Capn's Blog

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Capn's Blog, December 2011

This is the true story of me and my friend Dan hitchhiking from Las Vegas to Patagonia, in Southern Argentina in 2011/12

The epic of Cathy and Sterling, third and final part. (But the story does not end here!)

     It was not our last day with them. In fact we stayed with them to the Guatamala border where it turned out that they had no proper paperwork for the RV. Suddenly we thought it was our chance to perhaps leave them, as we went through the line on foot with ease. However a quick bribe from Cathy saw her to the front of the line, and a quick trip into town to a Lawyer, 30 years old and dressed in hawaiian shorts wrote up some quick paperwork to get them across the border.

    It was clear that Cathy had anxiety about us leaving them, worried about the managing changing currency and dealing with the language. However it was that trip that they started on and we were increasingly ready to set out on our own. Our first stop in Guatamala was at a fair sized city, while Cathy and Sterling cooked, we went out to explore a local market.

    It was similar to the markets in Mexico, perhaps a few more drunk people and a lot more guns. Unlike Mexico, guns are legal in Guatamala and there are a shocking number of armed security guards. Even the McDonald’s parking lot had serious looking man pacing with a shotgun in it. The second thing that Dan and I noticed was that as soon as the sun went down, all of the people cleared off the streets and the only cars driving around were pimped out lowriders.

We knew immediately that if the regular citizens don’t walk the streets at night, we shouldn’t either. So we hurried back to the RV only to find Cathy and Sterling cooking in a conspicuos open square, with door unlocked and open. We told them it was better to park somewhere discreet, tucked outselves away and spent a rare night where Dan and I slept in there as well.

    We crossed another border the next day and it was in El Salvador that we finally left Cathy and Sterling. We decided to stop in El Tunco, it was a town famous for it’s surfing and tourism. Pulling into El Tunco, sterling came within inches of pulling right in front of a moving semi. We found a guy who rented a room to us in the town for 5 dollars. It had two beds and a shower and was simply an extra room in a family home. We were preparing to go rent surf boards when Cathy came running up to us.

    “This guy said Sterling hit him with the RV.”

    It had finally happened, I thought, after all the crazy driving they had hit a person.

Luckily they had not hit a person, but instead a car. Through bad luck they had managed to hit the newest, and most brightly colored car in El Salvador. A brand new bright cherry red, japanese import economy car, less than a month old. Arriving on the scene we found Sterling being yelled at by a young El Salvadorian in Spanish another man, his friend or cousin was standing behind armed crossed. They looked like fairly respectable people but they were pissed.

Sterling was yelling back in English. “I don’t understand you!”

    We ran up and Dan started to speak to them in Spanish. It was amazing how fast the man almost snapped out of his fury, looking at the Blonde haired, blue eyed Dan speaking in perfect native Spanish. Even though his car had just been hit he became fairly friendly to us and asked where Dan learned Spanish.

    “I grew up in Venezuela, my parents are Americans.” It was his standard answer.

    Then the man gave a long winded explanation to Dan in Spanish, rattling off the whole story of hearing the crash, seeing the RV drive away, etc. Dan turned to Cathy and Sterling.

    “He says Sterling hit his car.”

    “I didn’t hit it.”

     We left for a moment to investigate. The ZigZag express had bright red paint residue on it’s bumper, right at the same level as the dent in the car. We returned to report our findings.

    “We think Sterling hit the car.”

     Of course I knew that he had the moment someone said he did, with all of the erratic driving I had witnessed.

    “Well what should I do?” Cathy asked us.

    We were reluctant to even offer advice, After all she was on a trip to Panama that she decided to go on, a 60 year old woman who ran a successful business. We were about to leave them and they had to start making decisions on their own if they were to successfully finish their own adventure. Nevertheless Dan offered up what seemed to be the only two choices.

    “Well, you can either maybe offer this guy some money, or take your chances with the El Salvadorian police.

    There was a good chance that the El Salvadorian police wouldn’t do jack shit to a white tourist in a tourist town like El Tunco. There was also a good chance that, no matter how normal and respectable these guys appeared, that they had another 20 cousins in town who would fuck up Cathy and Sterling if things weren’t made right. It was our first time in El Salvador as well and we didn’t really know exactly what the police were like or local customs. Luckily for Cathy and Sterling the guy was willing to take 200 dollars, many times less than it would cost to fix in America.

    With tempers down and everyone satisfied, we took this opportunity to take our stuff out of the RV, and move it into the room we were renting. We finally left Cathy and Sterling, telling them that we wished them well and that we were sure they’d make it to Panama. (I was not sure at all)

That same day we met an old surf instructor by the name of Sebastian, an Argentinian who claimed to have been to every state in America, but North Dakota and every country in the Americas. We told him about our journey with Cathy and Sterling.

    “These people will die without you.” He declared.

    I’m happy to report they did not die. We followed their blog and while they did talk about 8 hour waits to get through borders and different adventures and misadventures, they made it to Panama and all the way back up the other coast of Mexico and home to New England, a testamony to their growth as travelers (also a testamony to Toyota engineering, as the old RV had nary a problem on the whole trip.)

    As for Dan and I, we hitched on, leaving behind our two week long ride and continuing on to hitch into El Salvador, one of the most dangerous countries in the Americas….. (To be continued)

Dan and I, on the beach in El Tunco

Dan, Sterling and I. This is shortly after we found weed, if you can't tell.