Still here. Tubus sent me over to their US distributer, my good friends over at Ortlieb USA. I’m working with them on trying to get a new rack over here. That’s also good because now I don’t have to get up at 2am and check for emails from Tubus because they are in Germany. 
Went to one of the private medical clinics in town and got a hepatitis vaccination shot yesterday just in case. The risk from contaminated water/food heading south gets pretty high. I wanted to get one for yellow fever too but I might have to wait until Costa Rica for that. Got my shorts back and they were fixed up quite nicely.
I went back over to the bike shop this morning to get my spokes fixed while I figure out the rack situation. The owner (Juan–who also speaks English) was there this time and wow is he ever helpful. He checked to see if his distributor in the US had the rack I needed but they didn’t. The service there is also amazing. The tech not only fixed the (2) broken spokes, he adjusted the derailleurs, tightened the headset up and replaced the rear brakes. The only thing they charged me for were the parts. The name of the store is called Adrenaline Bike Shop and it’s in the Plaza Magdalena.
I’m back at the hotel now about to lose my mind. Bicycle touring is so easy until something goes wrong. Not speaking the native language and being in an undeveloped country doesn’t help either. Ortlieb can ship the part but it’ll take at least 10 days and if it gets held up in customs it could be longer. So now I have the fun job of trying to figure out where I’m going to be in a couple weeks and then try to find someone who can give me an actual address. I tried to get the address to the (major) hotel where I’m staying and they didn’t give me the postal code so who knows if it’ll even get to where I want it to go. This also means I have to change my route to avoid unpaved roads so I might miss a couple things west of Antigua I wanted to see.
Then I go over to the only post office in the city and it looks abandoned. The doors are open but the counters/shelves are empty and no one is in the building. Maybe they are watching football somewhere. Some guy comes out but I have no idea what he says. Of course there are never any actual signs for anything so I couldn’t figure out on my own what was up. The other issue is that I need a box so I wrote a note in Spanish to show to the hotel manager. All I asked was if the post office might have boxes and if not did the hotel have any. The guy who read the note drew a map of where the post office was. Argh.
To top everything off I’m sick. Just a cold but it’s annoying.
Funny sight of the day yesterday was an armed guard, packing a shotgun, standing guard at the entrance to a bakery.
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Everything will work out, hang in there! Go buy a few pastries at the bakery but don’t forget to pay for them.
Hi, I just discovered your website and I’m really enjoying your journal entries. Good luck getting the rack fixed – you’re right, it’s all easy until it goes wrong!
I actually run a bike touring site of my own – http://travellingtwo.com – and I’m wondering if you’d be okay with being featured in our monthly newsletter? Every month I devote a few paragraphs to a bike touring journal that catches my eye.
Drop me an email if you like this idea. I’d love to have a photo of you and your bike to use, if possible.
Thanks, Friedel
I haven’t commented for a while but I’ve been following your posts on my feed reader. I was glad to see the good news about your sister. My comment, though, is to ask whether post offices in the countries through which you’re traveling offer “Poste Restante” service, where you can receive mail and packages sent to the main post office of the town. When I was a grad student traveling in Europe, and I didn’t have a hotel booked in advance, I would tell my family to send letters to me Poste Restante. I’d then go to the post office and pick them up, with my passport for ID. Some places have a nominal charge for the service, and in others it’s free.
If you have an Amex card, their “client letter service” serves the same function, but they don’t take packages.
I’ve never traveled in Central America, so I don’t know if Poste Restante is available there, but it might be worth checking.
Hey Brian. They actually do have Lista de Correos however I’m trying to avoid having to do this. From what I’ve heard the mail service in Guatemala is very unreliable. This, combined with not being able to speak Spanish very well, could turn into a nightmare if I actually had to try and call someone. I’ll figure something out… If the warmshowers thing doesn’t work out I can have it send to a DHL office down here. They accept and hold mail too.