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A bicycle ride across the Americas

from Deadhorse (SCC) to Ushuaia (USH)

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Home→Categories Guatemala

Category Archives: Guatemala

Copan Ruinas, Honduras!

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2017-02-21 by mev2017-02-21

A shorter ride that crossed into Honduras. Our route brought us across several short steep hills where my odometer recorded 12% grade or better.

Jocotan was another nice little town to visit. By now we’ve got our rhythm down: arrive in town, find a hotel, shower and wash some clothes, check internet, go out for dinner at local comedor, buy breakfast foods, relax and fall asleep. We were on the road a bit later, but knew we didn’t have as far to go. What we didn’t know completely was that some of the hills were steep.

Photo above was looking back at Jocotan junction into town.

We crossed a larger river that was running fairly clean.

This is an agricultural region. Corn and beans are grown here. In addition, something in these large greenhouse structures we passed.

At 25km we came to the border. There were large lots with trucks on the Guatemalan side, presumably waiting to cross. However, unlike our Mexico/Guatemala border, less of the border villages on either side. Immigration was also straightforward: get stamped out of Guatemala, cycle over to Honduras immigration and get stamped in for Q30 (~$4 US). Photo above is taken at the immigration point with poster of Florida, Honduras.

I was also able to exchange my last Quetzals for Lempira. The rate quoted was very close to the official exchange rate. Enough so that I was cautious if there was something else going on. However, we’ve been able to spend those Lempira we exchanged so looks ok.

Immediately after the border, the road climbed steeply (~9%). There was a row of parked trucks here. By now it was warm but we also knew we didn’t have as far to go. Up ~200m (600ft) and then across and down into Copan Ruinas.

Most of the streets in Copan are cobblestones. Nice to look at, but a pain to ride our bikes. Fortunately, we found a hotel not far into town.

Found the local grocery.

We haven’t visited, but Copan has a major archaeological site. As a result, there are many hotels and also seen a number of non-Honduran tourists walking around. In addition as you can see from photo above, several Spanish language schools here as well.

Too early to have much of a comparison between Honduras and Guatemala. Our small bumpy road got better at the border. Kids still yell, “gringo!” as we pass. Speed bumps are still named “tomulus”. Looking forward to exploring a small bit of the fifth country on this trip.

Posted in Guatemala, Honduras

Jocotan

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2017-02-20 by mev2017-02-20

Two big hills today.

Warm overnight in Zacapa and was happy to have air conditioning. I was on the road before seven AM. A slight hiccup finding my way out of town, but soon I was on the major road heading south. Relatively flat for 10km and then a 300m (1000ft) climb over the hill to Chiquimula. Reasonable amount of traffic, but most of the climb had an extra climbing lane.

Sign above is in focus. However, seems like when a client is done using a billboard, they sort of paint over the message. We’ve seen that more often here.

Chiquimula was a somewhat larger town and even had a McDonalds. I had left before David and this was our agreed upon rendezvous point so stopped in. Prices seem very similar to US prices.

After Chiquimula there was 10km of mostly level riding before we came to the road junction. The main road went straight to the Honduras border. We went left headed towards a smaller crossing. Almost immediately a lot less traffic and a lot more climbing. It was a hot climb so put in a low gear and slowly ride uphill.

Here was another photo of the junction.

I had to look this one up later…best I can tell “hundimientos” is sinking – so this is cautioning this is an area with landslides.

Close to the top it became very steep, I’m estimating 12%+ grade. I walked the last little bit. Photo above is David tacking back and forth the last bit of the hill.

After this a nice descent for a few hundred meters. We found a nice comedor to eat and as we passed the Jocotan turnoff asked about hotels. We were directed to a nice one that even has air conditioning.

Despensa Familiar is our neighborhood grocery store. Nice part of being in small town like this is having a grocery to get some breakfast items for the morning.

Otherwise we’re not far from the Honduras border now.

