El Peten
[07. January 2008]
To cross the boarder we had to take a little boat that took us across the river which is the natural boarder between Mexico and Guatemala. The first town in Guatemala looked perfectly the same than the last one in Mexico. The only difference: no pavement anymore! For 55 km we were riding a road whose surface changed from muddy to gravel to stones the size of a fist. Five hours riding and only making 55 kilometres.
To make up for the bad road the pavement that followed was brand new and perfect for us to fly to Flores, an island of only 300 meters diameter in a lake close to Tikal. The islands population consists about half of locals, the other half are tourists. Restaurants, hotels and bars are everywhere.
As we have a date with a friend visiting us from Switzerland in Belize, we have some spare time now. Instead of going to Belize directly and spend a lot of money there (the country is more expensive than the ones surrounding it) we stay for some days here in Flores. We have a room in a cheap hotel for 9 Dollars per night and a monthly deal in the internet cafe for 5 Dollars...
So for the last three days we were only sitting in front of the computer, did not even leave the room for eating. In the evening we went to a restaurant to eat, then we disappeared in our room to watch TV. Real nerds.
Why all this? You can find the result of the last three day’s work right here. If you look at the button in the bottom left corner you see that it has changed from “map” to “profiles”. Since we have been riding the US west coast we realized how valuable an elevation profile for a biker is. It is difficult to plan the days ride when you have no idea whether it will be flat or full of hills. Therefore we bought a GPS in San Diego and recorded our ride through Mexico. Now we processed the data and provide the profiles in downloadable PDF files. We hope they will help future Panamericana riders.
[19. February 2008]
A day’s ride through the jungle of the Petén brought us to one more highlight we were looking forward to for long: Tikal. The Maya ruins surrounded by dense and untouched jungle are said to be among the most impressive.
The visit was very interesting for us but more due to the fascinating wildlife than to the ruins. Our guide showed us animals in places where we never would have found them on our own. Beatles as long as our hands, monkeys, lizard-like creatures up in the trees, Toucans, pheasants, tarantulas and many more where among the treasures he discovered for us. Instead of the sunrise we should have been watching from the top of one ruin rising above the trees we saw only fog but this made the screams of the howler monkeys (who were recorded to give the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park their fearful screams) around us even more impressive.
Zigzag through Guatemala
[19. February 2008]
Our transfer from Belize to Guatemala City was a three day journey with three buses, one taxi, one pick up and three boats. After arriving in Livingston on the northern Coast of Guatemala by sea we enjoyed the beautiful ride through the jungle on the river to Rio Dulce. From there we had to take the bus to El Estor where we could leave our bikes for one month at a Germans place. The ride there was only 45 kilometers long but the road quality is so bad that it took one hour and 45 minutes to get there.
The welcome to Guatemala was not as warm as we expected it to be. On the boats and in the buses people always tried to get some extra money out of us “stupid gringos”. Example? Price for the bus to El Estor is 15 Quetzals per person, we checked this out before we entered the bus. In the bus it then was three times 15 equals 45 plus the bikes – 90 Quetzals … After endless discussions including an outburst of fury from Pius we paid 70 Quetzals, tip included J Other example? Tickets cost 20 each, you give 100 and wait for a change in vain. The first three times of asking the boy tells you he does not have change (even though all the other people in the bus were paying him a minute ago). After asking for the change once more you can be lucky if you get 50 back. We get used to these situations but we still are unnerved every time again and we will never give them a chance to get away with some “stupid gringo money”.
After enjoying a bath in a river near El Estor where a hot waterfall falls into the cold water of the river we were relaxed and refreshed for the eight hour bus ride to Guatemala City. There the three boys could welcome their three girlfriends, joining in for travelling through Guatemala.
During the next four weeks Stefan and his girlfriend Claudia travelled on their own through Guatemala while Pius and his girlfriend Andrea joined Christian and his girlfriend Anna-Julia for a trip through Guatemala and Honduras.
