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Day 57

Day 57 12/22/2021

Odometer  30,182 – 30,318 —–  136 Miles (7613 Miles Total)

Leon, Nicaragua – San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

This should be another good read. I want to go back to short write ups with nothing fun happening. I miss that quite a bit right now. So……

I got up quite early today somehow even after taking all those things to help me sleep. 2-7am. I got a free breakfast from the hostel which I was thrilled about. I worked on the blog to finish up last night’s story and then packed up my shit to head south. I wasn’t ready for another border crossing today so I talked to Yak and he said to head to San Juan Del Sur. It’s a lovely beach town in the southern part of Nicaragua with good surfing and local vibes. So I left Leon and headed there. 4 hours away is not too bad. The weather was lovely and the views were pretty nice too. I stopped for fuel and it’s pretty pricey here at nearly $5 a gallon. I stopped on the side of the road looking for a coconut to drink some fresh coconut water but all I found were watermelons so I cracked one open on the spot and ate half. Back on the road.

This is where it gets spicy. I’m riding on a two lane highway you can call it. I’m just minding my own business driving the speed limit in the left lane passing cars that are driving slow on the right. I look up ahead and there’s the transit officers that are able to give you tickets. Cops here aren’t allowed to do that. Every now and then they have cones up and they either make you stop or wave you on. This cunt told me to pull over. I was thinking about dodging the stop and just gunning it but eh fuck it ill pull over and see what this asshat wants. He starts yelling at me telling me I was driving dangerously. Oh yeah sure right. I asked him how. He is just yelling in Spanish. He asks me for my paperwork. I learned my lesson yesterday. No one sees my real papers anymore ever again unless it’s at a border. NO ONE. I pulled out a photocopy of my drivers license, passport and registration for my bike. I have about 20 of these. So I gave it to him and wrote down on my phone that my Drivers License got stolen two weeks ago and this is all I have. He was not happy.

I call Alex. this fucking poor guy. I call him once a day with some wild story. Actually I call him more than once a day lately with some wild bullshit I’m dealing with. This guy answered 40 phone calls of mine yesterday. I love him. Thank you Alex you are the man! I call Alex and the cop loses his shit like the cop from yesterday that wanted a bribe. I get it. I see what’s going on now. Alex talks to him and he tells him I’m riding illegally in the country without a real copy of my license. He tells Alex I have to get off my bike and walk with him. I look around and there’s nothing for miles. It’s me, him and this fat woman with a folder. I’m not getting off my bike. He points to my knife and asks me what it’s for. I tell him to cut someone if someone messes with me….and to eat watermelons which I pointed to the half cut watermelon in my pannier bag I opened up.

He starts getting angry with me telling me I have to follow him. No dude im not fucking going anywhere and there’s no where to go here. Alex is talking to him translating. I’m getting really pissed here real quick. He keeps saying he’s taking my bike. Over my dead body you can have my bike otherwise you’re not touching shit.

He starts to walk to his bike about 15 feet back and I said yeah i’ll be back there in a minute let me talk to my friend. I look around in my rear view mirrors. :insert evil face here:  I put my phone back on the phone mount on my handlebars, close up my backpack and throw it back over my shoulder. I keep an eye on the shitheads behind me. Good you guys good stay right by your bike, you corrupt pieces of shit. I slowly stand my bike up, quietly put up my kickstand, take my helmet and put it on my head real fast, hit the start button and dump the clutch. I’m out. Alex was on speaker while this was all going on. I got about 1/4 mile away doing 80-90mph and turned my bluetooth headset back on my helmet. Alex call finally transfers over to my headset and he’s like WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?? I said to Alex “Im fucking running man, im running”! HAAHAHAH

He was cracking up, I was shaking and laughing at the same time. I look in my rear view and they’re not chasing me. I’ve run from cops in the states probably thousands of times in 18 years. It’s what I used to do for fun when I was a kid. Sorry mom! Anyway me and Alex are cracking up, I’m pumped with adrenaline. But I haven’t done this too much in another country. Are they going to radio ahead? There’s only one main road in the country and I have another 45 minutes left until I can turn off since there’s no other roads. Shit. I hope they didn’t call ahead. I’ll deal with it when I get there. Alex called me back and we were trying to plan about what to do if that happens. Whatever, I don’t care anymore. These pricks are corrupt and I’m getting the hang of their game. I’m the wrong guy to pick on for this bullshit. I’m not stopping at any more checkpoints than the last one.

A few miles ahead I’m riding and a monkey is chillin in the road. A monkey. I can’t believe my eyes. I almost hit him and called Alex. He’s cracking up about the monkey. HAHA. Anyway I ride up for about another hour and get to my turnoff to head to the beach. Yak told me to take another road to the beach that he took on his trip which had more dirt than the other entrance. So I hopped on it and it was a nice 15 miles of hard packed dirt in a thick jungle heading to the water. I got to my hostel and I did really well picking this place. It’s right near the beach with two pools, a huge hangout area, all clean grass, and a delicious restaurant with smoothies as well. The wifi is mind blowing with the speed, there’s no dirt anywhere. God damn I wanna stay here for a month! I pretty much laid around here from 1pm on swimming, catching up on phone calls, blogging, figuring out the bullshit to enter Costa Rica in a few days so I don’t get jammed up like I did yesterday.

I got some food at the hostel, swam for a bit, made some phone calls and had a few smoothies. I took my bike out to the town to see the beach and walk around a bit. I also took a ride up the side of the town where there’s a huge Jesus statue to watch the sunset and met a guy who is a local here that will be riding a motorcycle from Nicaragua to Canada and then shipping it back form Miami. I got back to my hostel after sunset and had some more food. I got myself a nice 90 minute massage which wasn’t the best but I needed to treat myself after yesterday’s bullshit. I made some more phone calls, and my friend Jimmy got a bunch of stuff together finally that I ordered at his place a few weeks ago when all my tools were stolen from me. He brought them over to a friend’s place in Manhattan and he will be seeing my friend Nick. Nick is going to Bogota on December 28th to see his girlfriend and that’s where my bike is getting shipped January 5th so it’s all working out perfectly.

I crawled into bed and watched a movie and a half and passed out. I’m getting anxious about leaving this country in two days.

Rolled 30K today and hot as hell here in Nicaragua.

My hangout spot at the hostel. One of the nicest hostels ive ever stayed at.

Roadside watermelon i stopped for.

View of San Juan Del Sur

Sunset

View of the surrounding area of SJDS

Heaven

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Day 56

Day 56 12/21/2021

Odometer 29,820 – 30,182  —–  362 Miles (7477 Miles Total)

El Zonte, El Salvador – Leon, Nicaragua

So I had a decent night of sleep  in my outdoor whatever you call it, that I slept in last night. It rained hard for a bit last night, which was pretty nice. We stayed nice and dry. I got up a little after sunrise and loaded up the bike as fast as I could, took a few pictures and hit the road. I had a 8 hour ride ahead of me today with two border crossings which should take about 90 minutes each so I was cutting it close to Nicaragua at sunset.

I had a pretty nice ride all the way to the El Sal/Honduras border. It was about 95 degrees most of the ride but I was ok since I kept pouring water down my shirt. I pulled over for fuel and Papusas at a little roadside joint and it was the best food I’ve had in a few nights and the cheapest! I got back on the road and stopped at the first border crossing which I heard was hell from Yak. Luckily I got through in about an hour which I couldn’t believe. It went so smoothly.

