GUATEMALA

We entered Guatemala through the border town of La Mesilla. For us, this fast paced town was spread uphill, forcing us to slow down as we made our way through. Dodging and weaving through the array of tuk tuks and taxis was hard work but we were thrilled to be entering another country. Entry into Guatemala was so easy we were unsure if we did it right. Handing over our passports we got the CA-4 stamp which allows us 90 days in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. This is arrangement made between the countries to allow for easier border crossings which we found true for all but Nicaragua.

Our first few weeks in Guatemala were spent mostly in the bathroom. Hank had gotten food poisoning from the fried chicken stand and was throwing up for 13 hours straight on the second night in the country. This forced us to spend three nights in Colotenango, a small transit town for those venturing from the border and Xela. Once Hank had stopped vacating all fluids from both ends, Evan and Charles picked up travelers diarrhea on our way to Quetzaltenango (locally known as Xela). With a massive hill between us and the next town we were forced to get transportation to town. Unloading our bicycles and sticking out our thumbs a wild looking bus stopped for us. These buses are known as chicken buses, old US school bus with rad paint jobs have been converted into the local transportation system of this region. These buses blaze down the highway. With two workers on board, one drives with speed hungry lunacy about him, while the other handles the luggage of passengers. While the bus is moving at high speeds, the luggage handler will climb out of the bus to get to the roof where he situates the luggage. It is pure anxiety watching these guys do this as we struggle to say up right just sitting in the bus. Our bikes were stored on the roof the bus and with fingers crossed we headed to Xela.

Xela was spent in a hostel while Evan and Charles recuperated. During this time Hank picked the bug they had and got sick again days after recovering from the food poisoning. It would be one thing to get sick off of amazing tasting food but we found the local food of Guatemala to be quite bland. The hot sauce was this neon green tangy substance which did not help to give more favorable taste to the food. Relying on fruits and processed food for our first few weeks in Guatemala, it was relief to find a Mcdonalds in Xela. To top it off, they had the touch screen kiosks to order from, which was a nice break from the mystery meals we had been ordering due to the language barrier.

Once we had finished destroying the bathrooms of the hostel, we made our way to Lake Atitlan. Our ride into the lake town of Panajachel was unreal. A massive downhill wrecked our brakes as we pulled hard on the levers to avoid from crashing into the cars in front of us. The views along this road caused for us to stop every 10 minutes to take pictures. It is absolutely gorgeous out here. Reaching the town we rode straight for the lake where the local street vendors spotted the gringos right away. One lady went straight to work selling Charles rugs, were he spent a good 30 minutes negotiating with the lady. Ultimately deciding he had no need for a rug on bicycle tour we began adventuring the town. As this is a popular tourist destination there is a wide variety of food in the area. We found some amazing places to eat out here which was a very welcomed change to both the local cuisine and McDonalds.

We took a boat to the other side of the lake to San Pedro. This town is known to be the party town the lake. We were not here for that but to instead start our ride around the perimeter from here. The lake is surrounded by 4 volcanos, one of which, Volcan Toliman, is the largest peak in all of Central America. These sharp protrusions from the earth made for some very steep climbing. So steep we were forced to get off our bikes and push for a few hours as we climbed 1500 feet over a few miles. Our road around the lake turned into dirt, which made it very difficult to traverse as we were now on the downhill portion. 20 plus percent grades on a rough rocky road is challenge to descend on fully loaded bikes. Halfway down we were stopped by two police officers who informed us that many robberies had occurred of late on this road. Worried for us, they escorted us to the next town of Santiago Atitlan. The ride around the lake was beautiful but difficult. The grades in Guatemala are just too steep to ride up fully loaded. These tough climbs continued throughout the country as we made our way to the next town of Antigua.

Antigua is a popular tourist town where to the back dropped to the city is the large Volcano Agua. A short distance away are two more volcanoes, Fuego and Acatenango. Volcanoes Fuego is a very active volcano, with eruptions about every 10 minutes. Last year a violent eruption occurred, covering the surrounding cities in ash. 300 people died from this explosion with another hundred still missing. The most popular activity when visiting Antigua is to climb Volcano Acatenango where from the summit you can watch Fuego erupting. I am not sure why we did not climb the volcano, I think deep down we were exhausted of walking up Guatemala's hills. The bright side is that this makes for a great excuse to come visit Antigua again.

After our rest we continued on, skipping Guatemala city as we had heard it can be pretty unfavorable to ride through. Our route took us just a bit south of the city to Villa Nueva. By looks alone, this area was the most impoverished and “hardest” looking area of the trip so far. Our ride into the town put us onto a very busy road that had a few close calls with cars. One coming inches from taking Hank out. We set ourselves up in the only hotel we could find, which was right on a main highway. Evan and Charles went out to the bar at night while Hank stayed back to get some sleep. After bar hopping they began to return to the hotel at 1am. They were outside of the hotel when everything went wrong. From behind a building five guys came running at them and tackled Charles to the ground. Keeping Evan away with the threat of a gun they begin taking everything from their pockets. Having spent all of their money at the bar, the only thing of worth they had on them were their phones. The robbers took the phones and left, luckily leaving the guys unharmed. This all happened about 50 feet from the hotel. This situation could have gone a lot worse and we are very fortunate that it ended with only phones stolen. Since then we have vowed to not go out that late, mostly out of fear and we are much more aware of our surroundings. I think our time in the larger tourist cities made us a bit too comfortable but we do also believe that this could have happened in any city. This was the last straw for us with Guatemala and we just wanted to reach El Salvador at this point. With heads down and pedaling hard we reached the border in a few days. Guatemala said one last goodbye by giving Evan a flat tire literally feet from the border of El Salvador.