mad-hatter51

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1-5: Volcan Pacaya 6: Iglesia La Merced (one of the many Catholic Churches in Antigua) 7-8: Sunrise photos on my flight to San Jose

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Sunset and festival photos I forgot to post.

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“Where the Streets Have No Names” -U2/Bono (With Central America-specifically Guatemala, in mind)

Wow. Big travel day. We got a late start, for a variety of reasons starting with poor planning, to driving confusion in Antigua. Then we got lost on the way there, though minimally, and on top of that, we were in a time crunch to make it back (to Guatemala City, not just Antigua) for my flight to Costa Rica.

Typically it takes 3 hours to hike and return Volcano Pacaya (which we wanted to tackle on our last day), and an hour and a half back to Antigua, and an hour to the airport (after dropping off our bikes and grabbing our bags/showering st the Airbnb). It was 11:30-and my flight was at 7 in Guatemala City, which was pushing it, by the time we arrived at Pacaya. We didn’t come all this way to not even hike ONE volcano, so we went for it, fast. Turns out of guide wasn’t ready to hike at our pace (which honestly, wasn’t even that fast). Due to the speed at which we went, we still got there in an hour, but we felt that without a guide, we could have done it in half the time. We got down in about 40 minutes, and booked it back to Antigua, where we got lost another 3 times due to my navigation and more unmarked exits. I was frustrated but tried to keep my head on straight. It got bad enough, that I considered holding my phone while driving on this semi highway (though I’m not sure how because you need both hands to drive a motorcycle), but needless to say, I was upset. It seemed like no exits were marked and I couldn’t figure out which one to take, so we went back and forth back and forth on the highway. Finally we figured it out and got back, a good 2 hours and a half hours later. We turned in the bikes and showered before getting picked up for the airport (combined they took 45 minutes longer than necessary-no one was at the bike shop ready for us, and taxi couldn’t find our hostel), and left for the airport. We hit traffic (always traffic in Guatemala City), but it was still about an hour. I would have made my flight (although barely-I think), but thankfully it was delayed about 2.5 hours). Even better was that I was notified by the airline via email, though other people on my flight that I spoke to, weren’t. So Cam and I hung out and ate at a lounge until I had to take off. I was so glad Cam was able to make this trip work before he started law school, it’s definitely a memory I will cherish. I’m thankful for the memories, but also the frantic driving experience that I gained in Guatemala-at this point I’m sure driving a motorcycle back in the states will seem boring... We said our goodbyes and parted ways (after running into someone we met at the beach/party hostel heading home to Maryland).

The night ended with 1 overnight airport layover, (Mexico City), 2 more lounges, and hardly any restful sleep (but a lot of great food and drinks!). And just like that-I woke up on my flight, in San Jose, Costa Rica...

Fun Fact: No one in Guatemala calls Guatemala City, Guatemala City. They just call it Guatemala...which is very confusing at first. “You want a bus to Guatemala?” “No, I’m in Guatemala, to the airport in Guatemala City.” “Yes, in Guatemala.” “...sure?”

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1-5: Motorcycle Diaries worthy? 6-10: Antigua in all its glory.

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Bystanders in the Locals Festival

Got breakfast at Yolis again, which was delicious. Afterwards-we geared up one last time, and drove back to Antigua-this time we didn’t really get lost. Maybe one time in a busier city with an unmarked exit...classic Central America. We were starting to feel some momentum of becoming familiar with the highways and exits and where to go, because the roads around Antigua we had frequented a few times. We would find out the following day, that we didn’t know them as well as we thought.

It was cool because we were approaching the volcanoes instead of driving away from them, beautiful backdrop to drive towards. Upon arriving in Antigua, we went back to our bikes after dropping off our bags at our AirBnb, I realized that I had a flat tire. Thankfully it was after we arrived at our Airbnb that Anna bought as a gift for us-thoughtful. If I had gotten the flat on the highway...yikes. We stopped at a service shop (driving without any air is hard, not to mention very difficult when it’s on cobble stone streets) and had it fixed for a few bucks (while we enjoyed a Coke, Doritos, and Guatemalan cookies...)

Took a ride around town for fun, without our backpacks on, got dinner at Subway, and walked around the huge market going on in the city center. Streets were blocked off, which made the already difficult driving even harder (Antigua is comprised of mostly 1-way streets, so driving around as a foreigner is frustrating).

Sat on a bench in Central Park and ate, our Subway, before walking around to the artisan venders selling things.