Posted in Guatemala

Zacapa

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2017-02-19 by mev2017-02-19

A cool shower sure is refreshing after a hot day cycling. A few days ago we crested 3000m (nearly 10,000ft) with a wool hat and two layers. Today we dropped below 200m (~650ft) with much warmer riding.

It was warm last night in Guastatoya though air conditioning in hotel was a big help. This morning it was 20C (68F) starting out. We started with 100m of climb followed by 300m of descent. Above is a fast food chicken place along the way. We didn’t eat there, but shown because have found these small Guatemalan towns seem to have an abundance of fried chicken, pizza and similar fast food. Hamburgesa seems to be term for generic patty and can be chicken or beef.

We joined with main road here and for next 50km had a reasonable road with shoulder. Sometimes slightly rough but usually reasonable to ride. Despite being Sunday, there were still plenty of trucks on the road as well.

Another little climb brought us past a giant chicken symbol besides the road.

Good example of shoulder and road surfaces.

By time we reached 25km, it was already getting warm, so we took our rest breaks in the shade and also looked for cold drinks.

We passed a number of small villages today. Overall we followed a river valley so only 650m (2000ft) of climb for the day, though definitely still some hills. Around 50k was slightly larger town of Teculutan. We had a hamburgesa (beef) at small comedor and then found nearby supermarket to get some additional foods.

Grapes, watermelon and other tropical fruits were available at stands along the way.

At 62km was big split in the road. We took the right fork which heads off to Honduras. Unfortunately, we lost our road shoulder. Traffic was still moderately heavy though well behaved.

We passed a large shopping mall.

Coffee spread out to dry.

We came into slightly larger town of Zacapa. Cycled in and checked a few hotels before finding our choice. Air conditioning is a big plus and having cold water in the shower is also nice.

Posted in Guatemala

Guastatoya

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2017-02-18 by mev2017-02-18

Today we experienced kindness of strangers on our ride.

Had a nice rest and restful day in Guatemala City. Walked a lot, but didn’t ride my bike anywhere.

This morning we were on the road early. Partially to get out of the city before it became busy and partially since we expected a warm afternoon at lower elevations. Leaving Guatemala City was easier than entering. There was ~2km of city street riding that was slow because the lights weren’t timed for our speeds. After that ~2km of complete chaos with busy road sometimes narrowing to one lane, sometimes with buses stopped and a lot to watch. After that it gradually became easier and by the 10km mark, we even started to get a shoulder as part of 4 lane highway.

We started the day at ~1500m and descended steadily through the day, ending at ~550m with a little over a mile of total descent (~1637m). After the first 10km, we had another 20km of mostly descent before the road started having more mix of both climbs and descents. It also became steadily warmer with maximum of 36C (96.8F) recorded by my odometer. We stopped at 45km at a small comedor for lunch.

After lunch we crossed a river. People were down washing clothes and hanging them up.

After the river we started a slow steady climb. It was hot. A small breeze helped cool some of the sweat but we knew we were in for a hot afternoon. Coming the other way, a car stopped. A guy came out carrying two small bottles of cold bottled water. Wow!, just what we needed. We thanked him. He went back to his car and brought over two more bottles. Not sure how he knew, but this act of kindness certainly came at just the right time.

We got to top of the hill and just before the El Paso Texas hotel, our road angel came once more, this time with two cold cokes. Felt like almost too much and we thanked him again, though a cold coke also went down well. Overall, very appreciative of this hospitality and it came at exactly the right time.

We cycled past several small auto hotels, including this sign that advertised hotel prices by the hour.

At 60km, our smooth road and wide shoulder was done. The flags of Taiwan and Guatemala flew together marking the fact that together the two countries had done the previous ~30km of road improvements. After this point, the road became much narrower and often fairly bumpy. Traffic was still moderately heavy and we had several long convoys of truck pass us. We stopped a few times to let these pass, particularly later when we had some steeper descents.

At 75km we came to town of Guastatoya, also known as on some maps as El Progreso. It was largest town around and gave us a good choice of hotels, so natural place to stop. After a nice cool shower, we walked around town to get some breakfast foods.

