Stage 8: Tactic to Guatemala City

The Backroads to Guatemala City

The descent into Salama

Today was another rather frustrating day. However, I don’t anticipate having too many more of these since it comes a little bit with the terrain, and the rest of the trip does not have nearly as many hills as what I just encountered.

Morning departure from Tactic, before the town woke up.

I left Tactic bright and early, around 7:00. The town wasn’t awake yet and the only thing I could find to eat was some rice with milk. I suited up and headed out, following my prescribed route - first to a town called Salama, and then onto Guatemala City. After about 10 miles I came to my first hill. And Bam! Another unpaved road!  It’s never clear how much unpaved road there is, so I climbed this one. Very slowly, with my back tire slipping out occasionally. After summiting, the road plunged back down. I had to ride the brakes on the way down, careful to avoid potholes, large rocks and wending my way through the switchbacks. Coupled with the weight on the back of the bike, my hands were hurting from the pressure against the handlebars and squeezing the brakes as hard as I could. 

At the bottom of the hill there was a small river. However, the bridge was out. When I say out, I don’t mean that there was a sign blocking it off. I mean that the only thing that remained of the bridge was its support columns. The river was full of slippery stones and I didn’t think I could make it across by riding. I took off my shoes and socks and waded into the water. It came up above my ankles and to the rear derailleur of the bike. I forged across, redressed and continued. The road seemed to get worse and worse and I was still climbing. I heard some engine noise behind me and decided it was time to skip this section. So I flagged down the driver, who seemed to be with his family and asked if he could take me to Salama, a town just on the other side of this section of road.

The bridge was out. As in it no longer existed - it used to exist.

I put the bike in the back of his truck, which was already taken up by a very large box covered with a tarp. I put my bike on top of the tarp and squeezed myself between the box and the edge of the truck. The box must have been filled with chickens or some kind of bird because as soon as the truck took off, they began cheeping with anxiety and did not stop.

Poor road conditions and cheeping birds, I skipped this section by hitchhiking.

I had been slow on this road to begin with, but would not have made it as far as I did without some assistance. The conditions remained the same (that is to say, terrible) and there were 3 more river crossings like the one I had done. The final descent into Salama, although beautiful, was equally treacherous and steep. Once we got back to the paved road, he let me off and we each went out separate ways.

I rode through Salama, eager to make up some distance. I climbed another mountain just after the town, and fortunately this one was paved the entire way. It was getting hot, I reached the summit and went down the other side. Due to the switchbacks and potholes, it was not possible to go very fast and I wasn’t making up a whole lot of time. A bit more climbing later, I was surprised to be on a beautifully smooth road. I was enjoying the views when suddenly I crossed a bridge and came back to the same rocky, washed out road. I couldn’t have made a wrong turn, there had been no turns off this road! Argh. So I kept riding on this road and passed through a couple villages, which did have paved roads, but they were short lived. At one point I came across a construction site and crossed a makeshift bridge over a river. The foreman stopped me and said I was lucky, they had only completed the bridge and opened the road about 15 minutes before I arrived.

Road conditions continued to be poor, at least there were some nice views.

I showed him my route on the GPS, I still had about 30 miles to go, but they were steep - easily another 6000ft of climbing, and I was already at 5500 for the day (plus the 7800 from the day before). It was a little after 4pm, and he told me the route I had chosen was probably not possible on the bike, more unpaved, rocky and steep roads and would not be safe at night - plus I knew they weren’t really even traversable. He indicated a better road, which was even longer and had more distance. There was just no way I could get to Guatemala City in the next two hours before the sunset. I went down the road he indicated and started climbing. Every couple of miles there was an unpaved section, and I would cringe to think of how far it could possibly go. I was out in the mountains and it was after 5. Exhausted, sore and pretty much defeated, I decided I would hitchhike the last 25 miles or so to the capital.

It was getting dark when I started to look for a ride.

I felt a bit guilty for not figuring out a different situation for the night. I suppose I could have asked at one of the houses to string up my hammock and set out in the morning, but I didn’t.

I texted my Couchsurfing host that I would be arriving that evening. The road was, predictably, very choppy and steep. As we got closer to the capital, the road was very tight with blind curves and I started to see public transit buses - old school buses that tore through the tight streets, leaving nothing between them and the edge of a cliff. They were highly aggressive, overtaking cars on double yellow lines around blind curves and flooring it up the hills, spewing black smoke on cars and motorcycles anywhere in their vicinity. Aside from the difficulty of the roads, this was another layer of difficulty that would have slowed me down had I decided to ride over this portion.

Trucks overtaking motorcycles on the way into the capital at night.

The 25 mile drive into the city took about an hour and a half. They dropped me off on a street corner in Zone 6 and I went off in search of my couchsurfer, Nelly, who said she would come and find me in the city, it was too late to ride to her house from where I was.

Nelly lives with her mom, brother and two sisters. However, there are 10 siblings in total, she’s the 4th. Her house is located inside a gated community - a “colonia” - which feels more like a little town, with tortillerias, restaurants and shops located between and below the houses. The house seemed fairly large to me. It is three stories with a courtyard in the middle. The rooms all open out onto the courtyard, which is decorated with green plants and stones. I got the couch downstairs in the family room, it was very comfortable and after a nice meal of tortillas and beans, I fell right to sleep. 

We have a full day of activities planned for tomorrow.