Today started out great. I got up on time and went to see the ruins at Copan. They were everything everyone said they’d be—I’m really glad I went. I saw two motos in the parking lot, one from Florida and one from Australia. I left business cards on both of them. I also met a photographer with an old view camera (I think) photographing the ruins, her name is Lisa Elmaleh and you can see her work at her website. After the ruins I downed a Gatorade and went to the Internet cafe to plan my route. I headed back to the hotel and packed everything up and drove the 12km to the Guatemalan border. The El Florido border is the best I’ve experienced—there were no “helpers” to “help” me. The one snag was walking back into Honduras to get copies made—a long, hot walk uphill. The copy guy told me the copies were free though, probably because I looked like I was going to drop dead at any moment.
The Guatemalan stage of the ride started out fine, lots of mountain roads though they were well-maintained. In Guatemala City I stopped to fill up (at a self-service pump, the first in months!) and ate some snacks inside. I noticed an older gentleman looking at my bike and talked to him when I went outside. He offered to guide me to the exit to the freeway West; I’m glad he did because it was labeled “Frontera El Salvador” for some reason.
After Chimaltenango the mountain roads were constantly under construction. There were some good patches where they had finished but during one in-progress patch there was lots of mud. As I went through it at 5mph a semi was also making its progress through in the other direction. As I passed its front wheel on a banked curve the semi began to slip down the slope towards me. I had to hurry through the mud to avoid being flattened by him. I didn’t look back to see if he went over the edge or not, I was concentrating too hard on not falling over.
After that I endured more mud, gravel, sand, rocks, bumps, and holes. It took me so long to get through this stretch that it began to get dark, and as I climbed higher it also began to get foggier. In many places both directions of traffic were squeezed into two lanes where only half of a set of bridges had been built or a landslide had closed the road. At one point there was a fresh landslide and everyone had to turn around and cross into the other set of lanes. One impatient SUV driver high-centered on the tall median strip. I tried to drive through a drainage gap but it was too tall for my engine guard. About 1km back there was a place to cross that worked. Soon after the landslide I saw the lights of the Quetzaltenango below. I was very relieved. It was dark by this time and the oncoming traffic kept blinding me with their brights.
I finally wound down out of the mountain pass and took the road into the city. I asked for a hotel at the gas station and they directed me to the Hacienda Grande Hotel. It’s only been open for six months and everything looks brand new. I asked if there were other guests and there apparently some upstairs but the place seemed empty. The three employees working were all very anxious to see that I had everything I needed and offered to carry my bags in. The price was $22 for the night and the water in the shower was very hot.
I’m going to pass out now. A guy I talked to online a few times, Ben Edser, is doing the same kind of trip as I am and he’s in the same city as I am. Unfortunately he had a crash recently and won’t be continuing on his bike, you can read about it and see pictures here.
