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.

04/09 Had a nice break from the heat thanks to some scattered rain showers and mostly cloudy skies. I’ve never enjoyed riding in the rain so much. I’m officially out of the mountains and in the flatlands now. The jungle I thought would be here is missing though. There are pockets of trees but mostly its farm or grazing land.

Scared a guy with a machine gun today. While riding on a free highway I ran into a toll booth where they wanted a peso to pass. I rode up onto the sidewalk thinking I’d be able to get by without paying. I made it 2 feet before this army guy(?) comes running out of a bunker that I didn’t even see. He pointed over to the sidewalk on the other side so I went over there and passed by the toll.

Further down the road I ran into a checkpoint just before a rainstorm was about to hit. The military guys there let me pass after one of them spent a minute asking about my GPS. He thought I was crazy when he saw I was about to keep riding even though it was going to pour. It did but only for 15 minutes or so.

Camped out a Penmax station (elevation: 14 feet). The spot they pointed me over to is nice. Lot’s of shade, soft grass and flat ground. Cooked up some pasta and canned tuna for dinner. Learned the hard way that a) fire ants live here, and b) they like the juice from tuna cans. I didn’t know Neosporin helped with ant bites. Glad it does.

Now there’s a flock of sheep grazing outside my tent.

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04/07 Well if I thought yesterday was tough today was like riding a 600 lb bike uphill in a giant sauna. I left at 10am this morning and after riding for almost 8 hours I made it here. My actual riding time was just under 5 hours. So for 3 hours I was sitting under any tree I could find to try to and cool off. If it wasn’t for the trees I would have never made it. Oh and the hills. The climb out of the cascades wasn’t a surprise so when I got to the top I chugged down some cold water from the store and kept going. The 2nd big hill at mile 20 almost killed me. Traffic didn’t help either because at least once every 20 seconds a car/truck would come along which kept me from switchbacking up the steep parts. I’ve never pushed my bike up a hill but I can’t imagine that being any easier.

Not sure if what I’m in yet is rain forest but it seems like it to me. On one of my many siestas I got to see lots of colorful little birds flying around. Not too many pictures today. I had to save my energy. Ran into 4 more “vine-across-the-road” stops staffed by one or more young girls. The first 2 were within 200 yards of each other and I was going downhill (fast) and didn’t feel like stopping. So I kept pedaling and they dropped the vine when they saw I wasn’t going to stop. It wasn’t long after that that I started feeling like a world-class jerk. They lowered the vine so its not like they were going to kill me for not donating a little and we’re not talking about a lot of money. I’m not a fan of their methods but if I were in their shoes I’d probably do the same. So at the next one I stopped and gave up a few pesos. The last one I rode right by because they didn’t hear me coming until it was too late. I turned around and gave them some pesos too.

Palenque is my home for the next 2 nights. Found a place with internet and hot showers (not that I needed it) for US $16 night (Hotel Shalom). Tomorrow I’ll go check out the ruins. I only saw a little of the town so far but it seems a bit rough. The buildings/sidewalks are in general disrepair and the streets are a it of a mess. Kind of surprising for being so close to one of the biggest archeological sites in Mexico.

Feeling a little better. My nose has finally stopped running and the cough isn’t nearly as bad.

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04/05 Day 1 post-sickness and I survived. I’m not really 100% yet but a little cough isn’t the end of the world. I did lose some weight from not eating very well for the last week so my energy reserves were low. The 60 miles wasn’t too bad and the only painful parts were the steep, but thankfully short, climbs that dominated the first 20 miles. The landscape changed a lot after leaving San Cristóbal. Rode through some really nice pine forest for a while and then started getting into some very green areas down in the valleys. No rivers or creeks which kind of surprised me. Traffic was pretty steady but even without a shoulder there was enough room for people to squeeze by. Had every kid in one of the small villages yell gringo when I rode by. It was kind of funny. They all waved so it wasn’t a mean-spirited thing.

The weather is very Florida-like here–clear and sunny in the morning and rain showers in the afternoon. This afternoon’s rain didn’t start until after I checked into the motel which worked out well. There’s a guy from Japan staying here (Ken) and we ended up drinking a beer outside. His English isn’t bad but I have to remember to slow down when I talk. It would be nice if when I spoke slower I didn’t end up talking louder too.

Tomorrow I’m going to check out some waterfalls (cascades). They are kind of close to Palenque so I’ll probably camp there. At least that’s the plan.

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