Stage 7: Lanquin to Tactic

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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 avoid falling off any cliffs.

I climbed another 5000ft the rest of the day and even got lucky because at one point I got to an unpaved section of road where they had just opened a makeshift bridge 15 minutes before I arrived, according to the supervisor. And thanks to him, he saved me another monster hill of climbing that was also unpaved. He sent me around a slightly longer, but paved way and recommended a place that I could stay that evening, a town called Tactic. I arrived in town just after sunset, it wasn’t as far as I was hoping to get, but the hills and the heat certainly slowed me down a bit. There didn’t seem to be any camping spots around, but a private single hotel room cost me $15. It was clean and even had hot water!

At the church in the center of tactic

Ceviche dinner

I treated myself to some more tayuyos and ceviche for my two dinners. Along with some mango with chili for dessert, some marshmallows and a doughnut, I spent just under $10 (70 Quetzales). 

I fell asleep quickly, determined to get an early start the next day.

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