| Hey all, things are going well here in El Salvador. Tomorrow we do the Prologue which officially kicks off the Vuelta El Slavador. After a few rides in the sweltering heat, I´m extremely happy I chose to come down a few days ahead of time to get used to the weather. As it turns out, I also got sick so hopefully that is out of the way as well. I think I have some sort of San Salvador flu.. body aches, stomach pains and I´m extremely tired. Hopefully I can shake this before tomorrow because that would be a bad way to start a 7 day race!
Monday´s travel down here was pretty uneventful. My first impressions were quite different than what I had suspected. While there are armed men guarding every street corner, there are no guerrillas to speak of that I have seen. Certainly no violence and everyone is very friendly towards us. In fact we are treated like celebrities everywhere we go. So far we have been in the newspaper Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday I had my mug printed on the front page of the sports section. The people at the stores give us extra discounts on already extremely low prices if we show up in our bike kits and everyone shouts and waves as we ride through the streets.
Tuesday and wesdnesday we went for really long rides through the country. We would have to stop 2 or 3 times along the ride to buy water and cokes. I think on wednesday´s ride I drank 8 water bottles without peeing. HOT. Anyway, the roads are nicely paved and the scenery is beautiful when we´re not riding on a highway.
Yesterday and Today all the central American teams showed up. Us Americans look like giants next to these little brown people. No wonder they climb so well. The whole team will show up in one Toyota van with 10 bikes, 20 wheelsets, 10 duffle bags and spare equipment tied to the roof. Then 12 people will climb out of this little van which might not seem too crazy until you realize that the first rear seat is filled with food and such. I´m not sure how they do it…
Anyway, the pupusas are the only thing worth eating in this country. They need to send some of these esses to mexico or California and learn how to cook. The doctor warned us not to eat pupusas because we will get sick, but they are sooooo good! In fact, I´m thinking about going back to sleep gripping my painful stomach and all I can think about are those damn pupusas.
Anyway, I hope all is well back in jersey, nyc and at westcon. I´m pretty sure all three places move on without me. :-)
Tomorrow the real race starts, I´ll be sure to send another update in the next couple of days.
Tom
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El Salvador Update by Tom Dolan)