Northern Guatemala

Rosalinde, as usual waiting for me... at the Guatemala/Belize border 

Tikal in the rain

We had heard great things about Tikal. Along with Tulum near Cancun these were probably the only other Mayan ruins we would visit. We set the alarm for the ungodly hour of 5am (I don't do alarms any more) and 30 minutes later were off in the shuttle bus for sunrise at the ruins. We had the place almost completely to ourselves. Not only was it 6am but also it was pouring rain. Go the cyclist's Gortex rain gear I say!! The site was so impressive. We wandered around for six hours but could easily have stayed a couple of days.

A pair of happy drowned rats.

These photos don't do it justice but the sight was magnificant.

This is Temple 1, the most perfectly intact of all the temples.
Tikal was a town used only by the upper classes.

Temple 1 and the pair of us.

Temple 1 from behind and the sun eventually came out.

We stayed with this poor but very happy Guatemalan
family the night before going to Tikal. A delight.

Is Guatemala dangerous?

Rosalinde bought a guidebook in Gatwick airport on her way to Mexico. She picked up the Footprint guide to Yucatan, Belize and Guatemala. Perfect for her holiday. We found it really useful but what was interesting to me was that everywhere we wanted to go came with a warning of how dangerous it was. 

I had travelled completely safely for six months with no guide book. I never read that anywhere was dangerous. Yes, of course I knew at the back of my mind the stories about this area and the narco gangs. The odd time locals would tell me to go a certain route and not another because it was safer but that was about all. In terms of camping, I get out my iOverlander app and see where people have camped before me. According to the guide book everywhere suddenly seemed to come with a rating of how dangerous or not it was for tourists. The daily tabloids would also lead you to believe we were travelling through a war zone. The first six pages every morning are covered with graphic pictures of murders, assassinations and shootings.

Guatemalan newspapers would scare the bejesus out of you.

Scary tabloid daily newspapers.

Lago Atitlan

A friend of mine Niamh C (as opposed to Niamh Mc) had recommended that we visit the lake of Atitlan. She had travelled in this area before and said it was a highlight. As is often the case we came for a night and stayed for two, swimming in the lake morning and evening and enjoying the beautiful view of the lake surrounded by three volcanos. The gringo trail leads backpackers up the volcanos, camping overnight, but we were satisfied with sitting and reading and relaxing. We met a fabulous retired Australia couple, Ian and Penelope, in our campground in their 4x4 all terrain campervan (below) who fed us slow roast pork and then a few shots of rum before bed. They also let us use their 'stove with a view' to make our porridge the following morning.

Photo from travelsintheearwig.wordpress.com

Cooking breakfast on a Ian and Pen's stove. 

Sunset on the lake. Fishermen busy preparing nets and boats.

Sunset on Panajachel, Lago Atitilan.

Sunrise on the lake. 

Locals busy mending the pier.

A local lady dressed in traditional clothes at her shop by the lake.

Beautiful views on the ride out of Pana. 3x5km climbs to leave the lago.

Maya Pedal

Rosalinde had bought her bike for the trip for 150 euros on DoneDeal.ie before traveling to Cancun. The airline fees were turning out to be so outrageous that she decided to buy a bike for the trip and then leave it in Guatemala. She found a great little project called Maya Pedal based just outside Guatemala City which remake bikes into Bicimaquinas (bike machines) and sells them to local rural communities for a very low price.

Dinner with the founders Mario and Valerie and a night sleeping at the workshop was one of the highlights of Guatemala. If there is anyone reading this has some engineering/bike fixing /general DIY skills and fancies learning some Spanish, they could do worse than volunteering here for a few weeks. Over 4000 volunteers have been hosted over their 20 years of operations. And no, you don't need to pay to volunteer at Maya Pedal. Phew!

Valerie, Rosalinde and Mario standing in front of a
mural of Guatemala at Maya Pedal.

This bicimaquina powers a blender to make aloe vera shampoo
and of course smoothies.

This one crushes corn husks so that they biodegrade quicker.

This one powers a turning plate for making pottery.

This one turns corn into meal for chickens.

This one peels macadamia nuts.

Traffic

Since Rosalinde was flying out of Guatemala City and we wanted to catch a few highlights not reachable by bike, we decided to take an eight hour overnight bus from northern Guatemala to the capital Guatemala City. There are three classes of bus. We went for 2nd class and kind of regretted it a little. But actually the road was so bad even if we had paid a 1st class price we don't think we could have avoided the bumpty-bump-bump-bump... all night long.

