10/15 I don’t consider myself a very emotional person but today sure tested that. Woke up to steady rain at 6am so I laid back down until 8am. Things had slowed to a drizzle by then which made for some very welcome cooler riding temperatures.

Heading out of San Pedro was nice and quiet. I made it to Magangue in no time. Magangue sits next to the massive river, Río Magdalena so my first order of business, after finding a bank, was finding a bridge. After riding around for 20 minutes trying to find one I finally broke down and asked for directions. 3 minutes later I had my cash and went off in search of a bridge. After weaving in and out of heavy motorcycle traffic I ended up at the riverbank… and my jaw dropped.

The sheer volume of water rushing by, separated from the city by at most, a three foot wall, made me take a step back. It was obvious that the river was at a pretty significant flood stage based on the branches and brush floating by. How the city was not completely flooded I still don’t understand. There were some trees a 1/4 mile away on what was probably the other side but they were under water up to their lower branches. Water stretched out beyond that as far as I could see.

Looking back up the river toward town I couldn’t see a trace of a bridge so I figured there had to be some boats to go across. There ended up being a whole lot of boats waiting to ferry passengers/cargo across. I bought a ticket for $3 and watched as they loaded up my bike and gear on top of a boat so small that I thought for sure I’d never see my bike again. The ride over was a bit nerve wracking. I kept waiting for a log to ram into the side of the tiny boat. Our fearless captain ended up getting slightly lost and had to head back upstream for a ways. People on the boat were ribbing him about it. They wanted another $3 for the bike when we arrived which was fair because it actually made it across.

Immediately after docking it was obvious how bad the flooding was. The only thing above water was the road and that wasn’t by much, and in some places, not at all. After saying goodbye to the 20 odd people standing in a half circle watching me pack my gear, praying that there wasn’t something stuck in my teeth the whole time, I set off for the town of Mompos.

Nothing changed all the way here. Virtually every house was in water over the doorstep. Makeshift bridges ran from the road to each house. Sometimes there’d just be a little wooden boat and people would use that to get to their front door. If the water was too high the house sat abandoned. What used to be farmland was underwater so cows, horses and pigs, so skinny that their ribs were sticking out, were forced to graze for what little grass remained next to the road. In one town the graveyard was underwater. So was the church and the school.

The hardest part was how the people reacted to what I saw as complete devastation. Families sitting on their raised front deck, completely surrounded by water, would wave and I’d wave back. Others would give a thumbs up or call out some word of encouragement that I didn’t understand but kind of did. Kids body surfed in the water that gushed out from one side of the road to another, laughing like they didn’t have a care in the world. Men fished, women washed clothes and life just went on.

In a tiny village I ran into a little civil disturbance. A couple dozen people were standing in the road holding up a rope so cars couldn’t pass. A delivery truck was allowed through before I got there so I figured they’d let a gringo go by. The leader, a guy who seemed pretty pissed off about something, started giving me the story but I just kind of gave him a “hey, I’m really sorry but I don’t have anything to do with this” look, said I can’t speak Spanish and asked if I could go by. He told the people holding the rope to let me pass.

Mompos appears to have survived the flooding although some of the streets have a lot of standing water. After checking into a motel for 2 nights I went over to a bike shop to see if they could fix the shifting problem. The owner was an older guy and it was obvious derailleur adjustments weren’t his thing. Shifting is kind of better but I think it was more luck than anything. We’ll see how riding is on Sunday. My dumb move of the week was taking my filthy bike to the river to wash it off a little. After stepping with my bike over the tiny (leaking) wall that separates the town from the river I nearly slipped and went for a swim. Luckily my shorts only got a little wet because my iTouch was in the front pocket. At least my bike is clean now.

Staying at the Hotel Villa de Mompox for $14 a night (TV, AC, priv bathroom, no internet). There were 2 hostels in town. No one answered the door at the first place. The second place wanted $50 a night!

[osm_map lat="8.004" long="-74.291" zoom="6" width="400" height="250" gpx_file="http://www.powercycle.net/maps/leg3/101510.gpx"]

Took the bus to Tikal this morning. What an amazing place. Lot’s of Mayan buildings along with plenty of wildlife. Saw a lot of spider monkeys in the trees but they move fast and stay high up so it was hard getting a picture.

Not sure if I’m going to stay here tomorrow or not. My legs are a little sore from all the climbing today. I also need to find someone to fix the zipper on my new shorts. Remind me never to buy clothes in Belize again.

06/22 I’m just tearing through the countries now. Hola Guatemala! The pants exchange went fine this morning but my plans for an early departure were foiled. It was funny because I actually woke up on my own at 5:45am. Still had to hang around until the store opened at 9am.

The border crossing was a little messed up. The lady who took my departure fee seemed surprised that I didn’t have a stamp on my passport for my bike. She waved me through but I figured I’d better ask this time. At the customs counter in Guatemala they stamped me in for 90 days and said I didn’t need to get anything special for my bike. Works for me. I found a guy to exchange my Belize dollars for some Guatemalan Quetzals and was off.

