I’ve been resting up in Antigua the last couple of days but today (May 19) felt good enough to attempt leaving.

Today was an exercise in the futility of navigation in a country without road signs. I made it out of Antigua easily and headed back towards Guatemala City. Once there I tried to stay on the CA-1, the freeway that would take me to El Salvador. I kept turning around and going towards the one place where it was marked that CA-1 was the freeway I was on and taking a different unmarked branch each time to see if it was correct. At one point it started pouring rain in rather large drops and about half the motorcyclists pulled over under bus stop shelters. I pulled over under an awning and put on my rain gloves and zipped everything up on the suit. After this I’m pretty sure I made it to CA-1 again but gave up after it disappeared once more. I decided to head South at the sign for Boca del Monte.

I drove past some military buildings and watched recruits get off of a bus and run through the rain. The road started to slope downward and all of the rain followed it in great rivers. There were rivers diagonally across the road the entire way down and I proceeded slowly to keep traction. Some of the rivers hit something solid at the far side of the road and exploded upward like reverse waterfalls.

I followed this road as it got smaller and smaller through cities and villages. At one point I made a large detour down a gravel road and had to turn around when there was nothing at the end but a bus waiting for people from the nearby town.

I made my way to a lake road that was very beautiful. I followed this all the way to Amatitlan, a fair-sized city near the West side. It was here that I used a school’s computer for a dollar and checked where I was. Google showed a road eight miles from where I was that connected with the freeway I was to take to El Salvador. I noted my odometer reading and took off the way I had come. Near eight miles away I saw a turnoff and took it. It was a great road for the first 300 meters and then turned into a gravel road. I figured this must be it, however, as it was the only thing that Google showed off the right side and it was the correct distance away.

The first half of the pass was OK and I climbed higher into the mountains. On a particularly steep curve I slowed down but lost momentum near the top. I grabbed the brake by instinct to stop from rolling backwards but it was too steep and the front wheel locked up. I couldn’t lift my foot to use the rear brake as it was keeping me upright. I slid backwards maybe 15 feet and fell over towards the right, thankfully uphill. I immediately got everything off the bike, lifted it up, and gas-walked it up to a flat space so I could reload it.

The reloading went disasterously and the bike fell over on me (downhill) and required muscles I did not know I had to right again. Thanks adrenalin.

Once everything was back on I was still stuck with getting it upright enough with me on it to lift the kickstand without it also falling over to the right side again. I set a large rock on the ground on the right side so that I could step on it and have more stability to lift the bike up and bring up the kickstand. With that done I started the bike and rode away from the horrible stretch of road.

The picture of me with the helmet on looking angry is actually before I fell over, I think I was just displeased with the gravel road. After I got out of it I think how I felt would be best described as elated.

I drove up higher through several small villages. Some were clean and some had garbage strewn all over the side of the roads. All of them had chickens everywhere.

I stopped at a small store in one of the villages on the downhill side and bought a cold Pepsi. I talked to the family that ran the store a bit and also to a gentleman who I think was probably not all there. The family acknowledged this and told me to basically ignore him. The man pleaded with me to wait for him while he wrote something down for me so I gave him my pen to expedite the process and he wrote his name (too illegible to read but he also said it was Freddy) and the word “volcan” (volcano) and his phone number, which he opened up his cell phone to find. Once I accepted this piece of paper I was free to go.

Further on I was passed the other way by two busses and a motorcycle carrying four young men. A motorcycle with two young men passed me and another with one rider did as well. All of the motorcyclists were going way too fast. When I finally saw pavement again it was the happiest moment of the day.

I entered the freeway right near a small town built up around a volcano named Pacaya and stopped at the first hotel I saw, a $10 a night place called the Hotel Paladium with a private bathroom and enclosed parking.

In Guatemala there’s not much hot water (I’m not sure why they haven’t embraced the ubiquitous black solar water heaters you see everywhere in Mexico) but most showers have a shower head that is supposed to heat the water. The one in Antigua did not seem to work at all but when I turned it off the lights got brighter. The wiring made me think I was in Abu Graib.

I haven’t used the one here yet but I will note that it is grounded to a piece of rebar sticking out of the partition between the bedroom and the bathroom. A for effort.

After I transferred the GPS track from my data logger and looked at it on the computer I noticed that the track I had taken was not the one that I had noted from Google. It in fact took me due West, back towards Antigua. Note to self: Country-wide road maps are a necessity next time.

Update: 10:30pm. Tried to watch the Fifth Element but my copy ends after an hour. It sounds like the rains of Armageddon outside. I went to see if I could move the bike under something but the door is locked. Most locks here are the kind that require a key to open from either side. I can hear it rusting now…