and ask them to repeat it more slowly. Without a smile, they would repeat it with the same speed and mumble; no compassion for my situation. When I was washing my clothes outside, one of the sisters came up to the door. I turned around and smiled at her, and she shut the door. But at the same time, they were attentive to my needs, making sure I was comfortable by turning on the light for me when it got dark, offering me a glass for the gallon of water I bought, and asking if I needed anything else before they went to sleep.
The son and his wife were much more friendly. Alvardo came to offer me mosquito repellant, and hung around to give me advice about the border and El Salvador. He was interested in my trip too. I complimented him on his bicycle, especially his front rack, and asked where I could get one like it.
The town was tiny. It was only a few scattered comedors (cheap restaurant), tiendas (small shops), and houses with a big abandoned gas station in the middle.
Getting a place to stay at a comedor was great though, since I was able to eat there too.