There’s something about coming to the end of a long trip, that makes you feel the fatigue of the entire trip on the last day, rather than spread of accordingly during your trip. We still had most of Monday to enjoy Guatemala, but we were spent! Went back to our place, took a nap, and then went out to the fair/festival by our apartment, outside of the downtown/tourist area, where we stood out as being the only foreigners there...It was an incredible festival, as it had a small Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, loud music and lots of people. They even had a tent set up with about 20 foosball tables set up...We still don’t know the occasion for the celebration, but we had fun listening to the 12 man band and people watching, as well as pointing out which of the many motorcycles we saw were the coolest.

Fun Fact: (Unknown to me) Antigua is a close drive to the Volcano Fuego, which erupted a few months ago. Thankfully, they didn’t have any long term repercussions to its eruption, though they did have a small layer of ash line the streets.

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“Let’s Go to the Beach, Beach” 21-7-18

It was nice having a chill day instead of a travel-first-then-chill day. We woke up and got breakfast outside of the hostel (there’s hardly anything in this town outside of the hostel-seriously, we met the owner and he was talking to us about how he started this hostel and brought surfboards down from California ((he’s from Washington State)) and you can see firsthand how much he’s impacted the surfing community here, locals are doing it and the waves are pretty good and it seems like more things are developing since his hostel has been there. It’s even cool to see how hostels employ locals to help clean and cook and how that can be beneficial for a community as well, providing them with consistent paying jobs that I would imagine are better than what most could find elsewhere, especially in a small town like El Paredon) at Yoli’s restaurant/house.

Afterwards we hit the ocean up (surfing was expensive but I’m a little bummed we didn’t try it), played some cards and pool, relaxed and read in hammocks on the beach, went swimming again (and found ourselves battling huge waves that typically would come in pairs of 2-which was a ton of fun: either you evaded both or ended up with a face full of saltwater).

Then as we were heading in, huge dark storm clouds came in out of nowhere, and the sky was super dark. The hostel had to put up their wind/storm windows and pull down the metal covers. We all went to the top bar and watched, and it was amazing. The lightning lit up the whole sky, and the thunder felt like it was right on top of us. Seeing a storm on the ocean is a pretty unique experience, which I’m not sure I’ve ever had. It was definitely the best storm I’ve ever watched, being on the beach made it surreal and seem even more powerful.

The night finished off with us meeting up with Nafar and May (couple from Australia) to play Monopoly Deal again. We were exhausted from the day spent on the beach (reading and relaxing in hammocks is a rough gig), so we hit it a little earlier than usual.

Fun Fact: Just like in Belize, caskets are places in cement boxes above ground, and not below ground.

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Black Sand, Beach, and Hot Weather-The Guatemalan Trifecta

We got up early(ish-Cam’s all about not setting an alarm clock on vacation, which I agree with. ((He has some time off from work before starting Law School)) We’ve been waking up anywhere from 6-8...) and rode from San Lucas to El Paredon, which is the BEACH BABY. The first half hour of the ride was absolutely stunning. Huge volcanoes and mountains surrounding us as we weaved downhill (going to la playa!) on freshly paved asphalt through the valleys. We hit a clearing and the walls of nature around us seemed to fall away and it was a huge clearing of trees and fields, though still with mountains in the background. Incredibly beautiful and fun to ride through. We’ve definitely had our fair share of beautiful rides so far. Cam explained it as if “somewhere along the way we entered Jurassic Park.”

Of course, without being able to see the directions as we drove, and POORLY marked road signs (Half of the roads have no signage), we got lost a decent amount of times. This was fine though, because it was getting hotter, so we could tell we were getting closer to the beach.

Finally we hit the sand, and there were lots of restaurants and such on the beach, but Cam suggested we take the bikes for a spin on the black sand. We did. It was super hard to control on the soft sand, but where it was wet, it was similar to driving on concrete. We had a blast doing this up and down the coast, and decided to drive the next twenty minutes towards El Paredon from San Jose. The tough part at the end was to find access back to the road, because all the buildings were resorts or other buildings that didn’t really have access to the street unless you walked (or rode) through the reception...we considered that, but instead found an abandoned house and had a small clearing to ride our bikes through. This was good because we were hungry, sweaty, and starting to get stuck in the sand a few times.

The next part was difficult as well. The final road to El Paredon wasn’t finished, just a dirt road. This was like the soft sand from earlier, but maybe a little better. It was tough to navigate the 45 minutes down that stretch of road (Google Maps said 20, but we had to go slow). There was a ton of cattle along the road (I may or may not have played chicken with a cow that had me beat 3x in size). Eventually, 6 hours and sunburned necks, thighs, and elbows later, we made it and stopped at the first hostel we found, The Drifted Surfer. Turns out it’s a huge party hostel, that even without supplying WiFi, stays pretty full. Has a pool, pool bar, upstairs bar, and couldn’t be closer to the beach. We had a good time but laughed at what we came across, especially the sign on one of the doors explaining the days of the week you could get an STD check if you needed one...

