How are you? Where are you?

Sorry for the delay in bringing you episode 23. We've been on the road pedalling our legs off riding across eastern El Salvador, before zipping through the south of Honduras and travelling the length of Nicaragua to our recording place of San Juan del Sur, down in the south of this interesting land on the Pacific Coast.

We are joined by another special guest this week. He's another cycle touring drifter out drifting. Ivan Said (aka Pistache Radioactive Garcia) has ridden here from his hometown of San Luis de Potosi in Mexico and will join us in a mini peloton as we head into Costa Rica and beyond.

We compare travelling tales from the last couple of weeks on the road and share with you, our dear listeners, a Nicaraguan folk story. There's also perhaps the launch of an exciting new segment: Poetry Corner. Hey we're drifters out drifting so why not?

If you read the news, you could be mistaken for thinking that if you go to El Salvador, you are going to get murdered. Well, it turns out, that you are more likely to have a great time, see beautiful things and meet lots of interesting people. What a boring non-click baity article that would be.

On this week's How Are You? Where Are You? podcast we visit El Salvador's Route of the Flowers, cut open and look inside some unfamiliar fruits and reflect on Guatemala's horrific landslide tragedy, which struck last week. You can donate here to the Red Cross's efforts in Guatemala to help the victims: https://www.ammado.com/nonprofit/crg

"Why would you ever go to Guatemala City?" A common question we've had from other tourists who have been warned off Guatemala's big smoke. Their doubts made us want to ride there even more, and we ended up pleasantly surprised as you'll hear in this week's How Are You? Where Are You? podcast.

We also ride the local 'Chicken' buses into the highlands and continue our fascination with this country's rich biodiversity when we meet Fredy Archila, a man passionate about orchids. We hope you enjoy the show.

We recorded this in Cobán, high up in the Alta Verapaz region of the Guatemala's interior. We've been learning a lot about Mayan culture and a lot about the capability of our legs to ride our heavy touring bikes high up into the sky.

New Zealanders have been fascinated by this Central American country ever since Nurse Carrie Burton uttered the line: "You're not in Guatemala now Dr Ropata" in the debut episode of the homegrown soap Shortland Street.

Unlike Dr Ropata we are actually in Guatemala right now and have even been spending time in the jungle where the great doctor cut his medical teeth. We hope you enjoy this podcast.

After a period of gallivanting, we are finally back on the bikes and rediscovering the joys of cycle touring. We have the country and people of Belize to thank for this. Sure it's stinking hot but we are pedalling with coping strategies in place and they seem to be working fine. We visit the amazing zoo, the prison and ride the glorious Hummingbird Highway. Check out our website www.howareyouwhereareyou.com for blogs, photos and extra content including our interactive map.

We're having a holiday from our holiday in this edition of the How Are You? Where Are You? podcast. Our bikes are safely stored in our beloved Chetumal (Chets) while we flew to check out a bit more of this amazing country. We traveled to Mexico City and then Oaxaca before washing up on the Pacific coast in Puerto Escondido. We're joined by a special guest this week: fellow Hutt kid Nathan Taare. Check out Nathan's creations here: https://entsound.bandcamp.com while as always you can find us at www.howareyouwhereareyou.com.

Back on the bikes next week and southwards to Belize (we promise).

We mention the word "hot" quite a bit in this podcast because that's what it's been here on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. We've been checking out some significant Mayan sites and having fun but the heat ended up being a bit too much for Baden.

Our stint off the bike continues with a holiday in Cuba. It's our third time in the country so we discuss our observations as the socialist paradise begins to open up to change. We also speak with Shelley's parents who joined us on tour for the month of July and what went wrong with Baden's cycling plans for Cuba?

Recorded under a shady tree in Retiro Park in Madrid, we take some time to fill you in on our preparations for Central and South America. We visited Cenas a Pedal in Lisbon to get help with our bikes and we did some last minute shopping in Madrid for supplies before our flight to Cuba. We also discuss our route, goals for the trip and thank some people who have helped us prepare for the next part of our journey in the regular feature, 'In praise of'.

We found an oasis during the Madrid heatwave in the cool waters of our hosts' plastic paddling pool, so we recorded the podcast there. This time we review our whole European trip. We pick out some bests and worsts, count up kilometres travelled and other statistics and discuss some of the things we've been reflecting on since we finished in Lisbon.