Cerro Virginia

We had debated going to Somoto Canyon, as Karl's cousin had recommended it to us, but with only a week left we couldn't quite muster up the interest to ride back up to 1000 m in the mountains when the beach was calling. Joe decided he was up for the detour and the climbing, however, so we said our goodbye over lukewarm watermelon and cold drinks at the turn off to El Sauce. It seemed so appropriate that the road quickly turned to dirt, as Joe is a seeker of dirt roads, who briefly sojourned along the pavement while riding with us over the last few weeks. We shared some good riding, great food and good laughs with Joe, so it was sad to see him go. We carried on toward the coast with Antoine, and quickly came upon another couple of bike tourers, Luz from Chile and Sylvain from France, who were riding from Patagonia. We chatted under the shade of a tree, and heard of their stressful crossing from Columbia to Panama by boat through Carti. We rode on through the afternoon, but when the wind picked up just as we rolled over 95 km we decided that was enough for one day. We stopped to get drinks at a tiendita, and asked if we could put up our tents. As usual we were welcomed to stay, and spent the evening among the chickens, pigs and cows, getting offered fruit, tortillas and coffee by our generous hosts. We also learned that this is another sugarcane growing area, and got to see multiple semis pulling strings of 5 empty trailers down a haul road parallel to the highway.Read more