5 Minutes after I left the border there were 3 cops with guns as usual and they told me to pull over. I pull over and he doesn’t speak any English but from what I understand I was riding dangerously and I have to pay a fine. Assholes…here we go. Before he mentioned the fine he asked for my drivers license and  my title of the bike. I fucked up giving him my drivers license but I gave him a fake photocopy of my title. He then tells me I owe him $100 for a fine. I kinda lose my shit on him. He pulls his phone out and writes down an address of a bank for me to go get $100 for him. I tell him no. I call my friend up to translate for me and he flips out on me. He keeps screaming to hang out and is clearly pissed. After about two minutes of me not listening I hung up on Alex.

I sat there kept saying no no no. I pulled out $20 and their faces all lit up. I said ill give you some more but give me my license back first with hand gestures. I pointed to my top box and said there was more money in there. Now from my old days of being a shithead I always have an extra set of keys handy in case the cops take my first set of keys. I didn’t turn my bike off to be ready for anything. He gives me back my license and I close up my backpack and fumble it behind my back. I take the $20 put it on my palm and crunch it behind my left grip on the handlebar, throw my bike in first gear and dump the clutch. Fuck these guys , im running. I doubt they will shoot me and they don’t have a car there. I took my chances.

I rode for 2 hours and didn’t get pulled over. I wish I could see the look on those assholes faces but I didn’t want to look back to see if they were pulling their guns out. Next time I’m not giving anyone my real drivers license or anything i’ll just say it got stolen. That was a close call. I had two hours to get to the Nicaraguan border from that situation so I was booking it there.

The border had maybe 2 miles of trucks just backed up and there were cars and motorcycles driving on the wrong side of the highway to get past all of them. Glad we all think alike.I made it to the Nicaraguan crossing and the paperwork was easy at the exit of Honduras except it was 97 degrees and we were inside with a bunch of people and no ventilation. I also got stung by a bee on the ride there. I was covered in sweat wearing jeans waiting. I also passed a jeep with Canadian plates getting to the customs building and as I was waiting in line I heard a guy yell out Marko!

I couldn’t believe it! I was chatting with a guy named Tom from Canada who is driving a truck down to Argentina so we can ship our vehicles together in a container. We haven’t met up yet but he recognized me from the picture of my profile on WhatsApp. We chatted for a bit waiting in line and then I split off to get to the Nicaragua side. I rode on a sidewalk past all the traffic to get there and once I stopped I realized I couldn’t get into the country with my drone. I turned around to hide it in my motorcycle jacket since I figured they wouldn’t check it for a drone. I got back to the crossing and pulled out all my paperwork. It was 2:45 PM and i’m doing great with time. Then it all went to shit.

The agent asked me for my covid test. WHAT COVID TEST. I gave him my Vax card but he didnt care. He told me the closest testing center was an hour back into Honduras. FUCK

I went over to Tom and they gave me some info on where to go. They didn’t get tested when they sent me because they went elsewhere. I typed in the address on google and hit the road. My night is fucjked at this point I figured. I can’t find anywhere to sleep in Choluteca which is why I made the mad dash to Nicaragua. They also told me I had to fill some forms out online which I was trying to do on my ride to Choluteca. I got to the address where google maps said to go and of course i’m in the outskirts of the city on a dirt road with no hospital anywhere. I called Tom and he gave me another address to a clinic which was luckily about 3 minutes away. I ran inside, gave the guy my passport and paid $97 USD for the rapid test. They told me it would take 2 hours for the results. Ugh.

This means I won’t be getting to Managua till about 11pm and I havent eaten any real food all day long other than the small breakfast. So I decided to rearrange my backpack and all my money, send a few people some messages and catch up on the blog. I’m sitting here right now waiting for the results to come back and it’s 4:25PM. I’ve been here maybe an hour now. I have an hour till sunset. I’ll probably ride to the border at dark, deal with that bullshit for an hour in the dark and then I have a 3 hour ride to Managua. Tom invited me to their campsite tonight which I might just take him up on. Everything happens for a reason. I’m glad Tom was able to hook me up with this clinic I’m at right now and offer me a place with them tonight.

There are 5 of them traveling in the Jeep from Canada to Argentina. The jeep is pretty cool. I wish I took some pics of it but we were in a mad dash at the crossing and now here I am. Time to put the laptop away and see if there’s anywhere I can get food with a credit card since I don’t have any Honduran money.

Well it’s the next morning and I figured I would come to relive this nightmare of a night. I’m going to start with one of the worst nights of my entire life. I got my Covid test back and realized I needed to make three copies of the test. But everything was nearly closing here and there isn’t much here anyway. I found a small shop that printed things and when I went to photocopy it the copier broke. Just my luck. It was dark and I was freaking out about riding to my hostel at night so I said I’ll figure it out at the border. As i’m pulling up to the border I realized I left the test in the copier an hour back. Luckily I take a picture of every piece of paper I get on this trip in case it gets stolen or lost.

I pulled up to the border crossing at 6:30 and headed over to the covid lady. I put my friend Alex on the phone with her to explain the situation and show her a picture of the results. She didn’t like it. After he talked to her for 10 minutes she said ok she will take the copyn from my phone. But I also will need a receipt showing that I paid for the PCR test. Are you fucking kidding me? I pulled out my credit card statement showing her the $97 bill from laboratory clinics. She didn’t care. I’m about to lose my shit now. As I go outside to take a few breaths a guy comes up to me and says slip her a $40 and she will take the photocopy and no receipt. Oh I see what’s going on here. Great. Not only did I pay $97 for a test, now I have to pay her $40 because she wants to see a receipt which she knows no one keeps. Bitch. I just needed to print two color copies of the test. 30 minutes later I came back with one after paying some people off at the Honduras border to make me two copies.

So now that’s all done. Next. Her partner has to see a document I filled out online. Great here you go man. I showed him the email receipt of the form I filled out. There was no option to print anything. They just emailed me two important numbers I had to show the border agents. This guy is saying I have to have a photocopy of that too but this document does not exist. Here’s the bullshit where they ask you for things that don’t exist. Its late, hot, im fucking tired and im pissed. So Alex talks to this guy for ten minutes and if I pay him $40 I get to pass through. Of course. Asshole

Oh but wait there’s more! After I pay him off there’s another guy at the other side of the border here that wants to see the same form printed out and if it’s not printed out I can’t get through. BUT! This guy knows him so he’s going to take another $40 from me to give him later since I can’t give it to his buddy because there’s cameras over there. He takes a picture of my passport and sends it to his buddy that will be waiting for me overthere. He knows who I am now. Yeah fucking right. Some guy gives me a piece of paper and points in a direction. Now there was a line of 18 Wheelers miles and miles long pulling into the crossing so the whole place is covered with them to the point where I don’t even have room to pass next to them on my bike. So I started jumping curbs and riding on grass and mud to go looking for it. 20 Minutes later I end up at the customs building just as the power goes out to the whole compound. Now I wait 30 minutes in a line of 30 people with nothing happening. To top it off it starts to rain down outside and it’s 85 degrees out still. 100% humidity probably. Im covered in sweat.Finally i get to the window an hour later and the woman is pissed. She brings me over to the other side.