Being four the P-A-C-A group could afford renting a car to be more flexible on the back roads of the Guatemalan mountains. Stefan and Claudia’s trip went more or less along the same track, just some days later and by bus. Instead of going to Honduras they went to Monterrico at the Pacific Coast in Guatemala to enjoy sun, fun and nothing to do.
Highlights of the trips are:
- Visiting the active volcano Pacaya, where everybody risks melting the soles of their shoes by walking over fields of solidified lava with glowing lava only half a meter underneath
- Chill on the Lago Atitlan, a lake surrounded by volcanoes which offers breathtaking views, including a meeting with the Austrian bikers Markus and Heidi
- Climbing volcano Santa Maria near Quetzaltenango to enjoy the view on the Pacific Ocean, 3770 meters below, and watching an active volcano erupting every 45 minutes producing a huge cloud of ash
- Two nights at the hot springs “Fuentes Georginas”, some of the most beautiful of Guatemala. Midnight bath, grill party and crackling fire in the bedroom included
- Drive from Huehuetenango to Coban, finally off the tourist streams in middle of the indigenous villages of the Guatemalan mountains
- Relaxing in the “El Retiro” lodge in Lanquin with a “tubing”-ride on the river through the jungle and a visit of the river pools in Semuc Champey
- Being in Paradise on the Honduran island Roatan. Four days of diving in the crystal-clear water exploring the reef, ship wrecks and swimming with turtles… And then relax on the white, palm-lined beaches, enjoying the magnificent sunsets
- Helping little sea turtles on their way into the Ocean at the Monterrico natural preserve
With mixed feelings we made our way back to El Estor and our bikes. On one hand it means the end of a wonderful time with our loves and we will miss them very much in the next days, weeks, months… On the other hand our legs are going tingly all over and we can’t wait till we are back on the road.
Travelling by bus is not what we are made for. Waiting and waiting, sweating in a minibus, praying to God to survive the driving style of the bus driver, rushing from one spot to the other instead of making our way steadily step by step are things we would never want to change with the freedom we have on our bikes. Last but not least we feel that our bodies need exercise. We are not made for laziness and we do not intend to end up with a beer belly before turning 30…
El Estor
[6. March 2008]
Our last “free” days we spent in El Estor with Berith, the German who was looking after our bikes for the last weeks. After working on our homepage during the day we spent the evenings together at the lake, drinking some beers with the locals.
In El Estor every second man carries a gun. The most important thing is that everyone sees they are carrying a gun. One of them – our favorite – was carrying a case with seven (!) magazines in it too. His gun was bigger than the others and it was blinking in silver. In Switzerland it’s this way with cars: the bigger the car is, the smaller the owner is (concerning the brain and other important parts of the body). He definitely was not teeming with intelligence and he proofed so with his answer to our question what he needed this gun and the seven magazines for: “There are many incidents happening in El Estor, someone has to look for the right thing”.
So we were in a town where men were walking around with guns, part of the land of our host was occupied by locals, Berith was accused of having been dealing with drugs, the barmaid was shot through her arm twice some weeks ago – incidentally! – but we did not feel uncomfortable at all. We felt better than all the time before in Guatemala. Finally we were not looking at the country while traveling through but we were part of El Estor for some days. People started recognizing us and we felt like at home.
Our hosts have a little motorboat and we explored the nearby national park and drove to a river flowing through a canyon. More precisely we tried to cross the river delta and got our motor stuck in a sand bank. As a result of our driving style the forward gear was broken, only the reverse gear still worked. Now imagine this: the people of El Estor are enjoying the beautiful evening on the lakeside. They see a boat coming across the lake, veeery slow. Once it passes by the village they realize these are the three gringos, driving their boat aback… They had a lot to smile, we had a lot of fun looking at their staggered faces; a nice episode.
From El Estor it was only one day’s ride to the boarder to Honduras. We left Guatemala with mixed feelings. On one hand we hated being deceived and treated like the money-carrying gringos, on the other hand El Estor gave us the chance to see into real Guatemalan life and we liked the people living there.
|