We see the sign above in Guatemala about tortillas “los 3 tiempos” or tortillas three times. As I understand it is tortillas fresh enough to eat three times a day – though not sure if the emphasis is on the freshness or on eating them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

There was a display about bible reading.

Downtown had some busy streets as well as a bakery, grocery store and convenience store we needed to buy food.

On the way back we happened past the local bike shop.

Overall, not too tough riding today with only ~750m of climbing and ~1600m+ of descent. It became hot in the afternoon, but our kind stranger also came at just the right time to help us climb a hot hill. We expect to remain at lower elevations next few days, so try to get out early as well.

Posted in Guatemala

Guatemala City

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2017-02-16 by mev2017-02-16


Today a short ride that was easier than expected into Guatemala City. An afternoon visit to a bike shop and a chance to walk through parts of the old town.

Our hotel last night was 500m higher than Guatemala City. Yesterday we had ridden in on busy Pan-American Highway with varying condition shoulders. The big question for today was would those shoulders get better or worse, particularly on the descent into the city. Another cycle touring blog had suggested it wasn’t too bad – and I would have to agree that riding into Guatemala City was easier than some Mexican cities I have ridden across.

We took our time packing up and leaving this morning as we had less than 30km to go. The road started fairly level for the first 5km and then for the next ~12km was a reasonable descent. What really helped is the shoulder was ~1m wide and stayed at same level as the roadway. There was a lot of traffic but bike and car could both ride together without much trouble.

I am always slow on descent. David went ahead and somehow I passed without either of us spotting the other. However, we had an agreed upon destination and continued to that point. After about 16km, the road shoulder went away but cars/trucks were still fairly polite. Not much further a third lane was added and little while where photo above was taken, a fourth lane.

Traffic speeds slowed and the slowest was on the right with buses occasionally stopping and other traffic. It wasn’t hard to also cycle on the right and occasionally pause.

At 22km was a major turn. I stopped to confirm the intersection on my phone. Coincidentally just a few moments later David also rode to the same point asking for instructions and so we were able to cycle the last ~4km together. It was a bit slow and hectic but without much difficulty, we found our destination point and checked into a hotel.

First exercise was to find a local bike shop. First one only sold bikes, but we were fortunate to find Cycle Works which is a well-equipped professional shop. Luis, the owner as well as his mechanic, replaced my disc rotor and pads.

I had brought a spare rotor as well as extra pads with me, and after replacing pads at motorcycle shop on the road a few days ago, figured it would be useful to get things checked before the next set of hills.

After that, I got a chance to walk through some of the city. Photo above is on the Palacio National De La Cultura.

Next to the plaza that also has Santa Iglesia Cathedral.

There is a pedestrian mall here, also marked for bicycles.

McDonalds seems to be a big deal here with multiple establishments, this one just for ice cream.

However, I just had to try the Taco Bell. Found it amusing to find Americanized Mexican food in Guatemala.

Bicycle cops patrol the mall.

Several other small more crowded shopping districts nearby as well.

Plan is to take a rest day here tomorrow, giving a chance to do something other than bicycle between small towns – as well as chance to be a tourist. If my mileage projection is correct, I’m now about 2/3 of the way from San Diego to Panama City.

Posted in Guatemala

San Bartoleme

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2017-02-15 by mev2017-02-15

All day today we rode the Pan-American highway headed towards Guatemala City. It was busier today than yesterday and seemed to get more crowded as we neared the city. Not the most pleasant riding, though it gets us where we are trying to go.

After going over some low hills from Tecpan, we came into more of an agricultural area near Patzicia with workers in the fields.

Photo above gives a good inventory of common crops as well as a Spanish lesson to translate. (Hint: Chile Pimiento = chili pepper, repollo morado = purple cabbage, lechuga = lettuce, cebolla = onion, sukini = zuchini, apio = celery, abono = fertilizer, semilla de papa = potato seeds).

After Patzicia we had more ups and downs on the road. Except for a stretch through Chimaltenago, it was two lanes with a shoulder. Sometimes the shoulder was down a little ridge and sometimes cars would block it, but we could usually ride on it.

