Guatemala--Big Bikes and Bad Roads

Guatemala--we ride here!

We got on the road and left Tikal a little later than I thought we would, due to the fact we chose to have a full, leisurely breakfast in the hotel. We didn't have a ton of miles to cover that day, so we weren't too worried. We rode through stunning countryside in the morning, and stopped in the town of Las Pozas for lunch.

You'd be smiling like that if you had that plate of food in front of you, too.

I am pretty sure we stopped at what had to be the best restaurant in town. Now, when I say restaurant, I am referring to one of the tiny little shacks on the side of the road, with a few tables with plastic chairs and cheerful, colorful vinyl tablecloths, with a fire going in the grill right out front.

Mother and daughter--the mother was the one who put the plates of food into our hands, and after seeing me take a picture of Josh with his food, made us take these.

Though Mom isn't smiling huge in these photos, she was when she asked us to take them. She took a lot of pride in the food she made people, and was happy it was being appreciated.

Though Josh wanted what was on the grill--a giant pile of chicken, onions, grilled tomatoes, black beans, coleslaw, two roasted chiles, and rice going by the name of pollo asado--while I had the Mojarra Frito. Mojarra is a fish you can find all over Mexico and Guatemala in little places like this, lightly breaded and friend whole, typically served with rice, beans, tortillas, and some kind of veggies. My plate came with an insanely huge helping of cucumber and tomato salad with shredded cabbage on top.

After lunch, we needed to keep riding, though what we really wanted to do was nap!

But, we pressed on, and not much later, came to the end of the road. Technically, the road started back up again, but there was a huge River in between. Time to hop on a ferry! It made me recall my first-ever ferry crossing on a motorbike--in Dawson City, Yukon Territory--and how terrified I was as the ferry stopped in front of us, let off its load, and we were expected to roll on up and go across a river on a boat.

After I did it once and saw how easy it was, I did it two more times within an hour. Just like that crossing, this one was easy-peasy, though this one was packed, with two trucks full of Brahman cows right next to me. Staring at me. With their big, beautiful, cow eyes.

All the motos in one corner of the ferry. I asked the guys if I could take a pic, and the guy wearing the helmet got really excited. It was pretty cute.

Once we were off the ferry, we threaded our way through the town. Like most of the larger cities here, when we roll into town on the Main Street, it always becomes a one-way in the opposite direction of our desired direction, approximately one to two blocks before we know it has happened. I can always tell because the staring from the locals goes from being curious to terrified for our, and their, well-being.

One of the detours that took past the spot where they were rebuilding a new bridge.

We made it through and pressed on. We took several detours where bridges were no longer, and kept riding on, marveling at how poor the roads were. We were headed for the town of Lanquin, planning to spend a couple of nights there, while exploring nearby Semuc Champey. After reading a number of entries on iOverlander, we knew there was what was considered a tough way to get there (bad, rocky dirt road) and a more difficult, heinous sounding way to get there approaching from an even worse, gnarly, dirt and rock road.

Josh had looked over the options and decided on the easier of the two. As we got to the spot where the paved road was coming to an end, we stopped to use the facilities (aka find a bush) and turn off ABS. The road made an immediate turn to the right, and from the 25 feet or so that I could see, it climbed sharply with a lot of loose, medium sized rock. We walked a bit to see what the road looked like past where we could see, and though it looked pretty rough and steep, it didn't look terrible.

At that point, I chose to also air down my tires so I would be just bouncing off of every rock I hit, and we started up. It didn't take long for the road to get MUCH worse. Steep climbs and sharp curve, accompanied by rutted road with deep piles of rock.

And it started raining.

And Josh said we had 44Km of it to cover.

And we weren't far from it getting dark.

I said nope. Not gonna do it.

After some work, we got the bikes turned around and headed back down. I was a little concerned about Josh possibly being upset, since as he read it, that was the easy way to go, and I was the one who had insisted we go to these two places. But, on the way down, Josh said something about that having been hard, and he would have rated it an 8 on a scale of 1-10 for difficulty.

