Well well well… Last paragraph written was so long ago! So many incredible things have happened in just a short week, I indeed need to catch up, and I will in a grand swoop. I was going to talk about my restful stay in Puerto Escondido where I stayed a whole 2 nights, what luxury! Restful and so pleasant, beautiful weather, of course, now that I am in perpetual summer, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator, for the foreseeable future.

I had arranged to jump in Puerto Escondido from the comfort of my desk at home before my departure and carefully planned my day by day itinerary for this to happen. It is a very nice drop zone, a block from the beach where you land, and luck had it so that I met Ron. Ron is a Canadian friend of a friend, aren’t we all in this world? Ron organizes a group of skydivers every winter here and he was just signing up his waiver when I was looking up his profile on social media, my eyes looked up and down at the photo on my phone and there he was, in the flesh… He had come a few days earlier from his boogie, the 6th one I believe, and there would be 26 of them here by Sunday. Amazing coincidence, we immediately became fast friends, and we jumped together for a very nice little two way. I was so happy to be back in the sky, it’s an addiction I tell you. It had been 25 days since my last freefall… Gasp, the horror! Another friend of Ron’s showed up, and whatdayaknow? I knew the guy, Gordon! We had met in Costa Rica last year, Gordon is another, lets say, mature skydiver, so much so that his license has only 2 numbers, mine has 5! So my second jump in Mexico was with a legend, another nice little 2 way…

It was time for me to put my feet in the sand, and walking down to the beach I asked the first passerby where I could buy a cervesa to watch the sunset with… It turned out to lead into a great conversation, this nice guy, let’s call him Romaya, took me to a nearby store, mission accomplished, I bought him a beer, and we headed into the upcoming sunset. Romaya is Eritrean, you know, next to Ethiopia? And had been in Mexico for 11 years, one of probably 5 or 6 Eritrean nationals in the country he joked… We had a grand old time, Romaya is into yoga, catering, philosophy, some guru named… I can’t recall, and for the next 2 hours we talked and talked and redid the world as it should be… So that’s it for Puerto Escondido, met the deadline to get there, hurled myself out of an airplane as planned, landed on a beach, on target as intended, made a few new friends and onward we go…

Looking at the map, I thought the road would be very easy, following the coast of the Pacific Ocean, it should be low altitude I guessed. Well, no! It was somewhat mountainous, but they were small mountains, an easy ride to Salina Cruz, the next stopover. Nothing much to report there, excepted my lunch experience. A lot of truckers are stopped at this little dusty Pueblo, I figured they must know something, the nice little shop owner cleaned a table for me and started to babble incredibly fast, so I acquiesced with a smile and a lot of Si Senors. The rtacos brought forth were kind of gelatinous, but with a lot of red and green salsas came down the hatch joyfully. I still had no idea what I was eating. A young maiden was selling drinks in plastic bags full of coffee and peanut mix, so I had to have one, and that was okay. I looked for a trash can to dispose of my plastic bag and straw, I know, the recycler in me felt very guilty, and found one behind the counter of that little shop. I opened the lid and a swarm of flies came rushing out, looking into the can, there it was, a half head of a cow, smiling at me with a horn! Taco de Cabesas, so that was that, cow’s head taco, not bad, I didn’t die or got sick, or anything. Thought that was funny, don’t you?

A charming boutique hotel in Salina Cruz, the San Francisco hotel, was booked for the night. I found a lavanderia for my dirty clothing, an empty restaurant for dinner, nice filet of fish, $8.00 with a beer, and a nice resting night was had in the luxury of a very clean, modern, confortable room, quite small though, but with an armoire… Which said piece of furniture is a crucial element for the next chapter… I’m due to check-out now, where I am, in Guatemala, so tata for now!

