This is the road to Hell!

We knew that the road from the Guatemalan border contained sections of gravel and true to form about one mile inside the country we were back on the old familiar rough stuff, the road surface was flat and good going except on the corners where the car and truck traffic push the lumps of gravel into neat piles on the inside or outside track depending on the curve.

We love gravel, yes we do!

After having taken a fall in Alaska on worse roads than these we were in no hurry to get anywhere fast but things were made easier by the absence of traffic. In a country as poor as Guatemala one of the first things you notice is the lack of personal vehicles in rural areas, the main modes of transport are motorcycles with the occasional beat up pick up truck, in the villages mini vans serve as buses and stop whenever and wherever to pick up or drop off passengers. Everybody else walks and sometimes you see the odd horseman or just a horse. After about fifteen miles the gravel disappeared and changed to tarmac, we picked up the pace but kept an eye open for the usual hazards wandering on the road.

We tried to convince the three little pigs that there were no wolves in Guatemala.

Our plan was to visit the huge Mayan ruins at Tikal before heading to Antigua where we were hoping to take Spanish classes, we avoided the expensive hotels close to the park and chose a hotel lodge at El Remate on the shores of Lake Peten Itza about twenty miles away. This is the off season in Central America so usually the accommodation is cheaper and you get the pick of the rooms, the Hotel de Don David is owned by an American who has lived here for thirty five years. We couldn't have picked a better location, the service was great, the restaurant overlooked the lake and it was on the road to Tikal.

Casa De Don David

Sunset over Lake Peten Itza.

If you stand on one of these you have a devil of a job cleaning your feet!

Rather than ride to Tikal on the bikes, we decided to hire the services of a guide complete with transport which always makes for a more informative visit. To say Tikal is huge is something of an understatement, at  the height of it's power it was the largest city in the Americas and covered an area of over 220 square miles and contained an estimated 10,000 buildings and temples! Now the jungle has reclaimed all but the excavated areas but when the city was populated most of the surrounding area would have been treeless, the trees having been cut down for construction or firewood.

Pics from Tikal

Isn't she pretty?

As with all the other major Mayan sites excavation and reclamation is an ongoing project hampered by the lack of cash, as you walk round the site everywhere you look there is evidence of temples, buildings, or pathways emerging from the undergrowth.

We played poke the Tarantula with a piece of grass. The guide knew exactly where to find the spider and the spider probably knew at some point he was going to get poked by a piece of grass.

The Grand Plaza.

Isn't that Lara Croft?

Couple of old ruins!

The best views require some legwork.

I wouldn't go in there if I were you

Leafcutter ants.

The view from the top of Temple 4.

This is the most famous photograph of the ruins at Tikal, in fact it's so famous I can guarantee that most of you reading this have seen this shot before. Unless that is, you haven't seen Star Wars Episode 4, for the nerdy types among you it was used as the location for the Rebel base on planet Yavin 4. (see end of clip below)

And here's my own Rebel force!

This is a rare photo, Joe is very uncomfortable with heights.

Bloody tourists!

the Temple at El Mundo Perdido, (the lost world)

This thing was bigger than a racoon but smaller than a tiger,

This was a bird very similar to a turkey, in fact they called it.......a turkey.
(beautiful plumage the Norwegian Blue)

And this is......look this is not the bloody Discovery Channel, I just take the photos OK.

Temple 5.

This is not for the faint hearted.

The view from the top.

As we were leaving the Casa De Don David Joe got his front wheel stuck in a rut coming up the ramp from the parking lot and had a slight 'off', no major damage just a few scratches, unfortunately we broke the first rule of falling off the bike....Take pictures!

From Tikal we drove to Coban where we struggled to find a decent hotel (I know life's tough on the road) Someone did mention later that there were good places to stay in Coban but you can't convince us that's true.

Occasionally we came across diversions, in this case it was a new bridge across the river that had been abandoned for obvious reasons. There is always an alternative route to get back on track, but it's never signposted so it's a case of find it yourself.

In this case it was a dirt track just down the road.

Joe and Lynn bringing up the rear

For all the hazards created by bad drivers (and the Guatemalans are bad drivers) the deadly cattle truck takes some beating. In the centre of the carriageway you can just see a line of dried cow crap which is no big deal but every now and then a stream of wet stuff runs of the back of the truck and if you get on that it's worse than oil and the smell is just an added extra. this shot was taken just as we were about to overtake.

Welcome to the jungle.

It appears as though if you have any form of transport you become a taxi, I don't know if the driver charges passengers or if it's a community service.

Can't do without TV, even in the jungle.

When the river get too wide for a bridge there is always the ferry, in this case it cost 5 Quetzales (about 30p) and looked like it was ready to sink.

Whaddya mean it's underpowered?

Sue answering the usual questions, how fast? how far? how much?


Joe about to run over some unsuspecting local!

The local women in Guatemala carry everything on their heads (except kids and livestock) sometimes the bundles look bigger than the women. I figure that with all that weight they must get shorter as they get older and probably end up about 2 feet tall.

Roadside diner

Joe been mobbed at a gas station

The road from Coban to Guatemala City was probably the most hazardous of our whole trip, the road conditions on some stretches were superb unfortunately for us the drivers weren't. As we have journeyed South I have tried to adapt to the varying driving conditions, if you apply the same methods here as you do back home you will not live long. You assume that everyone else is going to do the most unlikely manouevre and take evasive action accordingly, if that involves undertaking or driving on the pavement then that's considered normal!

Our first encounter with the dreaded 'Chicken Buses'. Anything smaller than a bus is fair game for these guys, they have no road sense and even less consideration for other road users.

Shortly after this shot was taken we were run off the road by a driver who had decided my space was his space, I saw him coming up on the outside and thought "Shit he's close" so I pulled over towards the edge of the road to give him some room and he just kept getting closer when I looked back at the road there was nowhere to go except off, fortunately there was about 18 inches of concrete before the jungle which allowed me to slow down and get back on the highway. This happened twice in the space of a couple of hours, the second time I was ready to retaliate but Sue as always pointed out the benefit of arriving at our destination on a bike, not in an ambulance.
(We would meet up with Oisin and Helmar later in Antigua and discover Helmar had been knocked of his bike on the same stretch of road)

Now at this point it's worth noting that whilst the chicken bus drivers are crazy, inconsiderate, dangerous bastards they are very good at what they do. They must have an immovable faith in life after death to take those kind of risks, and why anyone would pay money to sit in a ticking time bomb is beyond me.

When we visited Dan in San Diego he warned us about these guys and also said if he was ever going to rob a bank he wanted the getaway vehicle to be Guatemalan chicken bus with it's driver at the wheel!

The outskirts of Guatemala City.

Joe and I had studied the maps and thought we had a good idea of how to skirt round the City and avoid the rat race on our way to Antigua......we didn't. We were just about to consult our maps when we were stopped by a nice motorcycle cop, before he could say anything I shook his hand, smiled and explained as best I could that we were lost. He must have been in a good mood because he decided to take us through the city with lights flashing and point us on the right road to Antigua....Result!

"No Senor we have no idea what you are saying, maybe it would be a good idea for you to escort us through the City"

As I type this I am listening to the hotel staff learning to play the Marimba....badly, no bloody awfully actually. But that's sometime in the future, so until then......

The Marimba ( pronounced JESUS will you stop playing that fucking thing!)  is a musical instrument in the percussion family. Keys or bars usually made of wood are struck with mallets to produce musical notes. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys to aid the performer both visually and physically.

Where's the Guatemalan death squads when you need them!