Day 44

Day 44 12/9/2021

Odometer   28,950 – 29,090—–  140 Miles (6390 Miles Total)

San Ignacio, Belize – Flores, Guatemala

31st country I’ve arrived to VIA Motorcycle

It was so nice to catch up on sleep last night with an AC and not being sick. I got up around 7-7:30 I don’t even remember. Pulled out the laptop and finished uploading and editing about 60 pictures, added them to the blog and took a quick cold shower. The fog outside was so thick this morning so I took my time with the editing waiting for it to burn off. Once it was gone I hopped on my bike and went into the town for breakfast. Found a nice little breakfast joint. I got 2 cups of OJ and a breakfast burrito. I was ready to head up into the mountains to see what I could find. It was about a 1:30 drive mostly on dirt roads. There was tons of construction going on as they were building roads up there. It was pretty bumpy. Near the top the dirt was a hard packed golden color. I said to myself if it rains up here this road must get nasty quick. I was hoping it wasn’t going to rain today. I rode all the way towards the end of the road and stopped at a place called rio on pools. A girl I met at the hostel last night who was from Portugal told me about it. I parked the bike and walked down, I met two girls from Washington as they were just leaving. The river was so clean and there were tons of waterfalls. I climbed under a few and decided to pay my towel out on the rocks and take a nap. I was the only person there the whole time.

After about 90 minutes or so I had a sudden urge to leave. I’m not sitting with that feeling wondering why anymore with anxiety. I packed up and hopped up on the bike, rode up another minute to a viewpoint and took a few pictures. Time to head back towards town and stop at a waterfall on the way that I mapped out a while ago. 3 minutes into my ride back on the long dirt road it started to drizzle. Dark clouds nearby. Shit. I’m in huge trouble if it rains…HUGE.

It starts to come down real hard and I’m soaked in a minute already. The dirt roads turn into ice pretty much and I’m slipping and sliding everywhere. I try to stop for about a minute since i’m riding downhill but my back wheel is just locking up and sliding. I wish I would have aired the tires down when it first started raining. I was riding on the brink of destruction for a minute trying to keep the bike upright. My luck finally ended as the front wheel washed out doing about 10- 15MPH and I ditched the bike, landed on my feet and ran it off almost running into a drainage ditch on the edge of the dirt road. Thanks to everyone at the gym trying to kill me last year I picked the bike right up no problem. Damn that was the easiest that ever felt in my entire life, almost felt like I was picking up a light dirt bike. I got back on and rode a few MPH for a little while slipping and sliding. Eventually I got out of the wet mud without crashing again and started to ride a bit faster.

Big rock waterfall was up next. I made my little hike down to it and went for a swim and took some shots. I was the only person there again. Belie is pretty quiet so far and I like this part of it. When I got back to my bike there was a family getting ready for the hike and they were from Louisiana. I chatted with them for a while about my trip and they were wondering how I can afford all of it. I told them some of my tricks and my lifestyle at home allows me to save a lot and also how I spend so little while I’m on the road. I got back on the road and decided to head back to the hostel. I had an itch to leave Belize now. I’m not wondering why or fighting it. Decisions were made. I stopped for a bite to eat before I got to the hostel. I booked a fake flight out of Guatemala for tomorrow morning for $10 to show the people at the Belize border in case they try to pull the three day rule on me.

So that’s that. I’m happy if I get to leave Belize by 4. I’m 15 minutes from the border and the crossing sounds like it should be easy. Flores where I want to stay tonight is 1:30 from the border so that works with timing. I ran back to the hostel and everything was packed already. I paid for another night since I stayed there this afternoon and I didnt care about the $15 since I had to get rid of my Belize dollars anyway. I would also have a place to stay tonight if they denied me at the border. I loaded up the bike and in 15 minutes I was at the border. Here we go!

