14th September
When leaving El Salvador I had decided to skip Guatemala city and take the Southern border crossing which meant taking the coast road through El Sal then winding my way up to Antigua by passing the chaotic roads and potential hazards of the Guatemalan capital. The journey to the border took a little over 3hrs made worse by me missing my turning in the mountains which must have added another thirty minutes to the ride. I was also held up by numerous precessions, it was independence day which meant all the locals were dressed up and marching through the streets, banging drums, blowing cornets and spinning sticks. Very cool to see but slightly awkward trying to politely ride through large crowds of people, the bikes engine thumping away as I went by.
About a half hour from the border the heavens opened and once again my boots filled with water and I got well and truly soaked, so did the poor marching kids! I got to the border in a soggy mess and quickly checked out of El Sal. Entering Guatemala started out really easily, the customs office was dead quiet and I was seen to straight away but they have a funny system where by you need to get your papers for temporary import of the vehicle and go to a secure cashier in an adjacent building, pay the fee of roughly $30 then go back to customs with a receipt. Unfortunately just as I went to pay the clock hit 1pm and the bank closed for an hours lunch. I knew I still had about four hours riding to go in Guatemala and with it still raining I was getting anxious about making it before dark... Here we go again!
I eventually left the border at 2:30pm and set off in the light rain. The roads were good and there was very little traffic. I was amazed how quickly the scenery changed from the dusty coastal roads of El Sal to a more verdent jungle covered landscape scattered with large granite boulders painted dark red with the word Lider painted everywhere. Not far from the border I came up behind a police truck which was cruising quite slowly down the road. Unsure of the speed limits or police etiquette I slowed and followed from a few car lengths back. For no reason the truck started slowing down and I figured I should overtake but as soon as I started to pull out the Po-po started to speed up, I dropped back, they slowed down, I went to overtake and they sped up... I have no idea what was going on but I thought they were about to pull some funny business. After a ten minutes of this strange game they sped off then turned sharply off the road and disappeared up a dirt track... Weird!
I started to notice various groups of people stood by the side of the road holding flaming torches not dissimilar to the Olympic torch only slightly cheaper looking. The further I went the more I noticed until I came across a car coming towards me at jogging pace followed by a stream of ten or so guys in shorts and head bands blowing whistles and waving the Guatemalan flag with one of the group carrying an Olympic torch. I guess Guatemala gained independence on the same day! This form of celebration continued as I rode along and grew from just small groups to groups of over fifty people running along the main road surrounded by coaches and cars full of people both in front and behind the runners crawling along all displaying the national flag. In the towns and villages this scene turned into pandemonium with spectators lining the streets with arsenals of water ballons and buckets of water which were launched at runners and vehicles alike. Huge ques of traffic backed up behind the slow moving processions and it took ages to work my way through the insanity. It was hilarious.
None of this helped my progress and it wasn't until 5:30pm that I finally reached Antigua. I had another twenty minutes to ride out the other side of the former capital, up into the mountains to a place called the Earth Lodge where I hoped to spend the night. Antigua was the craziest of all, people everywhere, traffic inching along over the sketchy cobbled streets of the beautiful old colonial city. It took about 45mins to go ten miles to the edge of town. Once there I followed my GPS up a bizzare set of steep windy roads into a sort of park then through a gravel car park in the woods and back out onto a narrow zig-zagging concrete road up and up until finally I had to stop and take a photo of the valley below, the view was incredible. The city below surrounded by two large volcanoes and ensconsed in cloud. I wasn't there yet and I blindly followed my phone up to a tiny village where the road turned to mud and along to a dead end where a super friendly family of Guatemalans came running out of their tiny tin hut and said 'hello'!
It was 6:30pm and darkness was setting in, I had tried to make an email reservation but hadn't heard back so leaving my bike with the family I slid my way down the steep dirt path to enquire about a bed. Fortunately there was a bed spare in the dorm which I gladly accepted and ran back up the hill to get my rucksack. The rain had started again and this super cute little girl came running out with an umbrella and a poncho and handed it to me so I could unload my gear in the dry. Such smiley, generous people, made the bizzare surrounding feel so welcoming.
Glad that the day was finally over I sat and had a communal dinner with the folks at the Earth Lodge and jumped into bed after another gruelling ten hour day.
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