A guy comes out and asks me a few questions. He wants to see this form. I show him the email and he is pissed. Says I need a hard copy. Fuck you too. I explained to him for ten minutes what my process was filling it out and I got an email and that’s that there’s nothing else. He takes my passport and disappears for 30 minutes. I’m starting to lose all my patience. I’m not getting out of here for a while at this rate and I really don’t want to ride in the rain at midnight to my hostel. I’ve been up since 6AM.

The man comes back out. Sits down in front of me at the booth and says “Paracaidismo”. It means skydiving in spanish. I gave him a very funny look that just said how the hell do you know I skydive. I didn’t say a word and I couldn’t believe the next words that came out of his mouth. “World Trade Center”. Fuck

How the hell did they find that out and is this why they disappeared for 30 minutes. He asked me a bunch of questions and I was praying they wouldn’t deny my entry because of those shenanigans. He disappeared for another 90 minutes maybe. It’s 9:30 at this point. He comes back with all the paperwork. I’m all set. I just have to go to customs now to get my bike paperwork filled out. I go to customs and she looks at the papers and starts yelling and pointing to get my bike inspected. I pull my bike around and this bich is locking the door since her night is over. She pulled this bullshit on me to not have to get me through so she can go home a few minutes early. I call Alex back up and he talks to another guy who barely wants to talk to him and I get linked up with a guy who speaks a tiny bit of english. I followed him to the next booth. We walk up, I put my motorcycle helmet down on the ground to get my paperwork out and this guy gets up out of his chair and does the same shit the last woman just did. He starts grabbing all his shit, turns the lights off, locks the door and starts to walk out to go home. My new friend chases him down yelling. We went to another booth. We wait for 30 minutes and this guy says we need to pay him off. You gotta be kidding me. We pay him about $20.

Now all we need is to go wait at our cars and bikes for a guy to come out and inspect the luggage we have, he will give us a stamp and we will get to leave. We go to our bike and car and theres a woman who just did an inspection but shes pretty much like yeah fuck off im going home to. She walks off into the darkness and is gone. My dude is pissed. We waited for an hour. It’s now 10:30. We keep waiting. 11pm. My dude walks off with my paperwork and comes back in a bit saying he’s all good to go and I owe him $10 for paying another guy off which I believed. He was with a woman and she has a daughter in LAW and we chatted on the phone for a bit. They were all trying to help me.  Buttttttttttt. But I had to go back to the booth we were just at and get one more stamp. He said he will wait for me to get back to protect my bike. Lovely!

I go to the booth and people keep skipping in front of me and trucks are pulling up. Finally he takes my papers and starts my stuff. I’m texting the guy’s daughter who just helped me saying I’m almost done. And then my luck starts. The guy was uploading pictures of my info with a scanner and now the scanner broke. FUCK

A huge border crossing with one scanner. About 30 minutes later he fixes it, stamps my paper and says I’m good. I don’t know if i should pull my knife out and stab this guy or i should give him a hug. I ran full speed back to my bike since my friends were there waiting an extra 45 minutes or so for me. I get there relieved. I say thank you 100 times and go to my bike to leave. My motorcycle helmet is gone. NOOOOOOOO

I searched the whole building and thought I may have left it at the first booth we went to. I ran around in jeans in the rain and 80 degree heat and humidity  for 10 minutes scouring the place for my helmet. No luck. I want to cry. I just lost $1000 and I’m two hours from a close city where I might even be able to buy one and it’s midnight. 10 minutes later the girl calls me and says her mom found the helmet. I left it at the booth and one of the few honest people at this border crossing saw my helmet and gave it to some women to hold onto. I almost started to cry when she gave me my helmet back. I got so stressed out dealing with this border for ten hours I can’t think straight anymore. And now I have to ride two hours in the dark rain.

Lessons learned. No more border crossings after 1pm. Make sure I have all the right papers above and beyond what I can do for it. And just don’t get caught up being there late. I get on my bike covered in sweat and start my ride. I didn’t even put my jacket on. I rode into the night and stopped for fuel real quick. There were storms everywhere with a light drizzle hitting me. I couldn’t close my visor because it was filthy. Seeing the mountains lighting up surrounding me with a lightning strike every 30 seconds was absolutely beautiful. I put my music on and this is my time to shine. Whenever people are up for a long amount of time and exhausted, that’s where I come through to pull my friends through. But i’m alone and all i have to do is ride 2 hours after being awake for a while. I got super pumped up. I made it. Two more border crossings to go until I get to Panama. I’m getting so close. I had a nice ride and halfway there I turned down a road and its dirt. Fuck you too Gooogle.

It’s 12:30ish and I’m riding this shit dirt road with tons of sharp rocks everywhere. If I get a flat here I’m going to be miserable. I was just waiting for it. I was on this dirt road for about 7 miles. halfway down the dirt road I see two kids walking and they put up 4 middle fingers. Well shit they’re pretty friendly. I really hope I don’t break down here.

I get out of the dirt road and back on a paved road. It’s raining a bit more now but it was paved and i didnt care. I made it to my hostel at 12:50. I shaved 35 minutes off my 2 hour ride I think. The hostel is waiting for me and they let me pull my bike inside. I was begging for food but they had none. I boiled some water in their kitchen and heated up and MRE I have for emergencies. I think this qualifies as one. I made a Mexican rice, chicken and bean MRE and I couldn’t believe it but it was delicious. I ate my food and drank a bunch of water. I took a weed edible, half a xanax and I was off to bed. I keep certain drugs with me for the trip. Percocet or Oxy in case I get into an accident in the middle of nowhere and have to walk on a broken leg for help or to ease my comfort while waiting for rescue. I carry maybe 20 Xanax to help calm my anxiety down if I get into a really really stressful situation. And a ton of weed edibles to help me sleep after a night like this. I was out cold even though it was 77 Degrees and I was indoors with only a fan.

Yak you were 100% right. This trip will test me to my extremes mentally and somewhat physically. I was thankful thinking of your text a few weeks ago and now I see what you were talking about. <3

Sunrise at El Zonte

El Sav to Honduras border crossing. This was a quick one.

Trying to enter Honduras. This was fairly smooth.

Waiting for hours and hours to get into Nicaragua. I should have noticed my helmet missing but i didnt.

The dirt road google took me down at midnight after i got into Nicaragua.

Hostel was nice enough to let me keep my bike inside in Leon.

My first MRE meal i ever had and i was blown away with how good it was.

Sweating just standing in line trying to exit Honduras.

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Day 55

Day 55 12/20/2021

Odometer   29,665 – 29,820—– 155  Miles (7115 Miles Total)

Antigua, Guatemala – El Zonte, El Salvador

Finally another country! I woke up pretty early and hit the road. I had plans to ride to Honduras south of El Salvador when I hit the road. I didnt have time to look for a place to sleep at my next destination last night so I figured I would look while riding today. My gps said I would get to the Honduras/ El Salvador border by 4pm and thats not including the border crossing hold ups which would be at least an hour at when I leave Guatemala into El Salvador. The El Salvador/Honduras crossing will be a huge pain in the ass from what Yak said on his last trip here 5 years ago.

I started scouring Airbnb and Hostelworld for a place to sleep in Honduras and there was really nothing anywhere. Shit! I typed in a little spot in Nicaragua and it was too far for my liking for the day. No way I would make it there before sunset and I don’t want to be riding in the dark here. So I gave yak a call and talked to him for a bit about what to do. He said I really needed to go to this little beach town in El Salvador called El Zonte. My original plan was to go here but I really need to make up time to get to Panama by New Years to get my ass to Colombia. I said screw it since there was no where for me to sleep near the next two border crossings. I found a nice Airbnb on the beach here in El Zonte and it was 2 hours drive after I would cross the border into El Sav. Perfect. I can catch up on the blog and relax here before the long ride tomorrow.

