The Highlands of Guatemala

Posted by Fin on 27 January 2010

I left Mexico with mixed feelings. The northern half of the journey had been tough and I had found it hard to make the transition from the relative ease of touring in the US. The roads had been busy and dangerous at times due to traffic and lack of shoulder making cycling difficult. But the people and places we had visited left me craving more. The last half of Mexico has been amazing; the Pacific beaches, the atmospheric and bustling colonial towns and the superb ancient ruins. But it was time to move on up and into the Highlands and volcanos of Guatemala.

Crossing the border by bicycle was so easy and stress free. Alex commented he found it harder to get into France! After exchanging our Pesos for Quetzals from street money changers, we got our passports stamped for US$1.50. Just as we were about to ride off an armed official noticed my Alaskan number plate. I spent a few moments reassuring him it was a bit of a joke and not a licence that required a permit, before he let us move on.

We had decided not to take the easier lowland route through Guatemala, instead seeking some diversity cycling up into the Highlands to see some volcanos. It appears we 'bit off more than we could chew' and there is a reason why most tourers with 50kgs of baggage take the lowland route. The road up to San Marcos and onto Quetzaltenago was so steep it was not possible to cycle. I would cycle for 20metres then have to get off and push until exhaustion caused me to stop and rest. 5 hours of pushing later we had run out of water and it was getting dark. A couple of kids guided us to the next small shop where we were so relieved to find water. But now the problem was where to camp. On one side of the road we had steep cliffs straight up and on the other straight down. Alex asked the lady in the shop if she knew anywhere we could pitch our tents. After consulting her elderly mother she offered us her back yard built out on stilts over the steep valley below with incredible views of the Volcano. I forgot to take a photo of it - Alex will post later. It was wonderful to receive such great hospitality, right at a moment when we really needed it.

The following we day we continued to push our bikes up to 3000m which took all day. It was by far the hardest physical challenge of the trip so far. But we were rewarded with fabulous views and excited children running after us to say 'Hola Gringo'!

After 3 days we arrived into the highland city of Quetzaltenago. We were behind schedule after only managing 40km days (average pushing bike speed of 3-4km/h), so sadly were only able to spend a day here. We needed to push on towards Lake Atitlan the following day. At lake Atitlan we filmed an awesome project using discarded plastic bottles stuffed with plastic bags as the main structure for housing check out Pura Vida - Alternative Trash Management

I was really happy to see this project in action after being so saddened by the huge amount of trash everywhere through Mexico and Guatemala. I was so preoccupied filming Lake Atitlan and the housing project with the video camera that again I didn't get time to take any photos. Check Alex's blog later for this.

We are now on the way to Antigua, Guatemala where we will rest for a day before meeting the deepeei film crew. It will be cool to see them again having not met up since Las Vegas!

17 comments. Tags: Fin, . Location: Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala