Tough, tough cookies
Trip Start
Jul 04, 2010
1
149
163
Trip End
May 10, 2011
Rivas, Rivas, Nicaragua
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Elevation Gain: 479 meters
Max Elevation: 511 meters
25 to 40 mph winds
We had two options to get to the Pan American highway south of Masaya; via Granada which would have taken us down hill before climbing back up or via Diriá, which was a tough climb in the morning before a long easy ride back down. We chose to get the hard part out of the way early in the morning and climbed 261 meters in the 1st seven kilometers out of town. And then it was downhill or flat all the way, YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The riding was superb all day long and we crossed through ranch land and farm land. Near Rivas, we saw many fruit stands along the road.
On our second day in Rivas, we bumped into a Frenchman on a recumbent bike. He had started his ride in Montreal Canada, crossed to Montana, went through Montana to Yellowstone, then Wyoming, Utah, and seemingly, all the great mountains along the way. One tough hombre. He definitely marches to the beat of a different drummer. His next stop will be San Juan Del Sur located on the beach and was interested in taking the beach road to Costa Rica. He had heard stories of robbers on the main highway to Costa Rica.
As we were having lunch, we spotted a couple who are on their self defined "Shirley and Yannick's Transcontinental Triathlon" They are blogging on travelpod.com at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/hobos/1/tpod.html Biking (14,000 miles), Hiking the PCH (2700 miles), and Kayak (1200 miles) from Alaska through Argentina. Currently they are doing phase 3, biking. And averaging 100km per day! Tough, tough cookies!