A small store that we passed.

Some Korean cyclists came by – as part of their Alaska to Argentina ride.

A row of chicken buses in Chimaltenago. The road narrowed to one lane and it was somewhat congested as we rode through town. Once we passed the midpoint, we found a small comedor and had lunch.

A view of the road from lunch, it typically looked this crowded.

Horses crossing the road, loaded with wood.

At one point it looked like we might even get a bike lane.

However within 200 meters, it ended. Apparently only being placed here as part of an intersection.

After this some more hills to climb as we made our way to San Bartoleme. We found a relatively expensive hotel and were able to negotiate the price slightly lower. Next hotels are likely already down the hill from here into Guatemala City. Decided to leave that excitement for tomorrow.

Posted in Guatemala

Tecpan

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2017-02-14 by mev2017-02-14

A short ride today and chance to visit ruins at Iximche.

It was cool overnight in Los Ecuentros, but sun was out as we departed and there was a hill to climb starting out. We stopped a few hundred meters down the road to buy a few bananas from this fruit vendor.

From here the road wound its way around and over several hills today with ~600m of climb in 40km. Off to the right and down ~1000m was Lake Atitlan though we never did see the lake from the road on high. Our road continued as a four lane wide road with not light traffic. Most of the route the road was a concrete, though when fixing it they would patch with asphalt.

A local group doing what looked like a wedding as we passed by. As we got closer to Tecpan, we could tell it was becoming more touristy. Saw one or two nicer hotels as well as a bus with mountain bikes on the roof, presumably to take tourists to top of the hills and let them ride down.

By noon we had reached Tecpan and cycled in to the town and found place to stay. We unpacked our bags and cycled with now light bikes out to the ruins.

In Mexico “tope” is speed bump. The word “tomulus” is used in Guatemala, though this sign made me curious about this establishment.

We also passed this cross celebrating 500 years of evangelization.

After 5km, we came to the main ruins site. A good description of Iximche is here. The town was founded around 1470 and lasted until just at point Spanish arrived in 1524. The overview showed some of the main plazas, temples and surrounding buildings.

A picture of one of those temples.

Plants were now growing on top as well as in some walls.

Another overview picture.

It was nice to walk through the ruins site.

On the way back, this guy had loaded up his donkey.

Nice to have a shorter day as well as chance to see some of the tourist sights.

Posted in Guatemala

Los Encuentros

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2017-02-13 by mev2017-02-13

Last night we weren’t quite sure where we might end up tonight – or even if there was a place indoors.

We’ve been following some common routes as described in bicycling journals. However, the most common patterns are to descend to Lake Atitlan some ~1000m below surrounding roads and then climb back out the following days. The lake is beautiful and there are a number of tourist resorts to relax. However, I wasn’t too keen on either the steep descents or steep ascents nor did we have a lot of time to chill at the lake for a few days. Hence, we stayed up high and bypassed the lake – though then also didn’t have advantage of other journals describing our route.

The first 500m of our route today were chaotic, but after that smooth roads and reasonable traffic. As shown in the photo, the hotel was right next to a narrow pot holed road where traffic all backed up. Smoke from burning brush added to the ambiance. However, we mostly walked our bikes through this first bit and were rewarded by a nice smooth wide road – and most traffic going the other way.

The road did start out with some good climbing, nearly 700m (2300ft) in the first 18km – some of it 8-9% grades. Nothing we couldn’t handle by switching to lower gear and slowly going up the hill. In return, the views were beautiful.

Here was a picture of one of the villages we passed through.

A road cut showed there were still layers of sedimentary rock in these hills.

We topped out a little over 3000m (9900ft) near this small store. It was cold here in the wind but we could see down into several valleys.

A obligatory self shot near the top. I’ve got two layers of shirts and my wool hat on. I was sweating on the way up, but anticipating cold on the descent.

Near the top was small village of Alaska. Here as in other places, we continue to see “car wash” signs.