I got to the border crossing and tried to prepare myself for what might be hell. I did all the paperwork for the motorcycle and myself in the Guatemalan side and started riding to the El Salvador side. I got there, showed my bike release papers from Guatemala and parked my bike. I got my passport stamped and then went down a few more doors for the customs part to get my bike in. I waited in front of a window for about 15-20 minutes while the border agents were playing with a volleyball in the office. They clearly saw me and im waiting there like an idiot with my papers in my hands. I was getting annoyed. Come on people stop playing games and get to work you have a pretty important job here. Well after about 20 minutes they gave me a piece of paper to fill out in Spanish. That was fun to figure out all the info I had to type in. Once I was done with that I waited around another 15 minutes, walked the agent out to my bike to show him the VIN number and then he went back to his computer for a while. He came back with the papers and said I was clear to go. It only took maybe an hour to 1:15 for the whole process on both sides. Not bad.

I hit the road in El Salvador to get to the beach and it said 2 hours to the beach. The roads were very nice and clean which was lovely because someone I met a few weeks ago said they did the crossing and the roads were terrible. I wonder which road he took. I turned my 2 hour ride into 1:15 since I was riding pretty hard. Tomorrows ride might be quick since I keep burning time off the ETA like you couldn’t believe.

I got to the Airbnb, checked in and unloaded. I had an outdoor room on the beach with a mosquito net and a view of the ocean. not bad for $20 for the night. I went a few hundred feet down the beach and jumped in for a swim and then sat down for lunch.  These people take their sweet ass time! Took 2 hours from the time I sat down until I got my change back to pay the bill. All I got was a burger and some seafood with rice. Oh well im in no rush. I went back to the Airbnb to work on the blog, lay in the hammock and went for a walk after. Got some ice cream at a shop, got a smoothie at the bar at my Airbnb and then went for a swim for 3o minutes since I felt very bloated and fat from the smoothie and ice cream!

Yak sent me a picture of the area from when he was here 15 years ago and I showed it to the owner of my Airbnb and he remembered the dogs name from the place where Yak stayed and even remembered one of the guys in the photos. Small world!

Leaving Antigua this morning!

Watching Fuego explode as I drove my on my way out of Antigua! What a lucky sight that was!

The twisty roads on a small mountain next to the ocean on my way to El Zonte

Eating lunch on the beach in El Zonte

The view from my Airbnb updating the site!

Sunset at El Zonte

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Day 54

Day 54 12/19/2021

Odometer  29,600  – 29,665—– 65  Miles (6960 Miles Total)

El Paredon, Guatemala – Antigua, Guatemala

I woke up this morning after a lovely night of sleep at 6am and realized I left my motorcycle jacket and helmet outside on the lawn next to the reception when I checked yesterday. I ran out there in a hurry and thankfully it was still there. I can’t believe im making dumb mistakes like this. My jacket was $1700 and my helmet was $1000. If someone stole that I would have cried. I need to focus a bit more! I sat there and watched the view of the sunrise lighting over the pool at the hostel. It was breathtaking. I wanted to stick around here for most of the day but not pay for another night. Michelle said I could hang with them and leave my bike at their place with my bags in her car so no one would touch it. Perfect. 

I would head back to Antigua later on in the day, crash there for the night and then head to El Salvador tomorrow since I didn’t want to deal with all of that leaving El Paredon so late. We went out for smoothies in the morning, lounged around most of the morning and then rented kayaks. We went out for about an hour kayaking through the mangroves which turned into a dead end. The water was smelly and brown so it wasn’t too much fun.

On the way back to their compound to shower we stopped by a piece of land Michelle was selling. She’s a real estate agent in Antigua  and she has this land up for sale for someone. We stopped by to check it out and it looked pretty good. It would need to get cleared out completely and start fresh. The lot was about $60,000 but she says the owner would probably take $45,000 cash. I really want to get it but it on the other side of the main road and a bit small. Ill need some time to think about it but I would love to get it and build my own little house on it and just chill out here for the winters.

We all showered up after kayaking and all parted ways. I had a nice ride back to Antigua, got a place to crash and passed out. I wanted to get another private salsa class but they were all booked up for the night. Bummer. It was quite a relaxing and boring day which I was very happy with. I’m gonna have a few long days ahead of me on the bike so this was a nice time to relax and recover.

Sunrise at the hostel! WOW

Kayaking with my new friends in the mangroves

 

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Day 53

Day 53 12/18/2021

Odometer  29,535 – 29,600 —– 65  Miles (6895 Miles Total)

Antigua, Guatemala – El Paredon, Guatemala

I got up today expecting to be heading to El Salvador but I woke up this morning to texts from a few friends saying come to El Paredon. I didn’t hear great things about the place other than it was a black sand beach and the water wasn’t very clear. I sat on it for a few minutes and said fuck it im going! Loren was there, a couple I met on the hike to the volcano was there and Michelle was going as well that I met last night. I loaded up the bike at about 10am after I got breakfast at the hostel and started the ride over. It was about 1:45 away. Not bad at all. I got there and mostly everything was sold out so I ended up getting a private room for a whopping $60. God damn that’s more than I spent on hostels in the last 4 nights. It’s getting close to Christmas and as expected everything will be booked up if I’m traveling on a whim and don’t plan anything. 

This place was gorgeous. It was an up and coming Tulum. There was a small town on the beach. All sand roads, nothing even paved yet. My hostel had a huge swimming pool, gym on the beach, a huge bar and restaurant. This was all literally on the beach if I didn’t mention it already. I wish I found this place sooner and was paying $10 a night for a bed in a shared room like mostly everyone else. I got there and put my bike in the parking lot of the hostel. I saw Loren while walking around and the couple from the hike I met. One of them got bit by a dog and they were heading over to a doctor to have it looked at and to get a rabies shot. I couldn’t find anything else that was cheaper In the whole town. I checked probably 15 places and had no luck. I gave up. I went to the hostel and booked the room for $60. I went out to the sand and for the first time in my life I couldn’t walk on it. The black sand was so hot it would probably start to cook your feet if you tried to walk on it. 

I got a few smoothies at the bar and Michelle showed up. We hung out for a bit and she told me her friends own a huge lot of land next door to where I was staying with a bunch of Airbnb houses and a few restaurants. They were having a Christmas party there with a huge pig roast. We hung out on the beach for about 25 minutes and then decided to go to the Christmas party because the sun was just incredibly strong on the black sand. I met her friends that owned the place. I’m usually the one getting told that people are jealous of my life. I think for the first time I said it and it was to her friends. Her buddy bought this lot of land ten years ago for dirt cheap. He literally owned an  entire block and started to build the Airbnb houses on it with the restaurants. He was pretty much on the beach as well. So jealous. They were living the dream. We hung out and ate some freshly cooked pork tacos and had some fancy drink with beer.( I already forgot the name) One of the bars on their land made this drink. It was beer mixed with a mango smoothie, some other things and some spicy stuff on the rim of the cup. Omg so delicious. 

