07/14 Big smile on my face when I woke up to sunshine this morning. Easy ride into Panajachel where I tracked down Posada Don Carlos. Matthew, a member of warmshowers.org, told me about this place (he and his gf stayed here at some point). He’s also coordinating the shipping of my bike rack to one of the Spanish schools here in town. He was nice enough to offer to let me stay at their place for a couple days but the hotel had a great weekly rate so it’s easier for me to only unpack once. I’m invited over for dinner tomorrow night which I’m looking forward to.

Panajachel is sweet little town on the shores of Lake Atitlan. The views are amazing. The lake is surrounded by not one, but three volcanoes, the highest being 11,400 feet tall. Boats are available to take you to the the other villages that dot the lake. There are some older, weird-looking hippies wandering about but most of the tourists are regular backpacker types. I did get one offer to buy some coke from a guy who doubles as a tour guide. I passed (on both offers). On the way back from dinner another guy came up and wanted to sell me some smoke. So if you want to get high, Panajachel is the place to be.

The road into town takes you down a nice, steep section that had me within .3 miles an hour of breaking my all-time high speed of 43 mph. The problem is when I’m going that fast I can’t look at my bike computer to check the speed so I don’t know to duck down a little lower for that extra boost (cliffs/potholes to blame).

I’ll be here for a week and hopefully not any more than that. I can’t be lollygagging around too much–my passport was only stamped for 90 days and that has to get me to Costa Rica.

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07/13 Its been a long time since I’ve ridden in such miserable weather. Cold and rainy almost all day. Woke up to this yesterday and went back to bed. I’m still liking being up here at 8500 feet even with the wicked climbs that got me here. You really feel like you’ve accomplished something when you can look back down at the tiny specks that were buildings you rode by earlier. I’m only about 12 miles from the highest point on the PanAmerican Highway (not going that way though).

It did turn out to be a very unusual day. It started with a power outage that hit just after I’d made my coffee (whew). It was still out when I left. Short power outages are somewhat common, especially when the afternoon storms kick up but this one was weird because it wasn’t even raining.

Then my chain broke climbing a hill 2 miles out of town. I was fully expecting that to be a major ordeal but less than 5 minutes later the broken link was fixed and I was off again. If you’ve ever had to fix a chain you know how it can be almost impossible to get a pin back in if you inadvertently pop it all the way out so you know how happy I was about that bit of luck. I felt the pedaling getting a little weird and I’d stopped before it broke but didn’t bother to check the chain–thought the shifting was just a little off. Lesson learned there.

The most unusual thing was the police escort I had all the way from Quiche to Chichicastenango, a distance of about 9 miles that took me an hour thanks to some serious climbs. They first started tailing behind me when I was heading up a hill. At the top I thought they’d pass me but they just hung back about 30 feet and matched my pace when I was pedaling or they’d pull up beside me and we’d chat while I caught my breath on a break (for an hour!). It was much harder riding with them there but I don’t think I’ve been safer on my whole trip. The hills were the worst– I couldn’t switchback up the steep parts because the noise from their truck meant I couldn’t hear other cars coming. There’s no shoulder in a lot of places so when I stopped at the side to rest the driver would direct traffic that was waiting to pass.

In Chichicastenango they waved goodbye and yelled “Welcome to Chichicastenango!” I did end up seeing them again a couple times further down the road. They stopped in the oncoming lane when I was climbing up one particularly brutal hill and looked at me like I was insane. They were pretty cool and it was an interesting experience.

Glad I found a motel when I did but I could have made it at least to Solola. No point in riding in the cold rain when a perfectly good hot shower is available for only a few dozen quetzals. This town(?) is at the junction of the highway I was on and CA1 (aka the PanAmerican Highway). Traffic is nuts and it’s very loud. Chicken buses (craziest drivers I’ve ever seen) come tearing up to a spot at the junction honking away, long haul trucks come barreling through using their engine to brake and taxis dart in and out of all this honking for any passengers the buses missed. Lot’s of restaurants which is a bonus. I ate lunch at a place across the street and had the most incredible fish platter.

Watched most of the World Cup on Sunday except for a little bit when I fell asleep. I am so not a soccer fan. I was still sorry to see my friends’ team lose.

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07/10 Well the cold(?) did end up migrating to my stomach so I stayed in Sacapulus yesterday. I may have found a wonder drug though. A lady at the pharmacy hooked me up with some pills called Tinidazol. I popped 4 of them over 2 hours and I was back to 100%. The loose bowels (sorry) went away almost immediately. Wish I’d known about it sooner.

I felt so good today I didn’t even realize I’d climbed 4500 feet by the time I got here. Had some steady rain for a couple hours and I actually got a bit cold which was kind of nice for a change. Gave me a chance to wear my rain jacket for the first time in since probably Alaska. Not sure what the temp got down to but I could see my breath for a bit.

My ride a day; rest a day might have to continue one more time. No point in missing the World Cup tomorrow. The rack is several days from getting delivered so it’s either hang out here or hang out in Panajachel. I’m not suffering too much-the posada I’m in is only US $12 and it has a nice bed, hot shower and HBO/Cinemax.

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07/08 Took the day off yesterday to relax and try to get some energy back. I’ve been really dragging for the last couple days. I did just get over a cold that fortunately didn’t migrate to my stomach but maybe that wore me out a little more than I thought. The altitude might be the other thing. I jumped up to over 7000 feet kind of fast. Knocked out a whopping 25 miles today (with 3000 feet of climbing) and I didn’t feel nearly as worn out so the altitude is probably all it is.

My rear tire is giving me some grief. I think a little piece of wire has worn through the bead and has been causing a flat every few days. I wedged a dollar bill where it presses against the tube–maybe that’ll buy me a couple days until I get into a place where I can look closer. The flat today was on the last huge descent and it took me so long to fix it that I ended up getting caught in the 3pm rain.

While I was Uspantan I stopped over at the post office to send back my small backpack and a few other things I haven’t been using. Well the guy there was very reluctant to take anything with even a little metal on it which was kind of a problem because almost everything had a little metal on it. Luck was on my side and in walked Marty. He’s a missionary who lives in town (and speaks Spanish/English). After finding out how much it would cost to ship everything to Atlanta ($30 for ~4 lbs) Marty offered to send it back with someone he knew and they would ship it from the States for me. We headed over to his place to se how much shipping would be. It ended up being $15. Thanks Marty. I also met his wife Diane and got some good info on the roads and places to eat in Panajachel, my next big stop.

A new rack is also on the way. Karin and Marten told me about a Spanish school in Panajachel that they had something delivered to so I followed their lead. It was shipped today and should take 6-14 days. Not sure when I’ll be there because my timing is way off with these mountains. Maybe 5 more days.

Ordered a hamburger and fries for dinner like I have a million other times (from a teenager who spoke a little English). Ended up with 6 hotdog buns, thinly sliced steak, rice and beans. No fries. I ate it anyway but boy was something lost in translation.

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