We played cards and met a couple from Australia and a girl traveling by herself from Germany. Golf has been our staple card game, but we taught them my Mom’s go-to, Kings corner, which they enjoyed. After that, the couple from Australia taught us a game they brought, called Monopoly Deal, or something like that. It’s basically a card Monopoly game that’s super fun and more cut-throat. Hard to learn, but easy to play once you do. We played two rounds of that before going to bed.

We were thankful for a safe trip, ocean water (we hit it up immediately upon arrival) and ac in the dorm room, because we were sweating bullets playing cards...”Yeah, were in the Rockies.” We haven’t experienced this heat yet, since we’ve been touring around the mountains mostly thus far. We’ll stay another day, but hope to get a new place.

Fun Fact: The sand on the Pacific of Guatemala (maybe all of Central America for that matter) is black, yet on the Caribbean side, it’s white. Not sure why that’s the case, but the black sand is a nice change of pace.

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Crazy Mike: American, married to a South African woman, motorcycle rider, Guatemalan coffee roaster.

By chance while scrolling the internet, we found a coffee place run by a guy from the Bay, and decided to hit it up as Cam enjoys a nice cup of Joe. The guy who runs it is named Michael, and he’s crazy. He reminds me of Coach Sandberg, constantly running around, and full of life. He was hilarious and we were instantly thrilled with our decision. Two minutes into sitting down we were rubbing his head where metal screws had been inserted in the second of countless near-death experiences for him, “Here, feel right here! Feel those bumps?! That’s where they inserted the screws!” Immediately after that we took the first of two trips to his coffee roaster in the back room. “Come here, QUICK.” So we raced back and forth to check out what he was doing, but not before getting some pull-ups with him on the metal bar holding up the frame of the coffee shop. Michael was one of a kind. He became a Christian when he was in his twenties. A 6,000 lb (I forgot how heavy it actually was, but it was the biggest boulder I had ever seen) rock rolled down the mountain and hit his home at 3:30 AM, feet away from where he and his wife were sleeping. Mud and water were pouring it and close to destroying everything until he opened the doors. He rebuilt his home with an upstate New York, Adirondack feel to it, in Panajachel, Guatemala. He also built his coffee shop. He’s a mans man-and we were pumped to have walked into his coffee shop. I wanted to hear more about his story but he didn’t seem to want to share-because he either kept talking to us or asking us questions or just had so much on his mind, he forgot/didn’t hear me. Full of energy, full of life. We talked with him and his American friends (all motorcyclists themselves) for a while on certain rides to take/avoid, and more about Michael’s adventures. We had to get on the road, so it was short lived. Before leaving he did recommend one of his top 3 rides-from Panajachel to San Lucas, with Lake Atitlan on you shoulder the entire way. Breathtaking views along the entire stretch, which was up in the mountains surrounding the lake, which was never out of sight. Though it was difficult at the end, and Mike’s friends suggested we not do it because of our inexperience. We trusted Mike (sounds kind of silly from a guy who has had many near death experiences...) and decided to try it.

The ride to San Lucas was so beautiful. Lake Atitlan is one of the pride and joys in Guatemala, and this ride kept the lake immediately in view, as we hugged the roads from one city to the next. The ride’s finale was a 20 minute back and forth switchback trail, that contained no paved roads, just rocks and dirt, and had steeper inclines than I’ve ever driven on with a car. Michael was sure we could do it, especially seeing how our first real motorcycle ride was 5 hours long through a mountain pass on an intercontinental highway in Guatemala. We stopped to break down the climb just as we approached it, and went for it. Man, was it exhilarating. Back and forth on the switchbacks was tough, but we maneuvered alright. So much so, that after we met Sylvia (a local who Michael knows and went to college in Michigan) who owns he gas station at the top, we went back down to do it again. Going down was tough as well, but thankfully our breaks held up.

From there we finished he trek to San Lucas, and decided to chill at the beach on Atitlan. The night consisted of cruising down one way streets looking for our hostel, hanging out with some beers at the beach, finding a pizza place, taking a tuk-tuk back to the hostel because I forgot the money, and playing some Golf before bed. Great ride, great views, great night.

Fun Fact: Being on Mexico’s southern border, Guatemala has the best beach brews you could ask for, Corona and Modelo, stocked at any gas station or grocery store you find yourself after a long ride.

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1: Cam with the hogs (glorified dirt bikes) before takeoff. 2-3: Views of Lake Atitlan throughout our journey.