We hung out there listening to live music for a few hours trying to stay out of the heat. As the sun was setting her buddy threw me a surfboard and said lets catch some waves. Oh this should be interesting, he thinks I surf! So we headed out to the water and I didnt have a shirt on. I didn’t want my chest to be all scraped up from the wax on the board so I was just going to go out for a bit. I did really well getting out past the huge waves with the 6’ board which I was impressed with especially after yesterday’s workout. Once I got out there I rested up a bit, caught a wave, actually stood up on the board until the speed bled off and I laid back down. I was proud of that! I hung out with the girls on the beach and took some pictures of them while he surfed until it was nearly dark. It was a full moon and it was their anniversary! 

We went out for some food afterwards, went back to their property to hang out with them for a bit and shortly after we all called it a night. We were exhausted from the heat and the sun from the day. I took a dip in the pool for 15 minutes after getting back to my hostel and couldn’t believe it was December 18th and I was swimming in a pool at night time and I was not even the slightest bit cold. I’m definitely doing this right. 

 

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Day 52

Day 52 12/17/2021

Odometer  29, 520 – 29,535—– 15  Miles (6845 Miles Total)

Antigua, Guatemala

So my hostel has bunk beds stacked up 3 beds high. My bed is on the top and its about 15’ off the ground. Maybe higher. So at about 6am today some guy who tried to climb out of his bunk completely blew it and fell. Jesus Christ the noise he made when he hit the ground. I opened up my curtain to make sure he didn’t land on my motorcycle helmet and went back to bed! Poor guy. He woke the whole room up but he was fine.

I got up at about 8:30 and took a shower. Someone told me about a Crossfit gym hidden behind this restaurant so I went to the 9am class. It was a nice outdoor set up and cheap at 50 Q’s. The workout was god damn brutal and I nearly finished except for the last run. I’ll post a picture of the workout. I met a guy there who is from Colorado and he builds custom bikes in Antigua. It was a nice morning there other than almost being killed in that class.

I had nothing else planned today other than possibly taking a private salsa class later on today. My main goal was to edit all the photos from the last few days and write up the blog. If I was lucky enough I would be able to email everyone from the hike all the pictures I took and maybe even upload all the photos to the website. So I went on my hunt. I got breakfast at a nice place this morning. This city is really expensive and it’s getting annoying. The wifi there barely worked. I bounced around to 4 different cafes buying food and smoothies to be able to use their non-existent wifi. No luck all day long. 

While I was at one of the cafes I was in the bathroom about to wash my hands and someone tried to open the door. Not once but like 5 times and then she lost her shit. She was screaming and cursing and kicking the door. I got a bit nervous thinking what the fuck is wrong with you. There’s obviously someone in the bathroom so chill out. She did this for about 20 seconds. I thought she was going to knock the door down. When I walked outside I gave her a nasty look and she was facing the wall on her phone assuming she was embarrassed. When I sat back down to eat my food she walked out a minute later and sat down with a guy. It looked like their first date. I would have loved to warn this guy about this girl but I didn’t know him. I found the situation pretty funny so I posted a picture of them eating and what had just happened.

I got tired, went back to the hostel and decided to lay in the hammock in the sun next to the pool for a few hours and take a nap. I didn’t get to nap much but it was lovely just resting there for a few hours after the last 2-3 days of hard climbing and partying. 

After getting an early dinner and walking around the city for a while I dropped into the salsa school to ask some questions. A few minutes later I had a booking at 8pm for a one hour lesson. Exciting. I went back to lay down at the hostel for a bit and needed to go out to get some more money since I was out. I walked around for an hour with no luck finding an ATM that would work and then right before I was about to give up I found one. On my walk looking for ATM’s I ran into Jasper and he made two new friends. They were going out for dinner and then off to some parties later on. I told him I’d give him a call when I was done with the salsa class. So much fun to just run into people I know now in all these cities I’m going to! It’s like I’m a local here!

I got to the salsa school and Victor would be teaching me all the moves. He had me show him what I knew and it was terrible so we started from scratch. We progressed pretty quickly and he taught me how to lead. He taught me how to show my partner what we were doing next without talking. So much goes into it and it was cool to learn. I was hooked. I’m definitely going to be doing 2-3 salsa classes a week and when I go to Colombia I’ll be staying in cities for much longer then I have been here so I can take more classes. I would have never thought I’d be pumped up for salsa classes. I think I like the challenge of learning something new physically. I haven’t been stimulated that way in a long time. I’m bummed I didn’t do this the first night I was here. I had an absolute blast. I’m pretty sure I would have taken 3 classes a day while I was here. 

On my walk back near the hostel Jasper told me he was at my hostel having drinks with people so I headed back there. On my walk back the girl I met drinking tea messaged me on Instagram and told me she knew that guy the girl was with. Dustin was his name and she was going to tell him! Hah. When I got to Antigua this girl found me on IG and followed me. I was checking out her profile and noticed she posted a workout at a Crossfit gym in town. So I messaged her asking her where it was, that’s how I found out about the gym. I blame her for almost dying there this morning. Anyway, she also messaged me and told me she knows Dustin. He owns a big bar/club near the center and everyone knows him. She said she was going to tell him too. OMG

So I met up with Jasper and a few of his friends and we had some good chats about the typical political bullshit which was interesting to hear everyone’s opinions. I had some dinner and answered a lot of questions about my bike trip. We all decided to go out to an illegal club that was open later than the curfew here and as we were walking over Michelle who told me about the gym told me to go to a place called Vargas. It was the bar/club Dustin owned and was DJing at. I told the guys and we walked over there. She found me, I made a new friend and she told me what Dustin said about the date and he had a weird feeling about her and that was the end of that! Good on him! 

I went down to the dance floor to see Jasper plus the new friends we made and on my way down who do I run into? Jack and Charlie the guys from the UK I met at the Lake last week who we also partied with a few nights in a row. God damn they lost their shit with joy when they saw me. Their energy was out of the roof! We all partied, found out we’re all heading to El Salvador and we will meet up there as well! We danced and danced and danced. I was actually having a great time at a dance place with all kinds of music blending in like everyone else still feeling a bit out of place but I was there and I was doing it. I wasn’t even drunk!

At the end of the night when they were closing I got to meet Dustin and his business partner who were hilarious and he was cracking up at my post about the girl who lost her shit. That was that and the night was over. 

Victor my salsa instructor

 

 

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Day 51

Day 51 12/16/2021

Odometer  29, 520 —– 0  Miles (6830 Miles Total)

Antigua, Guatemala

A miserable night for sure it was. The alarm clocks went off at 3:45am to hike to the top of Acatenango to see the sunrise. When we heard it was too cloudy for the hike I was so relieved I wouldn’t be missing it. I laid right back down in bed feeling like death from last night’s shenanigans. Loren got out of her sleeping bag at about 6:30 to get some food and everyone was eating. I probably looked like I was dead. My feet were hanging out of the tent door, I was laying on my sleeping bag fully clothed looking like I was unconscious. The guides came over to me after me laying there for an hour offering breakfast and I declined. The third time Gerson came by and asked me if I was ok. I told him I had a headache. He popped out a white round pill and gave it to me. 45 minutes later we were all packing up to leave and start heading down. It was still cold and cloudy. I was thrilled to get back down to a lower elevation. I don’t know what killed me up there but I’m assuming it was the dehydration and lack of food. I’d be surprised if it was the altitude because I’ve spent so much time up there at work and been on mountains hiking a lot before I never got that. I’m praying it wasn’t the altitude but I’ll find out when I get to Peru and Chile when I have to sleep on mountains at 15,000- 16,000′.