Guatemala City traffic is so crazy that we are stuck in traffic
entering from the north at 5.05am.

We arrived into Guatemala City at 5.05am and by 6am we were on a chicken bus (that's what everyone calls them here) with the two bikes strapped to the top for a three hour ride to Lago Atitlan. As opposed to the bumpty-bump bus ride, Rosalinde described this one as like being on a roller coaster. Guatemala buses are all old American school buses - you know the big long yellow ones you see in the movies - which are sold to Guatemala bus companies. Once they arrive in Guatemala the tail end, a couple of metres, is cut off and the engine is moved from underneath to the front. They are made shorter so that they are able to turn the corners on the narrow Guatemalan streets. Bars are also added to the tops of the seats inside, as during the roller coaster rides, a result of lunatic drivers and desperate roads, you have to hold onto something!

Catching a chicken bus at 6am in Guatemala City.

Shell's heaven, 3 varieties of mango. 3 for 1USD. Bargain.

Belize (or Bell-ee-say as it's called locally)

Caye Caulker - an island we visited off the coast of Belize. 

Belize is a strange little country. I knew nothing about it at all except that it's good for diving. I had also heard it's expensive so we planned to pedal through quickly enough. But as usual after a few days you get to grips with a place and then the odd stuff becomes interesting so you want to stay and explore. As it worked out we stayed a week in each of the three countries on Rosalinde's route.

Just to give you an idea of the geography.

I say strange because in the middle of all this Spanish speaking hispanic culture here is a little English speaking bubble. Well that's what it says on the tin. If we actually sat down to chat to someone we couldn't actually have a conversation in English. Belize used to be called British Honduras until 1974 and the queen appears on their currency and well some English words pop into each sentence. But it feels more like a Caribbean island than a part of the land mass of Central America. The people are much darker than in neighbouring countries. There is a Jamaican twinge to their accents and they flick between Spanish, English and Belize Kriol. You also hear the sound of steel drums coming from houses/bars. And there is also a distinct Indian influence. Go figure.

All the signage is suddenly in English.

Belize has a population of about 300,000. So the same as Iceland as we learned recently during the Euros. It is about 300kms long and 100kms wide. So not dissimilar to Ireland really. It ranks 101 on the Human Development Index a full 30 places behind Mexico. So it's considerably poorer but considerably more expensive. There is a designated gringo trail which I hadn't come across before on my bike trip trip. But the whole country seems to be used by backpackers and other tourists as a springboard to get to the islands. We caught a boat from Belize City, a total no go area according to all the guidebooks, to one of the Cayes (pronounced Keys). There are 450 Cayes in total. The one we picked was the backpacking mecca of Caye Caulker which in 2016 was devastated by Hurricane Earl. Everywhere we looked there was construction underway.

Caye Caulker. Backpacker heaven. White sand and turquoise water.

Camping in someone's garden in Caye Caulker. They only
vaguely quiet spot on the party island.

Beautiful views from our campsite. 

View from our 11usd per night per person camp spot. Ouch.

View from camp spot.

Back on the mainland we actually bumped into a few cyclists. My first in quite a while. And always such a highlight. Rosalinde had a knack of finding them along the roadside.

Emanuel was from Switzerland. We rode and camped with him
for a couple of days. Lovely hotel owners offered us breakfast of coffee and bananas.

A hotel owner let us camp in the garden of his hotel for 3usd per night. Fab.

Hotel garden by the river.

Met a Catalan/French cycling couple at this roadside cafe.

We ended up really liking Belize. The roads were decent enough. There was hardly any hard shoulder but it didn't really matter as traffic was light. The weather was warm but not too hot. We cooked every morning and night which meant we could stay within a 10ish usd per day budget. The people were lovely. Unusual but lovely. This below pic of of some Mennonites, a small community of German speakers who also live in Belize.

German speaking Mennonite children who live in Belize.
Both young and old men wore the same uniform.

All the shops in Belize are owned by the Chinese.

This wildlife sanctuary was a particular highlight. As with so many 'NGO project campsites' gringos pay a high price to stay but usually the money is going towards a cause. Most also have volunteer programmes. This particular one was no different. Volunteers (mainly from the US) paid 200 usd per week to come and volunteer at The Monkey Bay Wildlife Santuary. It doesn't sit well with me that you pay to volunteer but I know that's kind of how it is.

Camping under our own palapa.