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“LET’S RIDE!”-Hopper (A Bugs Life)

Here we go. Got our rental bikes and geared up. I strapped my bag on with bungee cords (as well as the one on my back-already mad I have two bags instead of one, even though they’re small #classicoverpacker) We got 250cc bikes instead of 200cc because the price was actually cheaper than we thought. They’re pretty big, but still glorified dirt bikes. We figured if we can drive in Antigua, we can drive anywhere (the cobble stone streets are pretty tough to navigate in-they say you’re more likely to break an ankle walking around in Antigua than playing sports).

After a few test laps around the city (my bag fell off and was giving me problems, so we tied it down pretty good after that), we were on our way. There were two routes to get there, so we took the shorter one. Problem was, after 20 minutes on the road, we found out it was blocked and we couldn’t pass. So we turned around to proceed the other direction, through the InterAmerican Highway. Problem was we got lost for about an hour trying to find the right exit, which was poorly marked. So we were going back and forth, back and forth until finally we got it and were on our way.

It was so FUN. We were cruising, first was heavy traffic but then it opened up. As we were driving down the 2 lane highway, heavy storm clouds started to approach, and I was getting nervous we would have to stop, but we kept driving quickly and got around them before they hit. If we had gotten stopped us, we may have had to wait for hours, and therefore not make it to our destination, Lake Atitlan. Eventually the mountain pass was the only part left in our 3 hour journey (that turned out to be closer to 5 after an hour delay and lunch), and after we made it through (a little chillier than we imagined), we had made it to Panajachel, just as it was getting dark and rain was falling. Perfect timing. Not bad for our first time on bikes for a ride longer than 15 minutes...We had so much fun. Even as we were lost and I was getting frustrated, Cam kept saying, “Man, I’m having a blast, this is incredible.” We’re glad we went with the 250cc. The added horsepower was nice in the mountains.

Cam was also making the argument that it may be better to drive a motorcycle here, than the states. Because there are so many on the road, people are actually aware of them and looking out for them. Whereas in the states, many accidents are simply from people not noticing bikes and pulling out in front of them.

We were a little stiff from our first ride (5 hours!), but so happy with how it went.

Fun Fact: In these parts, you hear car horns frequently. But it’s really just to inform people “Hey, I’m here in case you didn’t see me.” It’s not like the aggressive nature in which we use them back in the states, instead giving a simple heads up.

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(Cam and I) Celebrating our reunion in a different country “de las Americas” with a cold brew from the best country “de las Americas”. Some views of Antigua and the surrounding countryside.

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Reuniting with Cam, Kyle, in Antigua-17/7/18

Woke up early-crossed the bridge, and took a bus to Guatemala City. Grabbed lunch from a street vendor, got a haircut, and hopped on a bus to pick up Cam at the airport. Nice thing was, even though nobody who I asked knew how to get to the airport (street vendors/barbers and other people I randomly asked aren’t the ones going to the airport...) via bus, I got one step closer and someone there was able to help me out. One city police officer even let me through the gate to get on the metro for free because I didn’t have any coins and that’s the only currency the machine accepted. Most people were helpful, and the ones who weren’t at least tried to figure it out for me. The busses after the metro were the most complicated, but we figured it out. I arrived at the airport (I had to walk through the pickup lane because the bus driver didn’t realize I needed to stop at the closest airport stop, even after I told him I was going to the airport-good thing this airport wasn’t nearly as large as O’hare or Midway) and got Cam about 10 minutes after he got outside and we took a shuttle to Antigua.

We were dropped off at the Central Park and immediately a girl sat down next to us to try to sell us on the hostel she was working at, without “making it sound like a sales pitch” is what she repeatedly said. We didn’t have anywhere to be, because Kyle, the guy we know who went to Wheaton North and now is in seminary (Cam knows him well, I just met him last summer and barely know him), studying Spanish down here for 6 weeks, was in Mass for a little while longer. So we talked to her for a little (she was from O’Fallon, IL, by St. Louis) and then met up with Kyle and grabbed dinner.

After dinner we found the hostel (we decided to help her out) and choose the “glamping” option. Glamorous camping? It was a huge tee-pee with a double bed (that was pretty hard) and a chair and small bean bag, but that was it. We figured we should do it at least once. We talked with Kyle for a while in our tent and then went to bed, catching up on life and hearing about his experience in Guatemala. I haven’t seen a ton of it, being a tourist, but Kyle reminded me of just how poor these people are and how little they have, which was a great reminder.

Fun Fact: This part of Guatemala is much cooler, I would say because it’s up in the mountains. No need for AC like in the northern parts where I was before.

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1-5: Canoe ride through the canyon 6: Waterfall. Hot spring water on top with little pools to relax in, cold river water on the bottom. 7: One part of the bridge on my 5 AM walk to the bus station 8: Rio Dulce. In an hour, you can hardly cross the street there’s so many cars/18-wheeler trucks driving through. It’s always packed with drivers during the day 9: The beautiful Guatemalan countryside