We all started to climb down. I changed into my shorts and t-shirt since it was getting warm from walking. The guides said it was a 2.5 hour walk down. I was just waiting for my knee to start throbbing with sharp pain once we got done with the traverse and started to descend. We started a steep descent and minute by minute nothing hurt yet. I couldn’t believe it. I drank a bunch of water and started to be myself again. I felt alive. I was warm, my head stopped hurting and I wasn’t nauseous anymore. I was very happy. We had a nice walk down in the wet dirt which no one slipped on. We got down to the break area where we bought some orange juice and snacks. We took a group photo and waited for the bus to come. Once we heard the bus was coming we finished the 15 minute walk down. I saw one of the guides carrying a bunch of gear so I walked up behind him and grabbed a few bags out of his hands and started walking. He told me to give it back to him and I said nope I have two free hands so this is mine now. Obviously with hand gestures and smiles because I still can’t speak Spanish. He was pretty happy. We got down and I took my picture with Gerson.

We all jumped on the bus thrilled to be back to reality and warm. We went back to the supply house and dropped off all the gear we rented and got some smoothies from the tour company. We all jumped on the bus and headed back to Antigua to get dropped off at our hostels. I grabbed my bike from the office, loaded it up and rode down a few blocks to my new hostel. I checked in, dropped off some laundry and ran out for some food since I haven’t eaten much lately. Loren that I met on the bus mentioned there was a salsa class at Las Palmas at 7:15 so a few of us were planning on going there. God damn it I need to let my body rest but I need to work on my dancing skills which are non existent. I got a nice big lunch and worked on the blog for a bit. I got myself a nice 1 hour long massage right after eating lunch. I washed my Linen shirt in the sink at the hostel hoping it would dry in 2 hours for the dancing. I went out looking for another battery to buy for my Canon camera because it started to die on the mountain and I didnt want to deal with low battery issues on another big picture perfect moment but I couldn’t find any stores with Canon original batteries.

I went back to the hostel and went up on the roof. I didn’t even know but you can clearly see Fuego so close from the roof and there were some wild cloud formations around it. I took a few pictures and boom it erupted! What a nice surprise! I threw on my bathing suit shorts since that’s all I had left along with my linen shirt and off I went to Las Palmas to embarrass myself.  I caught Jasper on the walk, Loren showed up a minute later, along with a few more people from the tour and some other people from the salsa class the night before. 2 Pisco sours later and I loosened up for sure. We were crushing the class having a great time. Francesco the Italian who loves his phone was recording everyone the whole time and not working on his salsa! We all danced for about 45 minutes and we had a blast.

We got hungry so a few of us left to get some food. We stopped at a pizza place the girls wanted to get food at since they had a special. 1 Pizza with 5 beers. Perfect since there’s 5 of us and two of us didn’t drink beer so someone got extra beers. Francesco and I got into an argument about pizza. He’s from Naples where pizza was invented. I told him when he comes back to New York in the summer I’m taking him to the best pizza joint ever. Paulie Gees in Greenpoint. He put up a good fight and was very skeptical but I showed him some pictures and I could see the wheels spinning in his head. We all headed back to the salsa club. The girl I met at the tea place two nights ago was there and I said hi. She said I owed her a dance. This girl was tearing it up and she didn’t know how bad I was about to embarrass us both. Luckily for me she wasn’t there when I got back. Ximena is from Peru and we met her at the last salsa class and she was at this one as well. She grabbed me and pulled me into the dance floor. If any of my ex girlfriends saw this happen these girls would have murdered her on the spot. The amount of fights I’ve gotten into with them because I didn’t want to dance with them was one too many. And now here I am. I gotta say I blended in pretty well with the crowd, she taught me some spinning moves, I didn’t stop on her feet. She even lied to me and told me I had rhythm and didn’t believe it was my first time doing this. Hah

She boosted me up. I’m gonna try to add salsa classes to my list and do 2 a week for the rest of my trip along with Spanish lessons. Maybe at the end of this trip ill be able to dance and speak some Spanish. We had a great night and danced for a while. Everyone had a blast. It was getting late and the bars and everything was closing down so we all said our goodbyes, split up and went to bed. It was a nice group and I’m bummed that most of them were leaving in the morning. I got back to my hostel, climbed up to my bunk bed about 15′ high and passed out so fast.

Sunset with Fuego and some wild clouds i got to see from the hostel im at.

Some more

We took a break on the way down from the hike. I made a new friend and he was my pillow. This puppy hiked up and down with us.

Me starting to feel like im alive again on the hike down!

Us walking down from Acatenango.

Starting the walk back down in the morning.

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Day 50

Day 50 12/15/2021

Odometer  29, 520 —– 0  Miles (6830 Miles Total)

Antigua, Guatemala

The bus was supposed to pick me up at the office where I booked the tour at 8-8:30am. I packed my stuff up at 6am and went out looking for breakfast. The tour company was going to let me leave my stuff at their office overnight with the bike so I didn’t have to pay for a hostel. Score! I got some breakfast which came with a complimentary coffee and when I asked for milk they charged me 4 Q’s which is about .75 cents. Rolling my eyes here. Some places are weird.

I got to the office way too early and organized all my stuff in my backpack. The tour company packs us lunch and breakfast that we had to carry. They also gave us three liters of water and I brought another liter myself. They said it was going to be freezing up top and very windy so I was hoping my clothes would suffice. I didn’t want to rent any of theirs. I locked the bike up in their office and hopped on the bus when it got to us. I started walking back a few isles and found one next to a girl. She makes eye contact and yells HEY! I give her a funny look and sit down next to her. I’m looking at her and she’s like you don’t remember me huh? I said no I don’t. She said she knows me but doesn’t know where we met. I said Flores? Bingo. She was the girl I met at the hostel bar a week ago with the girl Maja from Israel. What a small world. I couldn’t believe it. I’m loving seeing people I met a few days or weeks ago on my travels it’s such a fun feeling. We took the bus a few minutes away to get all the gear they had for us. All I took from them was gloves and I prayed I would be warm in all my clothes. They already had tents set up on top for us with sleeping bags and all the good stuff.

Everyone had such huge bags and here I was with my little Patagonia backpack and my DSLR. I was super anxious to start this hike since I haven’t been on one in a while and I was freaking out a bit about my knee on the way back down.

So the tour was to hike up Volcano Acatenango and if the weather was good and we got up there soon enough we could pay the guides an extra $200 Q’s to take us to Fuego. 6 Hours of hiking to base camp with another 3 hour round trip hike to Fuego… it sounded tough. I love it, sign me up. The next morning we would hike up to the top of Volcano Acatenango and get some sunrise shots with Fuego erupting. Sounds pretty magical.