So, then add rain and encroaching darknes. We decided the road would have been a ton of fun on little bikes--like a looser version of Mosquito Pass in Colorado--but in those conditions on the big bikes, it was time to re-examine our options. When we got back to the bottom, where the pavement came back, I examined iOverlander and found some lodging back about 50Km or so--back over a bunch of what we rode, then down the road that was the other option to get to Lanquin.

We just needed a spot to stop for the night, and Eco Hospedaje in Chisec would do it. Eco Hospedaje was a cheerfully decorated building of two floors, with wooden rooms and shared bathrooms. After we paid and got things unloaded, Josh put a line up in the room to try and dry out our seemingly unending damp clothing. It wasn't raining, so the boots stayed outside, and the clothes hung everywhere.

That tin roof was LOUD when the rain poured down. Also, the whole room shuddered anytime a big truck passed by on the road right outside.

Then, it started raining.

Of. Course.

And when I say raining, what I really mean is there was so much rain, and so much thunder and lightning, that we couldn't even hear the huge trucks rumbling by on the road twenty-five feet away. We were on the top floor at the end, and the building had a tin roof. The monumental amount of rain which fell for the next hour, accompanied by the sharp cracks of thunder louder than gunshots made it so we couldn't even hear our neighbor snoring. And that's saying something.

After hours of ridding a motorbike, with the constant drone of the engine and the constant drone of my riding partner--just kidding...mostly--sitting with the massive amount of noise from Mother Nature was driving me slightly insane as I tried to write. Eventually, the nucleus of the storm seemed to pass. It rained until morning, but much more lightly.

It was then we realized our neighbor snored like you wouldn't believe. Where the walls would have met the ceiling in any normal building, our walls met rafters like the way a garage would be constructed. There was no ceiling, which meant sound from each of the four upstairs rooms carried back and forth. They all got to hear the constant clicking of my keyboard, and I got to hear a phone conversation, farting, and our neighbor sawing logs like a professional lumberjack.

On the left side of the valley you can see the road for quite a ways. Eventually, when you can't see it anymore is when it dropped down into the valley, and we headed for the river.

This dirt road to Lanquin was easy-peasy, and once the threat of rain passed, it was perfect riding weather.

Eventually I got to sleep, but not until after we researched roads to Lanquin again. Josh had misunderstood what he read, and we had, of course, started up what was actually considered the gnarly road. The next day, we would take much better roads to Coban, then a poor but somewhat paved road with stunning views, ending with only 20Km of what we consider decent dirt roads. There were still a number of warnings about that part of the road, but only because sections of it were very steep, narrow and had switchbacks. The rock was mostly embedded which made for a decent, if not teeth-rattling experience, and the tight turns and steepness are not really issues on the bikes.

By the time we dropped down to the river and Lanquin, the temps had risen and it was hot. A dip in the icy river was called for!

We arrived in Lanquin, spending the afternoon relaxing by the river, and meeting a young couple (Jay from Alberta and Christina from New Jersey) who were volunteering at El Retiro, the hostel where we stayed, who had just returned from the chocolate making tour. That night, we joined about 30 other people for a huge, beautiful buffet dinner, happy hour drinks, and swapping travel stories with a couple from Poland. They had traveled around the world for a year, gone home for a year, then told their grown children they were off again--this time for six months in Central and South America.

Thai Night dinner at El Retiro. They do not screw around when it comes to food. Also, you can eat as much as you want--it's a buffet. This place is big with backpackers.

Noah--the hostel dog. Such a love!

While we had been lounging by and in the river that afternoon, I ran up to the reception office and signed us up for the tour to Semuc Champey. Though it was a bit on the pricey side for how we've been traveling, it took care of all our transportation and park fees, then for just about $10US more, included a full tour including caves, rope swings, and pool hopping. Jay and Christina said it was a great tour and we would love it.

Sweet. Done.

Then, it started raining. It rained all night. Then, it rained all morning. I took out names off the tour list. We decided against going to Semuc Champey, but what we did that day wound up being so amazing, that I didn't even miss it.

Day two in Lanquin next...

 

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