The first couple miles after the border crossing are unpaved and I thought I’d be riding on gravel all day. I wouldn’t have cared because riding on gravel isn’t as hot as riding on blacktop; you just top out at 10 mph because it’s bumpy. The gravel eventually gave way to smooth pavement which turned out to be a good thing because it started getting a bit hilly. There were a couple more sections of gravel along the way but only for a mile or so. It’s been a long time since I climbed over 2100 feet in a day but I didn’t do too bad thanks to some well-placed little towns where I could get some cold water. My handy new umbrella also provided some shade at one impromptu stop where there were no trees.

The scenery is pretty nice looking. The land doesn’t seem to be nearly as developed (crops) as Belize. There are lots of cows and horses running around. The people I passed all waved and I had lots of honks and thumbs up from passing cars. The kids that saw me all yelled “gringo” which was cute. One kid yelled, “Give me a dollar!” in perfect English. The garbage situation isn’t bad at all. Couple bad places here and there but nothing like what I’ve seen. One thing they do differently here is they sell water in plastic bags the size of sandwich bags (1/2 liter maybe). My skills at opening the bag and dumping the water into my bottles without spilling any is going to need some work.

Staying at the El Muella for US $25 (AC/internet). It’s right on the shore of Lago Peten Itza. Tried some local beer called Gallo. I like it. Good sunset over the lake to end the evening.

GPX Track

06/18 Made it to San Ignacio safe and sound. There are a lot more hills in this part of Belize and it made for some great scenery along the last 20 miles today. I didn’t stop and take any pictures because a mean looking storm was chasing after me. Just as the first drops started falling I saw a shelter off to the side of the road so I rolled inside and talked to a guy who was also taking cover. It didn’t last very long but it gave me time to learn a little about how people get around here. Hitchhiking is extremely common. The buses don’t run very often so when people need a ride they just stand by the road and raise their arm up and down like you would if you were flipping someone off only with all your fingers extended. There’s probably a better way of describing it but that’s all I could come up with.

Given that I’m less than a days ride from Guatemala I was thinking about some of the differences I’ve noticed between Mexico and Belize. Other than Canada these were the first 2 foreign countries I’ve ever been to. Since I was only in Belize for a relatively short period of time I can’t judge too much but the couple things I noticed were that the major roads in Mexico are much better than in Belize, the trash problem is nothing in Belize like it is in Mexico and the people in Mexico are far more vocal in their greetings (honking/waving/whistling although when you do end up talking to someone in Belize they are extremely friendly). Couple other things: people don’t drink the tap water in Belize, Snickers bars can be found in most road-side stores here, there are a lot more private vehicles on the roads, shower curtains are standard and all toilets have seats on them. No flushing toilet paper here either–use the garbage cans for waste. Hot and cold water taps are rarely labeled and never on the same side in both countries. Chinese people seem to own almost all grocery stores and a lot of the restaurants in Belize.

I went over to grab some dinner tonight and realized that I’d forgotten to account for the time zone change when I flew back into Mexico from Florida. So for the last 2 weeks I’ve been an hour ahead of everyone else.

Monkey Bay ended up being a mess. A group of students staying there were up until 1am (my time) making a bunch of noise and then these stupid dogs started barking at 4:30am. The place they stick you to camp was also overrun with fire ants.

I haven’t mentioned the World Cup but let me tell you it’s all people talk about here and every TV has it on. When Mexico was playing last week at 7am or something like that every bar/store I passed was full of people watching the game. It’s just crazy yet I still couldn’t care less about soccer.

I’ll be in town for the next 3 nights hanging out and waiting for Karin and Marten’s arrival on Sunday night. There’s lots of things to see here so there’ll be more posts.

GPX Track

06/15 First whole day of riding in Belize and I’m not a fan. The Northern Highway as it’s called has no shoulder, no lane markings of any kind (including a center yellow line) and there are big, old rumbling sugar cane trucks all over the place. No one ran me over and that’s all that matters I guess. The wind was kicking my butt too. It was blowing hard from the east which pushes me right into the broken asphalt that marks the side of the road. Fortunately I have mad riding skills and avoided running off the road.

Other than a lot of sugar cane fields there’s not too much in the way of scenery. I miss hills. On a positive note the people here are extremely friendly. I’ve had more fist-bumps from strangers on the street then I ever have. And the food… it is sooooo good. Had this garlic pepper shrimp tonight that was awesome. Most of the restaurants are air conditioned which is great because then I don’t have to chase nasty flies away from my dinner. So other than the stinking road and that things are a bit more expensive I like it here.

Orange Walk Town is pretty neat. It seemed from reading different web sites that it would be really touristy but its not that way at all. I even found a place (Baba’s) that changes Mexican pesos. There’s a decent-sized river that runs through town that you can travel up to see the ruins at Lamanai (used to be huge Mayan city). I’m going to skip it because staying an extra day for the US $40 tour plus the cost of the motel (US $35) is way too much.

I sure miss having detailed GPS maps like I did for Mexico. I’m using the Garmin WorldMap v4 and it only has major highways on it. That didn’t help when it took me 15 minutes to find my way out of Corozal this morning.

GPX Track