Guaty Guaty Guaty

I was becoming disenchanted with cycling and was feeling rather negative about life when we entered Guatemala. Maybe this was due to being on the road for over six months, rarely being in one place for more than a couple of days…along with the incessant heat, finding the riding hard and getting a taste of home after mum and dad’s visit. Something wasn’t right in my mind…but luckily Guatemala (and my firm resolve not to be such a wet blanket) snapped me out of this negativity.

We crossed from Belize to find we were firmly back in Latin America…full of rubbish, roadside fires, quesadillas, Spanish and so many more things we now associate with this part of the world. Our first stop was Yaxha, an isolated Mayan site 8miles off the road along a rough undulating dirt track, and what a spot it was. We camped on site, on a raised platform overlooking the lake and surrounded by thick jungle. The raised platforms for camping were there in case a croc (of which there are apparently many) decides to make its way out of the lake and into your tent for a midnight snack. Aside from the locals that live and work on site we had the place to ourselves, walked up to the ruins in the evening to find an awesome view from the ‘Temple’ and families of spider and howler monkeys hanging out in the trees. We returned again the next morning to watch the sunrise and as it grew light we were surrounded by the sounds of the jungle waking up, including the throaty roar of howler monkeys and numerous tropical birds.

Leaving Yaxha, I had a determination to turn my negative mood upside down and pushed it hard to get to the road, this physical effort and consequent good progress seemed to be what I needed…that and finishing the day by arriving in a beautiful place like Flores. Flores is an island in the middle of a large lake, accessible by bridge, it was incredibly hot during the days but as the sun started to go down we would emerge from our hostel to swim and soak up the atmosphere. Being in a much smaller country is great because at the end of each day it is possible to reach another place that you actually want to spend time rather than it just being a functional stopover. From Flores we stopped at Finca Ixobel…a ‘farm’ providing accommodation, a restaurant and somewhere for us to camp. It was a beautiful setting and we arrived around lunchtime so had enough time to enjoy it. When I say we enjoyed it, this involved taking a long afternoon nap under a palapa, eating cake in the restaurant and excitedly watching the rain start to fall and cooling the air down ready for a non sweaty nights sleep.

Our favourite place in Guatemala was to follow – the lake at Rio Dulce. We arrived in the busy, noisy, one street town of Rio Dulce just before noon and surprised by how hectic the town was we were relieved to jump on a boat, bikes and all and speed off to a hostel across the water. All accommodation on the lake is only accessible by boat, there are no roads…and this gave it a certain kind of magic. We spent the next couple of days enjoying our location which was just off the main lake up a little creek, it was quiet and simple and we had use of the ‘local style’ dugout canoes to paddle to a swimming platform at the mouth of the creek. These canoes were very interesting…they were extremely wobbly and everything time one of us moved it felt like the whole thing would tip up…it got even more interesting when speed boats whizzed past…but there were no calamities.

After much debate about routes and roads we decided to take the bus to Antigua. The main road was reported to be incredibly busy with trucks and buses and would be dangerous and no fun…the other route involved slightly more unknown, but potentially involved three days of rough dirt road which our bikes were not made for and may turn into a massive slog. These factors, coupled with my wavering moods, made us think the bus was a good idea. A larger bus took us into the chaos of Guatemala City (aka Guaty), where we changed to a minibus, put our bikes on the roof and drove very fast through thick traffic, spending much of the time trying not to think about our precious possessions above us, and the fact we had no control over our speed or precarious route in and out of other motorists. Both our bikes and ourselves survived the ordeal and we were deposited in the cobbled and cool world of Antigua. We were having difficulty finding space in a hostel but struck lucky when a Kiwi girl (Izzie) overheard our troubles and invited us to stay in her beautiful house…an offer we could not refuse! It felt like a palace, and incredibly she makes a good living from travel blogging and living tax free in Guatemala.

The riding from Antigua to the border was beautiful, volcanoes saw us out of the town and then down down down we went, enjoying the smooth roads and downhills that we didn’t even work to earn! Our last night was spent not far from the border with El Salvador in a rather strange hotel on the main road…but with air con, an enormous bed and a pool….what more could we ask for. Guatemala differed from Mexico in a few ways…it was cleaner, less noisy and we found people to be generally more friendly and very ready to give a smile and a wave as we passed by rather than just staring. Maybe they are a more accepting nation…or maybe they just have less turned down faces than their Mexican neighbours?!