Marching About

As I had anticipated, the ride out of Lanquin was a beast. This was quite the way to start two straight days of climbing, but I guess no better way than to head straight into it. The hill started immediately and I had no break for the first 8 miles as I climbed around 2700ft out of the valley. This may have been the most I’ve ever perspired in my life, it wasn’t dripping, it was pouring off of me, soaking my clothes, my handlebars and down to my gloves - when I made a fist, it was like wringing out a sponge. Climbing up the steep hill out of Lanquin. Fortunately the sun was out, so the road was not as slippery as the previous day. At the top, there was a little shop so I stopped and had a coke, a Gatorade and an entire bottle of water before moving on. The rest of the day was spent climbing steep hills and spending seemingly very little time going down them. The road was very windy as well, so I couldn’t really coast my way downhill, I have to continually brake into the curves so as to...

Leaving the Middle of Nowhere, Guatemala I woke up at 4:30 this morning to get my stuff together and take the bus at 5. I had traveled by bus like this in Madagascar and they are usually notoriously late - like on the order of 8 hours for a commercial bus line. But as I found out, things run pretty strictly on time here. I was standing outside looking for the bus for a while, with no bus in sight. Then, at 4:56 the bus driver walks up, opens a grave where I was standing, and pulls the bus out. His co-pilot deftly lifted my bike onto the roof, strapped it down and we took off at exactly 5:00, with me as the only passenger. We had about 35-40 miles to go on the same road on which I had been stuck the day before. The total trip to Fray de Bartolome de las Casas took 2.5 hours. It was dark as we drove out and people kept emerging in front of the bus headlights, hailing the bus and getting on. At some point the bus was full, but they kept taking on more passengers, squeezing them into the a...

La Caoba I had a bit of time this morning with Saul. We hung out a bit and had breakfast, then he took me to the Machequilla river, a beautiful spot where some guys were swimming and others were hanging out along some of the beaches that came up to the riverside. This seemed like a nice relaxing spot where he said people come in the summer to cool off. We went back to his house after that and I was off.  With Saul at the Machaquilla River Some days, the cycling is great, I don’t encounter any major issues and I get to where I was trying to go. Well, today was not one of those days. At many people’s behest, I decided to go to Semuc Champey. I figured it would take me a couple days from Poptun, but it really wasn’t much of a detour aside from the fact that it adds some mountains in the way, but I’m up for some hills. From Poptun, the elevation profile looked acceptable, a couple of steep mountains at the end of the ~200km stage. I figured I could make it to the base of the mountains,...

The way out of Flores I slept in a bit today, the night spent hanging out in Tikal and then the 3:30 wake up on top of the hot ride took a toll on me, I suppose. Because of the mosquitos, I had hung my hammock under her roof outside and slept very comfortably, undisturbed by mosquitos. I woke up around 9:30 and hung out with both Maria and Mia for a bit. Then we both had errands on the island - Maria was scoping out a location for a fish restaurant at the behest of one of her fish farming customers and needed to talk to the proprietor. I had promised my mom that I would find her a mask to add to her collection. In Guatemala, they use ceremonial masks for El Baile de Moros in some areas, and Maria knew where I could find a good selection. They had wonderful hand-carved and hand-painted masks depicting various forest animals - jaguars, tortoises, and monkeys. I didn’t have trouble picking out something nice. The hard part is the fact that I can’t carry around a mask on my bike without da...

 I had a bit of a break today, not as much climbing as yesterday me just over half the distance. Although the heat feels like I am working out in a sauna most of the day. Entering Flores My host, Maria, lives on the opposite side of Flores from where I entered, in a district called “San Benito”. The roads are bumpy and unpaved. The houses are spaced apart and most people seem to have chickens or small livestock within their enclosures. Maria wasn’t at home but her 5-year old daughter, Mia gave me a warm welcome. She greeted me as I set my bike against the house and took my hand and pulled me excitedly into the house to introduce me to her nanny, Griselda and her pet chicken, Flores. She immediately led me to the back and wanted to play with me, with no hesitation. She’s quite the firecracker and clearly has been raised with Couchsurfers coming through her home. She was very curious about my bags, my bike and the gadgets such as my bell and lights. I had a little trouble understandi...

Crossing the Border I rode out of San Ignacio and into a very hilly region. Although there were some more intense hills, the landscape was just hilly in general. The Belizean side of the border I rolled up to the border and exited Belize with no issues, showed my covid test and paid the $40 exit fee. Over on the Guatemalan side, it was a bit confusing. There were no signs and a lot of large trucks being processed. Some militia men and women were milling about at a station at what seemed like the exit to the town. I walked past them and they did not check my passport. All of a sudden, I was in Guatemala. A taxi driver called out to me,  “Hey! Did you get a passport stamp?” “No, where do I get it?” “Go back through the border and around the side and along the administrative building to the corner” Well, thanks to the cabbie, I won’t have any problems when I leave the country.  Made it to the other side of the border! Eating a starfruit  snack As I stopped for a snack, the r...

Ride through the Jungle The road after Harmonyville seems as if they just paved the highway directly through the jungle. This was an amazing ride for me, just due to the sheer contrast to riding in Colorado. Large birds flew overhead every hundred feet or so. A constant chorus came from the trees the entire way - clacks, whoops, chirps, squawks and tweets seemed to announce my passage as I rode by. They were either greeting me or mocking me, I haven’t decided which. But in any case, I was simply impressed by the density of the wildlife inside the forest. There were a lot of brightly painted houses along the way.   It was not particularly hot, but it was humid. The air is thick, and fortunately I rode under mostly heavy cloud cover. I stopped on the side of the road for a banana and a horchata, I couldn’t find the fresh coconut water today. My departure from the farm.  Quick horchata stop! Santa Elena / San Ignacio It wasn’t a particularly long ride - just 30 miles of rolling h...