I knew I had a shorter day today, So I went ahead and slept in, 7:30am baby!
As I was getting my things ready to go, Kyle told me that they had made me breakfast. Seriously, these guys don't know how to stop being nice! It was a savory pork crepe and absolutely amazing! We all said our goodbyes and got a picture of the kids on the bike before parting ways.
Kyle gave me some directions and recommended that I stay in Huehuetenango before I got a move on.
As I headed south east from San Cristobal, everything starting feeling very remote. The roads were getting rough, and there were a number of places where the indigenous had put rocks in the road as their own way of closing the roads. I guess it is common practice for them.
As the roads got worse and worse, I knew I was nearing the border. Eventually all of the road signs indicated that it was the freeway to the border, and nowhere else.
As I came to the border I saw that I first had to check out of Mexico before I could check into Guatemala. First I checked myself out in the passport office. They took my card and stamped the passport, then sent me to the other office next door to check the bike out. The bike check out took longer than I expected, but I also didnt have to wait in line, so it was fine. Once it was all done, I got my $400 deposit back, and was off to cross the Guatemalan border.
The border crossing was pretty anti climatic. I crossed over, before I could continue though, they had to spray my bike down with some kind of chemical to kill pests crossing with me. I then paid 11 quetzal for entry and headed on to get a stamp. After stamped, I had to register the bike the get a trip permit. Registration was 160 Quetzals.
It took about 2 hours to move through both the Mexican and Guatemalan borders, but I was happy to be done.
Crossing into Guatemala was probably about what people imagine crossing into mexico is like. It was a market the second I got in, I could only ride around 15mph. I continued through as the streets wound through the mountains. It was very green and the streets were tight. There were so many speed bumps and rough roads. You just cant count on ever having a good road here. The road would be perfect pavement then turn into dirt and gravel. Potholes were big, not worked on, and it literally took me about 6 hours to ride from the border to Antigua.
I had thought about stopping in Huehue, but it was so early when I got there, that I decided to just keep on going. Something I hadn't counted on though, was that it gets dark in Guatemala much earlier than in Mexico. In mexico I was able to ride until 7 or so, but here, it was dark by 5:30. The problem with that, was that it was raining, and I was an hour and a half from Antigua when it got dark. Because it was not a good stopping point, I cracked the tinted visor so that I could see, dipped behind my windscreen, and pushed forward.
When I was about 20 miles from antigua, the traffic was completely jammed, so I did as the locals do, and rode the shoulders to get past the traffic.
Eventually I made it to antigua and found a hostel with a private room just a block from the hostel I had intended at staying at. It is a long story, but tonight I am at Frank and De's hostel, and tomorrow, I will be at the Moto Camp hostel.
Oh and that brings up another thing, I am taking tomorrow off from riding. I may go find some dirt trails, but more than likely I will enjoy another day in antigua and possible get my front tire looked at. The wheel is really wobbling a lot when i take my hands off the grips. Probably because of all of the rough roads today.
Oh and I might have caught a pannier on a high sidewalk tonight too. Kinda just bounced me off it, no real damage that I could see to the pannier, and the bike didnt go down lol.
Ok, goodnight.!
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