Tag: Adventure

Halfway from Guatemala City to Semuc Champay – 20220715

I got up in the morning, ate a pastry and packed my stuff. When I went to start driving I talked to the Airbnb owner a little bit and she was giving me advice about Semuc Champay. That I may need to pay to ride a 4×4 up to see it. When she saw my fanny pack with my money in it she said I should hide it because, “they will come up next to you and shoot you in the head and take the fanny pack.” I doubt that hiding the fanny pack would really help with that but I really wish she hadn’t told me that. I felt a super cautious the whole day when people rode by me after she said that.

Delicious breakfast

The first hour of riding was pretty rough as I tried to get out of the city. The organization of the roads is absolute trash. Just random roads going in random directions. And the signs to try to help you figure out which road goes to what are laughable. They literally look like someone slung spaghetti at the wall.

After about 3 hours I stopped at a place to get lunch and it seems as if I am eating the same meal over and over. Always a chicken leg, some beans, a bowl of something, rice, and tortillas. The tortillas here are really good though.

After about another 30 mins driving I arrived at Ranchitos de Quetzal. I wasn’t expecting much but was incredibly pleased with the place after checking in. The room is nice with hot water and they have a 1.5 mile hike that goes in a loop around the property with 2 really nice swimming spots with waterwalls. I really loved the hike.

Visual Portfolio, Posts & Image Gallery for WordPress

Orchid

Awesome hike

Other Orchid

Then I went into the town here to get some cash from the ATM. As is ALWAYS the case in Central America here was a line of 40 people to go into the bank. I have no idea what the hell the deal with that is. But I had to wait 5 mins to use the ATM and I’ve never in my life felt like such an alien before. All the people standing in line were staring at me. They might as well have been poking me. It makes me feel pretty uncomfortable sometimes. Then I ate at a place called Monte bello which was again the same meal but this time some type of local turkey leg.

An illusive quetzal feather

Tomorrow I hope to arrive in Semuc Champay. May the rain gods stay the eff away tomorrow. I know there will probably be some wet days ahead, but I hope it delays as long as possible.

Guatemala City Maintenance Day, Back to Work- 20220705

Today was maintenance day before heading back to work for a trip. I woke up and headed to a nice coffee shop called coffee district where the barista was studying to be a pilot. He somehow guessed I was a pilot because of my Sinaloa hat and he said “my face looked like a pilot face.” It blew my mind. We talked about it for a bit. Then I tried to get some blog and work stuff done.

Delicious

I booked a flight to work and dropped the moto off at Christian’s house. Super nice dude. So far on this trip I have used Couchsurfing as a way to find people to leave the motorcycle with with great success. I have only met amazing people more than willing to house my motorcycle for sometimes an entire month.

In Guatemala City you can use uber to book motorcycle rides. I highly recommend it if you don’t value your life much. The dude rode like an absolute idiot. He went from full throttle to full brake the entire ride and hit a pothole harder than I’ve ever felt before. But it was fun.

Visual Portfolio, Posts & Image Gallery for WordPress

Guatemala City moto uber ride

It was fun

Tomorrow I head back to work so the fun is over for now.

Ride From Lake Atitlan to Antigua and Guatemala City – 20220704

I took the boat from San Marcos to San Juan La Laguna to get to Donkey to ride onwards to Antigua. The boatride is supposed to be 10 quetzales but they charge gringos 15. The dude was a total ass too. Things like this always leave a bad taste in my mouth about Guatemala. I feel consistently more scammed here than anywhere else in Central America

I checked out of the  hostel and started riding around 930 which was a nice early start. It ended up being one of the hardest days yet. I took the risk of continuing the road around the lake to see some new spots and stop in Antigua on the way back to Guatemala city.

Donkey in Antigua

The road was rough and rocky and super steep. NOT a nice ride. I was certain I was going to drop the bike a few times but somehow never did. As I went on through the day the driving got worse and worse. 

When I finally arrived in Antigua I ate lunch at El Comalote and it was delicious. They make everything in house. You can buy big bags of fresh tortilla chips if you so desire. I spent a couple hours daydreaming some of my old memories of traveling by bus in Antigua years ago remembering some of the very good friends I met on that trip.

I don’t even know what this was, but it was delicious

I then continued on the Guatemala city and the road from there was awful as well but for different reasons. 2 lane highways with enormous trucks trying to blow you off the road. They would literally leave me 2 inches of space and blast their horns at me while they did it.

I finally made it into the city absolutely tense. I can feel it so hard in my shoulders and back.