We made it to the camp in 4 or 5 hours I can’t remember. I tracked the hike on my Garmin but I forgot to hit start after a few breaks we took for the group so it was off. It was quite the scenery. It was pretty warm at the bottom with insane views of mountains in the distance and slowly it all got wet and turned into a thick jungle. The dirt was wet the whole way up and slippery. There was thick fog pretty much the whole way up. The jungle slowly turned into a pine forest with the elevation. We started our hike at 7500′ I believe and the basecamp was at 11,890′. We all rolled into basecamp and there were three people from the last trip waiting up there because they couldn’t see anything with the clouds. They really wanted to see the volcano erupting. We all got pointed to our tents and I shared mine with Loren that I sat next to on the bus. We all went out to the campfire which wasn’t a relief at all from the cold. They barely put any wood on the fire and it was so smokey we were all nearly crying from the amount of smoke in our lungs and eyes. Every picture of us at the fire was with our eyes closed. The guides made us a few cups of thick Guatemalan hot chocolate which they put a little cinnamon in it and shit it was the best hot chocolate I ever had in my life. We all hung out there chatting, getting smoked out for about 1-2 hours. I thought I heard thunder every now and then but it turned out to be Fuego erupting. I didnt even think about the noise it would make. It was so loud and terrifying.

Suddenly the clouds started to get very thin and we could see Fuego in the distance with a thick layer of clouds around it. A few minutes later all the clouds burned off with everyone cheering and yelling with joy! We got to watch the sunset with Fuego erupting about every 15-20 minutes. We saw some HUGE explosions and the thunder from it miles away was frightening. I need to google how volcanoes work because it’s just insane. As it got very dark out and everyone took hundreds of pictures of the sunset the guides offered to take people to Fuego. It was completely dark and now they wanted to go? I ran right over throwing my money in their hands. I was still wearing my shorts from the climb up so I ran right to my tent and threw my Smartwool thermals on with another shirt under my jacket. I got my camera ready with the tripod, water, rescue beacon, extra socks and I ran right back to the fire. Two other guys wanted to go. Jasper and Adam that I met last night.

I asked the guide how long the hike is and he said 1:30. I asked him again how fast it would be with a fast climber and he replied with 1:15. I said let’s go buddy! Jasper was keeping up and Adam was gone behind us with the other guide since they were slower. We did a 1k’ descent on loose sand between trees. When we got to the bottom we stripped down since we were gonna be sweating. The clouds rolled in about this point. All this effort for nothing. I hoped the clouds would burn off again. We started uphill and we pushed and pushed really hard. I gave the guide and Jasper my water since they had none and we were all dying. We got to the top of the false summit which was as far as we were allowed to go and there were a bunch of people there waiting for eruptions. As soon as we showed up an eruption went off, you could hear the thunder and you could feel the mountain shaking like an earthquake. Humbling. It was probably 35 degrees with 70 mph winds and they were steady with gusts a bit stronger. We sat there for about 15 minutes and when the other group left the guides said let’s go up more. WHATTTT.

So we walked up another 5-10 minutes to the plateau where we could clearly see the volcano top. The winds were blowing so hard and we were freezing just sitting there not moving. We sat down on the edge of the plateau behind some bushes to block us from the wind and the waiting game started. The clouds were in and out for about 20 minutes and then suddenly it cleared! We waited and waited for an eruption. We were all right there just waiting for it to put on a good show but not too big so we wouldn’t die. While we were waiting a group of 5-6 people went even farther than we did and as they were walking back one of them fell with the winds and got hurt we assume. They were on the ground for about 5 minutes. The sound of their clothes flapping in the wind was insane. It sounded like people were skydiving right next to us.

About 1 hour passed and nothing happened. I couldn’t believe it. This thing explodes every 20 minutes and now nothing with us right here. As we were about to leave a small eruption went off and you could see lava flying out of the center running down the side of the volcano. Ill take it. We started the walk back. Me and Gerson split off from the group and literally ran down the hill. He was concerned about my knee because I told him about it when we left camp. I told him rapido!!! We took out our flashlights along with our headlamps and went full sprint 1000′ down Fuego. Gerson is in insane shape doing this everyday for his job and he was having a fucking blast with me running down this thing full speed. He said no one has ever done this with him in as long as he’s been doing tours. He was so pumped up and it put a smile on my face. We didn’t even eat it once which was awesome. We got to the bottom of the descent and stripped down for the climb. I think for the first time in Gersons life he was about to collapse. You could just see the way he was climbing that he was exhausted and had nothing left to give. Hell, I felt the same way. This guy was 46 and he was ripping. I couldn’t start slacking off. I loved every second of it. It was windy as hell and raining on and off. Our shoes and socks were filled with dirt sand and rocks from the descent and ascent.

We got to base camp and I collapsed on a log next to the campfire. Everyone already ate dinner so the other guides were getting dinner ready for us now. It took me a few minutes to catch my breath and I walked to my tent to get my pasta. They were going to be covered with meat sauce. We did all of this at 12k feet. I’ve never pushed myself at this altitude that hard before. Especially on limited sleep and limited food with the wrong clothing. I drank a cup of red wine, hot chocolate, shoved my pasta down my throat with my bread and the smoke was destroying my face from the campfire. Loren was still awake as mostly everyone else went to bed already while we were on the hike. Gerson told her that was the fastest time anyones ever got to Fuego from Base Camp. We set a god damn record by a long shot. We cut the normal time down more than half! We’re idiots. We’re paying for it now. Gerson said he wanted to take a picture with me and post it in the office with my new nickname “rapidos” Haha I loved it! But I am dead now. The other guides started asking me a ton of questions which I didn’t understand. I just told them i’m from New York, my names Marko but they can call me Rapidos! They were all laughing! It was nice to impress these guys that do this for a living. These little things make me happy. Pushing myself to my limits and challenging people as an athlete themselves we are both faster and pushing it. I didn’t want to beat the guy, I just wanted to push him which in return would push me. We would both hit limits we might have never hit before. I love when people are faster than me. It’s such good motivation to be faster, stronger and push harder.

I crawled my way back to bed, shivering and freezing cold. My body shuts down when I push it that hard. I start to get hot and cold sweats and I literally won’t stop shaking for hours. It started  as soon as I got to bed. I don’t even think I was cold, I was just in shock from that hard push. I taught everyone at camp the trick about camping in the cold. Take their bottle of water, boil the water, let it cool off a bit and then put it back in the bottle. An hour before you go to bed you throw the bottle in the bottom of your sleeping bag so when you crawl into bed it’ll be nice and warm. Your feet which usually get cold in a sleeping bag will be nice and toasty. It’s like having a little dog at the bottom of your bag. Loren took my advice and did that trick so she was nice and cozy. I went to bed and I was so uncomfortable I didn’t sleep a minute the whole night. I said i’m not doing the sunrise hike to the top of the volcano we were camping on. I pushed myself too hard today and it was pretty extreme with not much food in me. Time to put the ego aside and step away from the next hike planned. Nothing to prove. I need to take care of my body and thank it for where it has taken me today.

On my walk to getting breakfast before the hike started. Now I know where they get the fresh milk from at the cafes.

The gang starting the hike.

It was a pretty steep first two hours!

This dog found us at the beginning of the hike, climbed the mountain up with us, hung out for a night and climbed back down with us!

Loren that I met in Flores. We ate our lunch together and froze.

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Day 49

Day 49 12/14/2021

Odometer  29,440 – 29, 520 —– 80  Miles (6830 Miles Total)

San Pedro, Guatemala – Antigua, Guatemala

Got up and went for the normal breakfast down the block this morning. I’m happy to be leaving San Pedro and the lake. I feel like I got my fill of it for sure. I packed up all the things and hit the road. Last night I walked the roads through the town I was thinking of taking to the main road instead of letting google maps take me down a really long weird way like last time. So this time I was out in 2 minutes as opposed to 15 to get in.

