There are two types of people in this world...

If there's one thing that organising a self-supported cross-continental cycle trip teaches you, its that helpful people are to be cherished and unhelpful people can all go and chew on my stinking gruts after ten days in the saddle.

Over the last few weeks we have had a lot of stuff to sort out. Some people have made this easier and some people have made it harder. Tagdirect Insurance fall into the latter category. Do not use this company as they will almost certainly sell you an overpriced policy that fails to cover you for what you have explicitly stated you require (six separate times) and then pretend none of it ever happened.

Mike from Rannerdale, on the other hand, has supplied our tour shirts and couriered them to us at no extra charge so we dont fall foul of the postal strikes, which is awesome. Check out his website.

Hardcore Training Injury

With one week to go, my training has come to an abrupt end. This is because I hurt my knee yesterday making a cup of tea. Tried to stop a cup falling onto the floor by catching in with my leg (of course) but succeeded only in smashing my kneecap into the leading edge of an open cupboard door with the sort of force needed to launch a space rocket. It hurt so much I had to have a little cry afterwards.

Hardcore

Jabby Jabby

Took my last set of travel jabs today.
All done and hooked up for Hep A/B, Typhoid, Tetanus, Polio and Rabies.

Whilst half way through giving me one of the Jabs, the Doctor noticed I had a tattoo loosely based on a famous picture: The Great Wave, so he promptly stops what he's doing and Wiki's it as he couldn't remember the first name of the artist.

He also gave me a run down of animals to avoid for Rabies:
"Everything that breathes and has hot blood... oh and avoid crazy people too"

That just about does it.
Now, what about that Swine flu?

Bike Show

Dan and I visited the Earls Court Bike Show this weekend hoping to pick up some gadgets and gear for the trip. Like all good exhibitions however there was a strict ban on retailers selling anything at the show, which was extremely useful. We left having been relieved of about twelve quid for a chicken wrap and with the knowledge that we need a second mortgage for sat nav that covers central america.

Maps it is.

Welcome to San2San

Thanks for checking out the San2San blog. In November this year, a team of four friends will be setting out from San Jose, Costa Rica, to cycle the 1000km to San Salvador, El Salvador. On this blog we hope to document our preparation and hopefully some of the trip itself.

Preparations are now well underway with just over four weeks to go. Last week at our Spanish lesson our teacher went through a lot of useful new phrases for us including how to say 'I am bleeding heavily' and 'I have been shot'. As I sit here writing this first entry my arms are sore from Hepatitis B and Rabies jabs and Ive just realised no-one has booked the travel insurance yet. With that in mind Ill be off, but Im pretty sure there'll be plenty more to come in the days and weeks ahead.

Thanks for reading and see you soon.

The San2San Team
John, Dan, Alex, and Pete