PowerCycle

06/27 Worst day ever. Started off very early with heavy rain all night. Barely got any sleep (loud in tent). Next up were fire ants which chewed merrily on my feet while I was packing my gear in the rain. Finally on the road I hit a water-filled pothole and destroyed my front rack. Half an hour after that my rear tire went flat. Had it filled 90% of the way and it went flat again. Got a decent sunburn. Found a hotel in town, opened my toiletry bag and discovered that the tube of BenGay had ruptured and was all over everything. Jumped in the shower and was electrocuted by the shower head.

The funny thing about today was I had a feeling this morning that it would be a really bad day. I should have stayed put. This will be hard to believe but I didn’t swear or throw anything all day.

The front rack is a major, major problem. The bottom half bent under the weight of the pannier when I slammed down into the pothole. It’s actually a miracle that only one spoke was broken. Glad there are 35 more. I spent the next hour taking off the front fender and trying to straighten the rack back out. Of course bending medal that’s already damaged usually makes it more damaged. Now one of the weight-bearing bars is almost ripped right in half. Getting someone to weld it might work but I’m only going to try that as a last resort. The one bar isn’t the only one that’s damaged. I took almost everything out of the pannier and managed to make it here without it failing completely. There’s no way I can ride off-pavement and that’s another problem because the next part of my route after Coban tomorrow was supposed to be gravel. I’m also down a front fender which makes riding in the rain a mess.

I’m hoping that Coban has some sort of bike shop that could at least order me a new rack and fix the spoke. If it doesn’t I could probably fix the spoke but I’d have to order the rack from the States which would cost a fortune.

The flat tire sucked because now I’m down to 2 spare tubes and it’s harder than I thought to find ones with Presta valves. The one that went bad was the last from a batch of 3 I bought in Mazatlan. All three ended up wearing out at the inner seam.

Camped out last night in the back yard of the people that run the local restaurant. The lady spoke a little English which made things a little easier (even though I could have gotten through it in Spanish). She even offered to let me stay thanks to the weather but I set off to see how bad of a day I could have. It ended up not raining the rest of the day until literally 10 seconds after I got to the motel.

Mega hills today. One of them was the steepest I’ve ridden up on any major road. Traffic was light so I rode up it side-to-side and would have made it all the way except for one truck that messed it up for me.

Rode through some amazing scenery over the last 2 days. There are some beautiful national parks in Guatemala and I was lucky enough to pass through one of them–Ceibal. That place had the biggest trees and ferns I’ve ever seen. The mountain range called Sierra Chinaja was equally impressive. The mountains aren’t extremely high but they are entirely tree-covered and rise up from the jungle like huge pillars.

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Pictures are here. Once again the site breaks when I try to include them in the post. Argh.

06/25 Had a little rain to start the day. Lasted about an hour and then it mostly just drizzled. Luck was on my side because an hour after I arrived in town a nasty thunderstorm rolled through. I was safe and sound in my US $4.99 motel room so it didn’t matter. The place is called the Plaza Hotel. The room isn’t bad–2 beds, cable TV, a fan, space for my bike and it’s pretty clean. The shower/bathroom are shared but I can live with that for five bucks.

I’m running into a few places where the people don’t speak Spanish or English so it takes a little more non-verbal communication to be understood. There are something like 22 spoken languages in Guatemala so it was just a matter of time. Even the word for water (agua) is different. I had to show a lady the little bit left in my bottle so she’d know what I wanted. Food is so cheap here too. Lunch was a big plate of rice, beans and chicken tortillas plus 2 Cokes for US $3.

I forgot to mention the parrots at the hotel in La Reforma. They spoke to everyone sitting near them at the restaurant in Spanish. “Hola! Hola!” over and over again. They also made a barking noise when they got hungry.

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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.

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