From Alaska, we descended nearly 500m in the next 8km. We could tell it was getting warmer as we descended. We found a small comedor and had lunch inside. We’ll often end up with a plate with entree (e.g. some chicken or hamburger), server together with rice and beans and a small basket of corn tortillas.

These guys were up across the way watching traffic.

From here we we went over a number of smaller hills. Our net elevation didn’t change much, but we would climb out of one drainage and then ride over and down the next. The road also wound its way across multiple bends. It was fairly populated region. Sign above listed “China town” as well as Chinese restaurant here and across the street.

At 45km, we stopped in at our first potential hotel. It was a bit upscale and didn’t have internet but they told us the a town 16km away would have several hotels. So we set off over and around a few more hills.

We passed a turnoff to Panajachel, one of the primary tourist sites along the lake and instead went left on the main road to Los Encuentros and on our way to Guatemala City.

Overall a good ride today with 1285m of climb split between a long somewhat steep climb to over 3000m and an afternoon with a lot more shorter but sometimes also steep climbs. We were on a major road, but the road was wide and well surfaced and traffic generally well-behaved.

Posted in Guatemala

San Cristobal Totonicapan

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2017-02-12 by mev2017-02-12

Today a lot of climbing but also descents as we rode through the highlands.

After 4km, we joined back to the Pan-American Highway. It was mostly a two lane road. We had more potholes and rough patches than before, though also some smooth bits. Traffic was lighter than I expected (Sunday?) but still need to keep an eye out for those chicken buses with horns blaring driving at high speeds.

There are about 7.5 Quetzal to a dollar so we were initially surprised to see gasoline prices in the ~21Q range. However, someone explained that gasoline is sold in gallons instead of liters (Mexico prices in liters).

In addition to reused US school buses, we also see a number of US trucks with the original lettering still on them, e.g. Port Charlotte Florida seafood.

The other thing I’ve noticed is Alka-Seltzer and Aleve seem to have done a lot of advertising here, even on some small buildings.

During the ride today, we had both an abundance and a lack of small “tienda” and “comedors” to buy things and get some lunch. Seemed like we were coming past many of them, until we decided to stop at the next one for lunch. We passed one or two that weren’t open or suitable and eventually came to small village of Tierra Blanca. It didn’t have a comedor either but friendly people around the main square and several shops to buy things. By now we had climbed ~2400ft (750m) from our lowest point and were two-thirds of the way up the largest hill.

Some friendly and curious locals came as we were eating our lunch items at the bus stop bench.

A little further was this car wash, one of several along the way.

Finally reached our highest point (2810m, 9200ft) at 58km mark. From here it was a reasonable and not too steep descent most of the way.

One of the villages we crossed had a taller (workshop) for fixing both bicycles and radios.

The village of San Franciso El Alto had a steep little street as the main street.

This was view looking down the last little hill into San Cristobal. Hooray! It had been a long day and now almost 5pm when we pulled into town.

Signs were out for a little hotel and it even had internet.

Overall, a day with higher than average amount of climbing – but nice cool temperatures all day as we started at 1900m, descended to ~1700m (5600ft), climbed to ~2800m (9200ft) and then descended back to 2366m (7760ft).

Posted in Guatemala

Huehuetenango, Guatemala!

A bicycle ride across the Americas Posted on 2017-02-11 by mev2017-02-11

Two days cycling have brought us from the border to highlands of Guatemala.

Sign above tell us Guatemala is the land of eternal spring.

In comparison to Mexico, Guatamala seems a bit more hectic including behavior of drivers on the road. Kids will sometimes yell “Gringo! Gringo!” as we pass. In Mexico, people were polite and friendly, but also wouldn’t call attention to us – or seem overly interested. In Guatemala, people are also friendly, but seems like we’re calling a bit more attention to ourselves. Otherwise, so far cycling seems similar.

Day One

Started out our day going to the immigration office. The officer there wouldn’t place an exit stamp in the passport – unless we either had a receipt for our FMM or paid an extra $500 pesos. Seems like a bit of a scam to me – since I already paid $380 pesos for the FMM back in Tecate – but no longer had the receipt (don’t remember if they took it when they stamped the FMM or I threw it away).