Allright allright allright, I’m back! Now in El Salvador, that’s way more to catch up! Back with leaving Salina Cruz… What I most remember vividly was the wind! Damn winds, started blowing real bad right at the exit of town, and got increasingly worse, my intended destination for that day was Christobel De La Casa, a short 226 miles away, estimated 4 and a half hour drive. The road was mostly flat and the winds howling. Warning road signs showed trucks tilting to the left, almost falling over, they were right! I saw one of the « doble remorques » on its side, the winds had won over this one! They were so strong, pushing America left and right, mostly left, it was a constant fight, I had to lean into the wind with all my might, it was exhausting. Instinctively I reduced my speed to 30 or 40 kilometers per hour, trying to ease on the handlebars as your immediate reflex is to hold on and grasping for dear life. Sudden and violent gusts nearly toppled me down, I had several saves pushing back with my dangling legs on each side of America, it’s a miracle I didn’t fall over… The signs were indicating the next town to be La Ventosa! It means the windy one! No kidding! In the distance I could see rows and rows of huge windmills, you know the kind, white giant helices running for miles alongside both sides of the highway, bad omen I thought, if they put those here… Yes that was permanently windy there. This continued on for a couple more hours, finally the scenery changed a bit, there were trees planted on the side of the road, offering a little protection, hills came into view and I started an ascent into more manageable territory. I breathed a sigh of relief, stopped America for a bit to rearrange the bags behind my back, and suddenly I felt my blood freezing in my veins! I turned livid, no no no! I just then realized the awful truth! I had changed pants the evening before and decided to wear my synthetic leisurewear pants, so much lighter in the heat. As a perfect idiot, I had put away my jeans in the stupid armoire, and forgot all about it! Old age senility, again, I must confess that it is quite often that I look for things for a long time, things I securely put away in a safe place, not to forget them! I cursed myself, the prospect of returning to Salina Cruz in those winds was daunting, I couldn’t imagine doing that at that moment. Well, it’s only a pair of jeans you think, easily replaced, but what you don’t know is that holding these pants in place, is a banal looking belt, which has a secret long zipper hiding a narrow pocket running the whole length of the belt, hiding all my money, my cash, my moolah, thousands of dollars in hundred dollar bills!! This is my lifeline for the trip, to pay for the boat captain in Panama who only takes cash, to pay for repairs and meals at places where they don’t take credit cards, to exchange currency at borders, well, to live with for the next 3 months! If the maid cleaning the room found my pants surely she would bring it to the front desk, no? I was hoping for honesty, so desperate I was offering a silent prayer to the universe, I’m an atheist so God was not involved in that lone conversation.

Just then, talk about my angel still doing its job fairly well, a couple on a beautiful black Harley stopped right beside me. Ah the wonderful brotherhood of bikers in action! The guy spoke good english and I asked him to call the San Francisco hotel to inquire if they found my pants. He smiled after the call, handing me my phone back and telling me, no problemo, they have it, you can go get them if they are so important to you… I was reluctant to go affront the hurricane winds twice more I told him. We looked at the map, there was a medium size town ahead only 15 miles away, Arriaga.

I searched for fedex and there was a facility there, I asked Pedro, the Mexican proud hog owner to tell the young lady at the hotel that I was going to send Fedex with a prepaid label to ship my item to my next hotel, simple enough no? Another smile, vigorous handshakes after that last call, problemo solvedo !

I programmed the Fedex location in my phone GPS and arrived there at 2:30pm . The sign on the doors said open 9 to 2, then 4 to 7 Monday to Friday. I shivered not remembering what day this is! O good, it’s Friday, Alellouia! I’m not making it to Christobel tonight I thought, so I looked for a hotel nearby, found a cheap one, with la Clima! The Chiapas hotel, took the room, took a shower, put civilian shoes on and arrived back at Fedex at 4:01. The young man at the lone counter, Cesar, didn’t speak much English, but he was very helpful. What I found out though, is that even with the outmost good will, said package would arrive at the earliest on Wednesday in San Christobel blablaba… They’re closed on weekends, and wouldn’t you know it, Monday is a holiday!! Looking at my schedule, Wednesday I’m supposed to be in El Salvador, 2 countries away! It became apparent that shipping was out of the question. I had seen a bus terminal in town on the way here. I decided to take the bus then, better than the wind, surely there is bus service to Salina? Cesar didn’t know, best for me to go in person. After a long and excruciating Spanglish interview at the bus depot window, the poor employee had to turn his monitor towards me to show the reality of the situation, it would take 17 hours to reach Salina Del Cruz, I had to change buses in Tuxla something and the return trip to Arriaga was even worse. Dejected I started walking back to the hotel. Passing near Fedex again, I had an idea, I asked Cesar if he had a car? No! Was anyone of his friends willing to make a quick 200 bucks US to drive me back and forth? Cesar made a few calls and triumphantly told me that a friend of his father had a taxi, he could do it today for only 2700 pesos plus the road tolls! Amazing! That was only about 142 dollars! What rejoice! I ran back to the hotel when Cesar was to meet me there at 5:45 with the taxi man. Cesar at first didn’t want to take the 200 pesos I gave him as a tip for saving me, and he didn’t understand why I insisted on going with the taxi man, so I lied and told him my passport was in my pants and I wanted to be there in person just in case that ID had disapeared. He nodded, took the pesos and came back with a couple of Tecates. I hugged him and went into the night with the Taxi man.

Orlando was a serious and dedicated driver, no English whatsoever so no unnecessary chitchat. I plugged in my phone to recharge and listened to my music, tapping away one of the previous story on my ipad. Same goddamn winds, another truck on its side, military police and huge cranes working into the night… We made it to the hotel around 9:30, the gal at the desk handed me a plastic bag with my belonging, I quickly made it to the bathroom and checked the belt, it was all there, all these neatly folded Franklins staring at me silently! I was saved!

I was starving, I offered Orlando to have dinner with me, on me, the brave man explained that we would be back in Arriaga around one in the morning and that his wife was waiting at home to feed him. Okay then, I implored him that we stopped at an OXO, the Mexican equivalent to a 7-11 and I avidly purchased some cookies and peanut butter cups and water, and that held me until the next morning. Yes we arrived around one, I cursed myself for being so forgetful and plunged into darkness, exhausted, relieved and thankful…