Day 47 12/12/2021
Odometer 29,390 – 29,440 —– 50 Miles (6750 Miles Total)
Panajachel, Guatemala – San Pedro, Guatemala
I still can’t believe this is all real. When will I wake up from this dream?
I packed up this morning after I took a cold shower. (On Purpose) Rode into the city and dropped my bike off at a car wash Greg recommended me to. $6 and they make it look new. He said to come back in an hour. I went out for breakfast in town to get some good wifi and finish uploading pictures from the last few days. I got back to the bike In an hour and it sure was clean. I was super happy about it except for the layers of tire shine he put on my tires. Sure death in a turn if I didn’t catch it. I lubed up my chain and cleaned up my rims a bit since they missed a few spots. I got back to the Airbnb, loaded up the bike and off I was. Of course right off the bat they closed a street and I had to ride on a dirt road for 2 minutes. Bike was still clean.
I had a 2 hour ride to San Pedro and the weather was perfect. 75 and partly cloudy. So many cute little towns surrounding the lake on the mountains. I shaved off 30 minutes of the ride and I was happy. About 30 minutes away from San Pedro google maps turned me onto a dirt road. Hmmmmm. The dirt road turned to shit and uphill on switchbacks. Why you gotta do me like this google maps…why?
The road stops and it’s blocked off. It turns into a walking trail. Google maps you need to get your shit together. Time to backtrack about 20 minutes and take another route. I didn’t have a good feeling about this dirt road. I feel like I can get robbed here after hearing yesterday’s story. I keep an eye out up ahead and get ready to turn around if someone is waiting with a gun or a knife. There was none of that thankfully. I made it to the main road and made my way to San Pedro on some lovely paved switchbacks. I got in the city 30 minutes later and the road I was supposed to take had 398283 vendors on it so that wasn’t happening. I go around a long way and It looks like I get to park my bike right out front on a very busy street 20 meters from the lake.
This is a very very busy area so I’m excited to check it out. I might not end up staying three days but we’ll see what happens. I should take some Spanish classes while I’m here since it doesn’t look like there’s much to do. I checked and unpacked my stuff. I decided I was going to take a boat over to San Marcos until 5pm and check out this town across the lake filled with wannabe yoga hippies from the states from what I heard. I went out for a little burrito next door and met a Croatian guy. We spoke Serbian for a little bit and it reminded me how rusty it was. I went out front and paid 20Q’s for a round trip boat taxi to San Marcos and back. A quick 7 minute ride across the lake and there I was. I got some ice cream and went to a little outcrop of the town to a park where there’s a dock I’ve wanted to jump off of for a while. Such a lovely little walk on the edge of the lake. I found the dock, stripped down to my shorts and sent it. Looked like it was about 35’ to the water. I didn’t point the toes and my feet stung a bit. I swam in the water for a bit and then got out. Did I ever say how lovely the views are around this lake?
I decided I would look into plans for the next few days. I’m not used to this whole planning thing. I’m thinking I’ll head to Antigua for two or three nights and do an overnight volcano hike, sleep on the volcano and wake up at 4am to summit it and watch the sunrise while volcano Fuego erupts in the background. Just another Tuesday! Well see what happens with that as time gets closer. Panama seems so close and I might actually make it out of Central America by New Years.
I’m not sure I like San Marcos. Too many people coming in here trying real hard to blend in with the locals jacking all the prices up on everything. I found a little bar with live music on the water waiting for a smoothie working on the blog typing this up. I was thinking about going home for Christmas but do I really want to go freeze my ass off. Probably not. I think I’ll stay right here. Sorry friends! 🙂
Things are as good as can be here. Bike is running great. My mental health is incredible. I feel great physically. Very thankful for all of this. It’s nice to sit back and realize how good I have it right now while it’s all running so smoothly.
I took the ferry back to San Pedro at 4pm since the last is at 5 and getting stuck here without a boat ride back would mean 4 different tuk tuk rides back to san pedro. I got my bed and locker, stored all my things and found a Spanish teacher ad on the wall at the hostel. I booked him for an hour and ran out for a quick bite to eat before he came over. The lesson was pretty good. I feel like I learned a lot and I’m happy I get to use it all everyday. I should try to do three lessons a week for the rest of my trip. I wish I started them sooner. After class I sat down and studied as much as I could since I’ll see him tomorrow as well. I went out for a second dinner and some snacks. Then I hung out at the hostel studying while they had karaoke night for a bit before I went to bed.
All fresh and clean for the first time in 50 days.
Stopped on my ride to get a shot of the volcano in the background.
Bike stands out a bit on the street in front of the hostel
Street the hostel is on 20 meters from the lake!
The market is slowly taking over the streets where people drive on.
A view of the lake coming out of the mountains. San Juan is the town below with San Marcos being the two little bump outs in the the lake behind the town you see.
The walkway from the boat dock going into San Marcos. The trees make a little cover over the street almost like a tunnel!
Working on the blog in San Marcos having a pineapple smoothie with the volcanos in the background while listening to live music.
Heaven