Rosalinde washing dishes. A nice job in such lovely surroundings.

Our cooking spot at The Monkey Bay Sanctuary.

A bridge in Belize we particularly liked. 

Yucatan, Mexico

And suddenly everything is gorgeous...

On January 26th, after spending a lovely week in Mexico city I flew on a 70usd one way flight with InterJet to Cancun. 50kgs of luggage were included in the hefty price tag which meant I could easily pack up my bike and all my camping stuff in one cardboard box. My friend from home Rosalinde (Dutch but lives in Dublin) was joining me and the easiest place she found to fly to in Mexico from Ireland, was Cancun. 

After building up our bikes at Cancun airport it was already
dark. So we put on lights and high viz for the 20km ride into town.

Carlos was a wonderful host in Cancun.
Brought us on a night bike tour for beers and tacos.

I was expecting it to be a little hot and a little flat so was looking forward not only to the company, but also to some easy'ish days of cycling. What I never expected was the sudden holiday feeling that swept over me as soon as I saw the sea. The fact that I had a friend visit plus the amazing blue/green colour of the water, the clear blue skies, the 28 degree average daily temperature, the multiple daily swims, the riding on the bike with a bikini top and cycling shorts... all added up to the start of a wonderful three week holiday. Everywhere you looked the world was just so pretty.

Our first swim was at the Ritz Carlton in Cancun. We left our
bikes at the door, walked through onto their private beach,
grabbed some towels and swam in our underwear.

This beach was particularly busy as we could swim out about
20 metres and see loads of turtles just with our swimming goggles.

Rosalinde parking the bikes by a thatched palapa
before going for yet another swim.

This was the colour of the water on a dull grey day.

We had no fixed plan for Rosalinde's three weeks other than cycling south. She flew into Cancun and was flying out of Guatemala City, some 1200kms further south, so we knew we would cycle through the three countries of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. The Yucatan peninsula was first. Famous for Cancun, lots of Mayan ruins including one of the wonders of the world, Chichen Itza and tropical weather. It didn't disappoint. 

The pair of us find our first Cenote. 

What I didn't know but what the Yucatan is also famous for are cenotes (sinkholes). Lovely big cool swimming holes normally found under big rock formations. They are everywhere. Some are very touristy and you can pay 25 usd to stay for the day, others are more local and you can pay 1-2 usd to go for a quick dip.

Tulum was the only Yucatan Mayan ruin site which was directly on our route south. We woke before sunrise and got in before the crowds arrived. It is the only Mayan archaeological site in the Yucatan built on the sea and acted as the Mayan's main port. Built in the 13th-Century it was abandoned later and rediscovered by a British expedition in the mid 1800s.

We cycled to the mayan ruins at Tulum and arrived for sunrise.

Turquoise water at the Tulum site even on a dull cloudy day.

Rosalinde's first of many porridges with apple
and cinnamon.

Rosalinde had never really cycle toured before. But she had been in the girl guides as a teenager so was a camping guru. And well, she is Dutch. So bikes are in her blood. She took to it like a duck to water. On the first night in Cancun we stayed with a warm showers host, night two saw us set up our mats and sleeping bags in chiropractor's surgery.

Campaing on the floor of a chiropractor's practice in

Playa del Carmen. Cancun Carlos put us in touch.

It wasn't until night three that we tried some wild camping. We set up shop near this private jetty and speaking later to some security guards learned that we were actually on a university campus. Beautiful peaceful quiet sleep. We obviously thought we could swim but were luckily told about the resident crocodiles just in time.

Sunset and sunrise were stunning. 

The joys of having a partner in crime means that
there is a photo of me on a bike.

Roads in the Yucatan were great. After the mountains of mainland Mexico the flatness was a real treat. The tarmac was good AND we often had a hard shoulder. Being January it was also not TOO hot.

Flat tarmac, a hard shoulder plus some road signs.
What a treat. 

Although at 28 degrees C we were roasting,
others obviously were cold.

I mentioned briefly before about Mexico's pueblos mágicos. Over 100 towns that Mexico's tourism department has labelled as 'lovely'. Each has their own colourful sign which is quite clever actually as tourists stop all the time to take selfies. We were no exception.

In Chetumal, Mexico

In Tulum

On the Riviera Maya

You really know you're in a tourist area when you see
the dolphins dancing in a hotel resort. A far cry from Baja.

The advantages to camping on the beach.
A sunrise swim every morning.