I decided to just wear my motorcycle jacket and jeans since it was super hot everywhere lately. I screwed that one up. I rode up  through a mini stelvio pass out of the lake and I had a 3 hour ride ahead. I kept climbing and climbing through mountains and next thing I knew I was at 9,000′ and it was 47 degrees with a light rain for about an hour. I didn’t want to pull over and fish my riding gear out of my bags so I just kept on riding. I got a nice view of the lake and the volcanos from up above which I stopped to take some pictures. The ride was lovely except for the weather. Nice twisty roads the whole time and they were nice paved roads as well without too many speed bumps.

Three hours later I was in Antigua. It was at 5,000′ so a bit cooler than normal which I was ok with. I went to check into my hostel and booked it for the wrong night once again and they were fully booked tonight! I rode a few blocks away and found another lovely hostel with room so I booked it. A bit pricey at $20 a night but who cares. I dropped my stuff off, did laundry, took a shower got dressed and went out to explore. I had to run a few errands today so I ran around the city getting some things done. I walked into a place that booked tours and booked an overnight volcano tour for tomorrow morning. I’m so excited about that. I took care of paperwork for insurance for my bike for Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. A bit behind on that one! Thankfully I haven’t gotten pulled over.

I went out for some tea and snacks and met a local there. We chatted for about an hour before we parted ways. I made it back to my hostel and saw a few people sitting around a fireplace in the middle of the outdoor hanging out area. I joined them to work on my website and stay warm by the fire. Adam from Israel, Francesco from Naples, Italy and Mathilde from Montreal. We all started chatting and we found out Mathilde had the same birthday as me yesterday. She invited us all out for a salsa class. Adam couldn’t go out tonight because he was doing the volcano hike tomorrow. I gave him shit for it since I was on the same tour as him we found out but he never came. Francesco Mathilde and I got dressed, finished up our drinks and took a stroll to the salsa class. We were all terrible but it was fun. Next it was time for groups. Mathilde was my partner and I’m glad I didn’t step on her feet even once. We crushed it! We actually looked like we knew what we were doing. Well to us at least because we probably sucked. Few drinks later while looking like idiots her friends showed up and I met Jasper at the bar. He was from the Netherlands. I told him we were all going to a bar and he should join but he declined since he said he was doing a volcano tour tomorrow as well and we found out he was on our tour as well. He’s 29 and I told him I am 35 so I don’t want to hear any bullshit excuses as to why he shouldn’t come out tonight with us. Well it worked and next you know the girls are dancing on the bar while we were all on our 4th tequila shot. What’s up with these goddamn Canadian girls dancing on bars this whole trip? We all had a blast. I danced all night at the bar with the girls and Francesco was having a great time as well. Some guys came up to me yelling and hugging me in the middle of the bar dancing scene and it was the two guys from London traveling with the girl from Georgia I met yesterday at the Lake. It was so nice to see them! They were so pumped up to see me they went wild! Now we had a group of ten or so with everyone together. More tequila shots upon more shots we all got pretty drunk. Jasper called it a night pretty early. What’s up with these young guys nowadays they can’t stay out and party!? I’m so happy i met this group it’s about time i met some fun people after the last group i split up with in Bacalar.

We bounced around to a party hostel and then back to the bar we all went to first. I called it a night with Francesco around 1am and we walked back to the hostel but didnt even get to sleep much. I might be having a rough day tomorrow on the hike.

Picture in front of Lake Atitlan on my way out

Mini Stelvio pass in Guatemala
Lots of fog on my ride to Antigua

My new friends ill be spending time with for the next 3-4 days!

Of course they end up dancing on the bar.

My friends i met at the Lake that found me in the bar in Antigua!

I dunno i was drunk and it was really late!

Lake Attitlan from above with volcanos in the background. I was about to pop into the clouds on the drive to Antigua!

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Day 48

Day 48 12/13/2021

Odometer   29,440 —– 0 Miles (6750 Miles Total)

San Pedro, Guatemala

 

Another birthday and another cool place to celebrate it. 35 Years old this morning.

I got up today, took a shower and went out to a little Italian cafe the Italian girl recommended that checked me into my hostel yesterday. I stuffed my face like a pig. Two croissants with eggs bacon and pesto and a croissant with Nutella topped with a hot chocolate. Great way to start off my birthday. I hung out at the cafe for a bit and worked on the website but the wifi was too slow to upload any pictures.

I got back to my hostel, packed up and jumped on the boat to get to San Marcos for the day. The winds were pretty strong today and the water was very choppy. You could tell  by seating decisions who has never been on a boat too much in their life. The people in the front of the boat thought they got a good slot but 2 minutes after the boat left the dock they were getting demolished by the waves and the boat pounding into them. I was giggling from the back taking videos of them!
I got to San Marcos and headed right back to the little park I was at yesterday with the dock to jump off. I met two guys from London and a girl from Atlanta, Georgia. My plan was to just lay in the sun all day long and jump off the 35’ dock a bunch. That’s all. I got some good pictures of people jumping off the dock, the guys from London got some good shots of me jumping off as well. Finally some more pictures of me! I caught up on some reading since I haven’t done much of it on this trip yet. After about 5 hours of laying on the rocks like a lizard I went out for some of that hippy vegan food and a smoothie which was delicious.

I have a Spanish lesson at 6:30 tonight and I’m gonna get some street food tonight after that. I decided to leave San Pedro a day early and lose my last night I booked without a refund. I’m going to head to Antigua tomorrow which I booked for a night. Going to do 2-3 hikes there. One of them is a cool looking large hand off the side of a mountain over Antigua, the other two are the Fuego Volcano and another volcano next to it. Should be fun as long as the volcano doesn’t have a huge eruption! I also forgot to mention that on the ride here from Panajachel the other day I rode through a chamomile farm. The smell hit me instantly and it made me crave some tea. I wish I could have a chamomile farm around my house one day. The smell is delicious.
While laying on the rocks today I thought about my birthday. I’m very thankful for everything I have done and seen in my life. Extremely thankful for my health which I think is the most important thing you can have. I’m in the best shape of my entire life at 35 which feels great and I hope I only get stronger and healthier. Mental health is at its finest. I’m very thankful to be alive with a positive mindset on life and to be surrounded by so many loving friends. It’s really the best thing ever.

Back to San Pedro after the beach I got some dinner and had another Spanish lesson with Clemente. I learned a lot and have a lot to remember. I hope I can speak Spanish pretty well at the end of my trip. After the lesson I went for a walk around the city up the hill which I haven’t been to yet. I went to go buy a notebook to start writing down all my notes in. As I was walking around buying some fruit the power went out in the whole city for about 15 minutes. It happens quite often supposedly. The streets were so dark and busy it was cool! There’s another party at the hostel and I don’t feel like I belong here. I’m happy I’m leaving tomorrow. I’m very excited for some change. I miss the girls and Yannick! The girls video called me to say happy birthday and it looks like they were having a great time in Oaxaca. I think they’re going to be meeting up with Kimelen after tomorrow in Oaxaca. I’m excited for them and I wish I could be there as well. That was such a nice group I met. I don’t think I’ll be meeting another group like them the rest of the trip.

Breakfast. I miss Mexico the food was just different there!

Oh hi!

35′ dock jump into the lake for my 35th birthday!

How I spent my birthday. Not too bad eh?

The clouds glowing over San Pedro tonight

Clouds on fire over Lake Atitlan Volcano during the sunset tonight!