Cycling from Alaska to Argentina

A long, long days cycling. I'm not sure how bright it is to cycle 163 kms in a day with the amount of gear I have, but anyhow, thats what we did. The road took us through the small villages of the Chiapas region, where the Zapatista movement still has a lot of influence. These signs were outside many villages.

We managed to get to Frontera Corozal, the border town on the Mexican side with Guatemala, in one hit which was pretty good, although if the wind had been with us rather than against, we would have avoided cycling the last 10 kms in the pitch black. Don't try that at home kids ! After asking many friendly people for directions, we eventually managed to find our way to a Posada, where showers were very much needed ! After, we went out for something to eat, and found a nice little tacqueillera (probably not how its spelt) where the girls were chatty and the food great.

I didn't feel too bad, considering the amount of kilometres cycled the previous day, but that said, another long day wasn't on the cards either. Oliver and I left at about 08.00, and headed first to immigration to be stamped out, which proved to be swift and efficient. Then, it was down to the river, where we needed to get a lancha over to the Guatemalan side.

They wanted four hundred pesos to take us directly to Bethel, or just seventy pesos to take us straight over to the otherside... Option 2 it was then!!

It was a bit of fun loading the bicycles onto the lancha, and the actual journey over to the other side took less than ten minutes. A not so enjoyable carrying of bicycles and trailer up the embankment, and then we hit our first road in Guatemala. And quite a rough and hilly thing it was too! That it took us two hours to cover just 15 kms was probably not the greatest morale booster on what was an outrageously hot day, but we arrived in Bethel before lunch. Asking around, we eventually found a Hospedeja (El Rodeo - class) for 80 Quetzales for the night.Then, it was just a matter of relaxing the afternoon away, and trying to avoid the heat!

Thankfully, it wasn't as hot today as it was the day before, which was just as well, as there was some tough cycling ahead. We got an early start, and covered the first three kilometres of rough road to the immigration building in good time.

There was one security guard on duty, who had to wake the official up inside, who was evidently having a bit of a lay in. Expecting a grumpy, half asleep immigration officer, we were pleasantly welcomed into Guatemala by a bubbly, friendly guy. Sometimes, I wonder where the rumours of corrupt border officials come from. You would have had to have been incredibly obnoxious to annoy this guy to the point that he would have started inventing entry taxes. Anyhow, with a 90 day visa stamped into the passport, and a lot of kilomteres to cover, it was time to get going.

For the first 65 kms, the roads were pretty awful. Over the years, I've cycled thousands of miles of rough, dirt roads, but this one was pretty special. Lumps of limestone rocks with a mixture of fine gravel and pebbles called for some attentive cycling, and a little less air in the tyres than I would normally have.

For the first time on all my cycling travels I fell off, when a couple of dogs came running at me as I rounded a corner on some loose gravel. It was a pretty unspectacular 1 km an hour crash, where my pride was hurt more than anything else. Still, I am sure it proved amusing to the dogs, who seemed to go back to their farm with a contented wag of their tails. 

We covered 65 kms of this rough stuff to the town of Las Cruces, where after a fortifying pepsi and Quesadilla, we got back on the road again. A long day of 140 kms covered, but we made Flores and located a pretty good hotel where we decided to base ourselves for a couple of days.

Today, I visited Tikal for the second time in five years. Sometimes, its hard to believe how fortunate I am in the places that I have visited and seen. And the important thing to remember of course, is that anyone can do this !

 

 I tried a landscape view of Tikal - Think it turned out ok !!

So, a nice relaxing few hours spent wandering around the ancient site of Tikal. The pictures capture some of the things I had seen there, but its much harder to imagine the noise of the howler monkeys that were echoing around the surrounding jungle. It sounded a bit like a few dinosaurs had gotten loose from Jurassic Park ! Sitting on some of the temples was very peaceful indeed, and although Tikal is a major tourist centre, I never felt overwhelmed by other visitors.

Today was a day off to update my website, which seems to become a longer and longer job each time I do it. that, and planning my route ahead took up a good part of the day that eating did not !!