Right off the bat I had to pay $40 Belize Dollars for a immigration and tourist fee. Asshats. I paid. Bouncing around between 4 different stations when I got to the important one who decided if I could leave lucky me she was a younger woman. So naturally I flirted with her and told her I had a flight out tomorrow morning because my sister was in the hospital so I had to go home to see her ASAP.  She had to ask her boss if it was ok and it worked. Bye Felicia!

I rode for 100′ and there were trucks going through a car wash for the most part. Disinfecting station. Shit I hope I don’t have to ride through this thing. Nope, they pointed me to the side where it looked like I was barely going to fit on a sidewalk. I stopped to take a picture. As soon as I got out of the little sidewalk thing they told me to stop and boom I was in Guatemala. It was 92 degrees and humid as fuck. Right off the bat I had this little Guatemalan guy showing me everything, great I have a stage 5 clinger who’s going to want money for showing me where everything is 5 seconds after the officials are telling me where to go next. I work my way inside after paying some fees. I have to pay some more fees after waiting 15 minutes for the paperwork. I have to pay 160 Guatemalan dollars. I’m not spelling out the money yet but it starts with a Q. But I have to take a 20 minute walk into town to pay it at a bank and then walk back. The guy starts to walk me down and I kinda lose my shit saying I don’t need his help and I’m not paying him a penny. Now he’s offering to do it for free. Yeah right I’m not falling for that shit ever again.

I turn around and walk back to my bike. the border control guys talking to him in Spanish giving him a look. I know that look. He follows me to my bike and I tell him to get lost. I lock everything up on my bike and talk to a woman at the counter about where the bank is. She shows me. I walk 10 minutes away and it’s not there. I make a call to my buddy Alex who helped me when I get my flat and he talks to some people at a pharmacy. They tell me it’s three blocks down and she offers me her motorcycle to borrow to go down there. So sweet of her but why would I need to borrow her motorcycle to ride three blocks down. 3 blocks turned into ten and now i’m covered in sweat head to toe carrying my leather document bag and my motorcycle jacket. I got into the bank after looking for it for a bit, paid the fee and i’m walking back now. Covered in even more sweat. I just talked to Kimelen and told her I was in Guatemala. She just arrived at San Cristobal. She told me Bart was in Flores, Guatemala. Sweet.  I text Bart and it’s true, he’s in Flores. He says come stay with us at Los Amigos for dinner and drinks. I reply with i’ll see you in 90 minutes!

I’ve only been riding into Guatemala for 5 minutes after the border and right off the bat I know I’m going to love this country. This is country number 31 I’ve arrived at VIA Motorcycle. A bit sad since I hit a few speed bumps and I thought that shit ended in Belize but here we are again. More death bumps. I got to Flores in less than 1 hour. Great timing. I also realized I never got motorcycle insurance. Shit. I’ll have to work on that the next day or two. I usually get it at the border but I was done with the heat so I forgot all about it.

I pulled into Flores right before sunset and checked into their hostel. Not very happy with the sleeping arrangements. They said they have the loft open. Sure, I’ll take it. They walk me over to the middle of the hostel and there’s 6 beds on the floor with a roof overhead with a few fans. it’s 92 degrees here still. Oh well I’ll take it. I’m pretty much camping on a comfy bed outside with mosquitos. I met up with Bart and Jill, chatted with them for a bit. They ran off to pack since they are doing a 5 day jungle tour tomorrow to some ruins that you can either get to with a 5 day jungle hike or a helicopter. Sounds lovely. And there’s no rivers to shower in from what they said. Sounds like my type of trip but I don’t have 5 days to spare right now.

I met some people at the hostel during dinner. A guy from Switzerland, one girl from Israel and one girl from Belgium. We all chatted for a while about all sorts of things and I learned a few things tonight as always chatting with new friends. They wanted to be in the blog so I took a photo of them! The Israeli which is a tattoo artist and I’m pretty sure she will be a big deal one day from the pictures I saw of her work on IG. So much fun meeting new people!

My “loft” in the hostel in Flores. It was actually quite comfortable and not too hot. Although I think I got bit by a few fire ants in the middle of the night.