Better safe than sorry, ended up paying to leave Mexico but with a bit of a sour taste that didn’t feel right. The other curiosity I noticed is that I could have entered and left Mexico without ever getting a passport stamp for either entry or exit. In Tecate, they would have let me cross the border without checking (assuming I was a day tripper?) and leaving Mexico – nobody checked either and I could have left without a stamp.

After getting the stamp, we had a four kilometer climb through no mans land. Here was another sign indicating 30x daily salary for littering.

The last kilometer before the border were a bunch of small shops. After that the intermediate border zone. A money changer approached me. I understand banks in Guatemala will exchange US $ but not always Mexican pesos – so did this at the border. The official exchange rate is ~0.35 Quetzal per Peso. The money changer offered 0.30 and I negotiated back to 0.32. Still not great, but I didn’t have too many Pesos to get rid of.

After that, got my Guatemala entry stamp (25 Quetzal), left the border zone and we were in Guatamala!

Little town on the Guatemala side was at least as chaotic as the Mexican side. We mostly cycled straight through and out of town a few kilometers later.

Looking down on a village in Guatemala.

After climbing the first hill, it leveled off for a bit and we came through a second village. This one with several hotels and also some ATMs to get some Quetzal.

Was amused to see the sign for the auto hotel indicating “love prohibited”.

The road was busy and somewhat hilly as we went through several villages. A little past 20km, descended to a river and then entered a steep valley. For the rest of the day, we would follow the river in this valley upwards, climbing from ~900m to ~1500m. There were a few 8-9% grades but mostly reasonable grades. The road was narrow with multiple curves.

Along the way we saw several instances where coffee was set out to dry.

This establishment bought coffee and sold corn, fertilizer and cement.

Different colors of coffee drying.

Our end destination was a college town.

San Pedro Necta was a village we passed through. Also interesting to see where old school buses ended up. We also saw a number of the full-sized old school buses, often decorated and with a roof-top rack.

Roadside memorials. Unfortunately, quite a few near this corner.

Another example of an auto hotel. Open 24 hours. Once you drive in, the door gets closed hiding your vehicle.

At 54km we came to Colotenango. The main town is 1.5km further east and up a hill. However, we were able to find a pesado (guest house) at the turnoff to the town. Nice ride with some good climbing but overall a pretty straightforward entry into Guatemala.

Day Two

Overnight at 3:30am there was a large explosion. However, we had been warned as they were working to excavate the site across the road. They worked through the night and then set off dynamite in wee hours of the morning. Rather than traditional hotel, we were in a “posada” with shared bathroom. Otherwise comfortable and clean. We had planned a shorter ride today to get into larger city, get some washing done, get a SIM card, etc.

The road continued slowly up the hill as we stopped every so often to take tourist photos.

The repairman fixing the wires.

Small monument showing six Spanish-speaking Central American countries.

A sign admonishing you to take care of the environment and don’t throw trash because your neighbors are watching. Unfortunately, still see some litter around in Guatemala as well and a bit more broken glass on the road as compared to Mexico.

A church we passed.

These “chicken buses” come past, often at high speed and making lots of noise.

At 26km, we turned off onto smaller roads leading into Huehuetenango. It became steadily busier as we neared center of the city. Without too much difficulty we found a reasonable hotel and made it a shorter day.

I found a cell phone store and was able to buy a SIM card for Guatemala. Particularly useful as we near outskirts of a larger place and try to look things up on Google Maps.

There is a ladies Texas bar in our neighborhood.

Otherwise nice to have ridden across Mexico and now feel like I’ve seen a small slice of that country in the 2.5 months spent cycling. Figuring out Guatemala but so far interesting to ride through. We’re in the highlands area so need to plot our elevation gains as well as horizontal distances. Unfortunately, Google Maps no longer gives bicycle instructions (which also have elevation) but we can also figure things out from other trip journals.

Posted in Chiapas, Guatemala, Mexico
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