From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

Gringos … Gringa … "Mi Amor" … "Come here baby" … "Fuck me baby" … Gringo … kisses sent from the window of a car … whistles … looks on my breast or my buttocks … movements of pelvis full of sense …

These are noises, words and gesture that we have to cope with since we entered El Salvador from Guatemala... These words can make smile, as well as these gestures, you could laugh at them, but coping with them the whole day becomes more and more difficult. Too much for me, I could not cope anymore. It is hard to endure this heavy looks and this animal insults. Even Sébastien is tired of all that.

When we crossed the border to enter Honduras (where we had to pay US$3 per person, we do not know why), we really thought these things would get better. We had lunch next to a house that looked abandoned. But after 5 minutes, while making our sandwiches, 6 children from 5 to 10 years old came to see us, asked questions. Sébastien answered, patiently. I was more on my guard. But they never asked for money or food, they just wanted to see what the 2 foreigners were doing. They even lent us a chair and some water! When we left, we remembered that we had pens that Microfinance Institutions gave us and so we gave them to them. We saw some wonderful smiled on their faces! They ran to their parents to show them to them! It was really nice! A bit later, we stopped in a little shop on the side of the road for a cold drink. The owner came out (in Honduras, as well as in El Salvador, the owners of these little shops never get out, the command is done from outside and everything is given through a grid for safety) and we talked all together for almost one hour!

With such a start, we really thought that the “insults” would stop... We were wrong: all kind of insults went on and on and we had to endure and cope with them until we went out of Honduras, this morning. In El Salvador and in Honduras, the men think that the women from developed countries have less principle and so, everything is possible, even with their (the women's) husbands next to them. Even if Sébastien was pedaling just next to me, I had the same reactions.

We stopped in Choluteca for groceries. In a bodega (little shop where they sell everything), they refused to serve me because I was the “gringa”. We tried to explain them that we are from France, nothing changes: for them, people traveling and not speaking good Spanish, are automatically from the USA. Even the children were coming out to throw us “gringos”... We preferred to keep ourselves calm outside but we were boiling inside.

This morning we entered Nicaragua. I did all the administrative things at the border, while Sébastien was looking after the bikes, with all these men who can change the money for you, with a bad rate, of course! The custom officer from El Salvador called mi “Mi Amor” at the end of each sentence he made... Then he sent me with our 2 passports, to the custom for Nicaragua... just 30 centimeters from him, in the same room. There, the Nicaragua custom officer told me that we had to pay US$7 per person. I asked for explanations: as well as for Honduras, the website of the French embassy says that the visa and entering Nicaragua is free. The custom officer became upset, threw everything at me and told me: “if you do not pay, you do not enter”. Well, ok.

Nicaragua, after its grumpy custom officers and 20 km of dirt road, finally welcomed us nicely: people on bikes stopped to ask us where we were going and even offered us to sleep at their place. The children smile and say “hola”. There are still some men whistling on our way, but it is less aggressive than in El Salvador and in Honduras.

We also had our first sight of poverty here. We did not see it in El Salvador and in Honduras (maybe too busy to cool down). In Nicaragua, it is the first thing that strikes us: children do not go to school. There is not school here, life is their education. The houses are bit and pieces, cardboard, around 4 poles that are trunks big enough to support kind of a roof.

We now are in a very hot environment (more than 35°C for the hottest time of the day). We get up early (5.30am) and leave early on the morning (7.30am), but the heat is quickly here. We drink more than 8 liters of liquid each and it is still not enough: our bodies ask more and more!

Crossing so many countries is very interesting, but we kind of get lost: new money, new prices... We have troubles with changes between Euros (our reference money), US dollars (money used everywhere for tourists… but also in El Salvador), Lempiras (money for Honduras) and Cordobas (Money for Nicaragua). It can get tricky very fast!

PS:

We had a good surprise today, when checking our e-mails (the working connections in El Salvador and Honduras were not easy to find).

We found out that the school of Saint Laurent en Grandvaux, who is following us, made an interview about them and us.

It touched us very much and gives us energy to keep going! Thank you very much!

If you want to watch the video, click HERE

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