"I'm definitely aging" I say to myself as I look in camera of my phone as I'm about to take a selfie with the Izalco Volcano that's looming in the distance. I figure I normally look this way anyway right after waking up. It's before sunrise, 5:30AM, and my bladder served as an alarm clock to get me out of my tent. Team Af Twin has made camp at "Casa de Cristal," a park nestled between a dead and active volcano in the southeastern highlands of El Salvador. When I got out of the tent, I saw the sky was clear and decided to walk over to the mirador platform to see if the clouds weren't obstructing the view of the active, smouldering, monument to the Pacific Ring of Fire. Luckily it's nothing but clear shots this morning.
It's about 5 days into El Salvador. I'm still running with Team Af Twin and we only have a few more days left before we go our separate ways. We've been preparing vegan and vegetarian meals for the last few weeks. It's definitely healthy. We've made it a daily habit to frequent fruit and vegetable stands to grab everything from tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, onions, corn, and cucumbers to chop up into medleys with rice or lentils. The meals are filling but low in calories. It's definitely showing too: After a few weeks of this, I had to tighten the straps on my motorcycle pants and boots for the first time in 11 months on this trip. I'm losing weight but gaining steam, I figure, I'm honestly in high spirits and have good energy levels in spite of the weight loss.
A few nights before, I made the mistake of mixing a mango with an electrolyte drink. I've learned that I've inherited a genetic disability to have too much potassium or it gives me migraines completely with blinding auras and sensitivity to light and sound. To survive the migraine, I spent the day in the dark in the Casa Verde hostel room in Santa Ana with an AC pointed directly at me. It proved to be a mistake, because it's the first time I've had AC in a room where I sleep in about 3-4 months. The cool air lowered my immune system's defenses and when the migraine finally waned, I found myself with a bonified snotty, raspy-throated cold.
It's a few days into the cold and the last symptoms are holding on as I look out over the volcano. After reading the Chapter on his 2nd failed run for office in my Harvey Milk biography, my Teammates are waking to their own bladder alarm clocks around 7:00AM.
It's quite a privilege to be able to wake up and spend the mornings alone. I get the views alone and the air is nice and cool. When the sun arrives it'll carry the heat, evaporating the dew left clinging to every surface of my Honda Africa Twin "Lechuza" and my tent. Before everyone wakes, I'm able to even do a little bit of packing before the sun arrives too. The campground is $5 / night and we spent about $5 total, shared between the 3 of us, on dinner. The last month of running with Team AF Twin has also had me saving a lot of money with their different eating habits, shared costs, and teamwork.
There's no cell service on the mountain either. The nearby towers are for a competing cell service than the one I bought, so we're not able to make concrete plans on what's next until we get back into service. I won't be able to do my daily post until then either. Until then, we sit here back in the "good ol days" with no contact with the outside world, no news to brush up on as we wipe the sleep from our eyes, nothing but coffee and conversation as we aim our chairs toward the volcano and wake ourselves up. Taking a minute to make your world smaller helps you feel more control. Closing those doors to the outside world is hard to do. It takes practice. It takes patience. Sometimes you have to go out of your way to find a place where you have no choice and the doors are closed for you. It's fantastic.
I know this is a blog about nothing, but I feel like the good times need to be shared as well. Maybe I'll delete this blog entirely. There are many others like it that have been. Or maybe they're lying in my blog bank unfinished. Maybe you'll read this one. Maybe this will help you take stock and be grateful of those little things you like too, whether it's a moment or an object. Like a cup of coffee and a view of a volcano.
-JT
6/2/2023