We all had a bit of a sleep in this morning instead of hitting the road at 6:30am. Breakfast was served at 7am and we lingered over fruit and coffee for quite some time, planning the route for the day. We know it was going to be a long day with quite a few kilometers to cover. The intention was to reach as far as possible towards Coban, 250 km away. This does not sound like a great distance, but the route involved a little it of everything - mountain passes, rover crossings, and a great deal of unsealed road. With so many landslides in the region, anything couple hold us up or prevent us from reaching the destination.
We left Pana at about 8am and immediately started to climb up switchback switchback on a climb to 2800m. This was to be the first of a series of mountain passes that offered some of the best riding that we have ever experienced. Ty, Gary and I all consider ourselves very experienced riders who can ride quite hard, but it was quite evident that Matthias has incredible riding skills honed by fifteen hears of conducting tours on these roads. Matthias had commented at breakfast that it was nice to have a small group of guys who can really ride, and he was going to let things fire up a bit. For much of the time up the frost mountain, all of us were struggling to catch him as we belted up the mountain.
Gary had struggled in the first couple of days with the riding, not physically but in technique. He had never really considered counter steering or setting up his cornering approach in advance. He was a good rider, but instinctively. This was causing him some difficulty, particularly as many of the corners are poorly cambered and have pot holes in the middle and soft, broken edges. After a couple of near run-offs, he sat down with us and said 'right - I'm going to address this'. He has worked really hard over the past few days (trial by fire) and now hammers along at pretty much the same pace as the group.
At the top of one of the mountains, it was market day and the town was alive with people. We 'wasted' a thoroughly enjoyable hour wandering amongst the local people as they went about their commerce,
As the day progressed, the road surface deteriorated progressively until we were riding on entirely unsealed roads, often with deep ruts, washaways, and very steep inclines. The pace slowed dramatically as it was never possible to know just what was around a corner. There were a few difficult moments traveling along open cliff edges where the surface was very unstable, and gave me the shakes thinking of Skippers Canyon in New Zealand. This was made worse when we came across an accident with a minivan that had just gone over the edge and plunged up to 100' before the trees managed to stop its plunge. People were milling around the edge of the cliff, but there was no point in anyone trying to rescue them as there was no way that anyone could possibly survive the fall. Given how many people they cram into a vehicle over here in Guatemala, this could have been up to 10 deceased. If you look carefully in the photo below, yo will notice the white van on roadway, look down below this and you will see the smashed minivan lying on it's side about 100m down the cliffside.
On one occasion, we had travelled about 30km past the last turnoff when we rounded a bend to see a really usual panorama in front of us. Literally millions of tons of cliff face had slid down the mountain where the road used to be, leaving the track completely impassable.
Ty amused himself while we planned our next steps by using the word 'come' to chase the local kids. This word means 'I eat' in Spanish, and there were swirls all around as he chased them up and down the track. End result, kids had a ball and Ty nearly had a cardiac.
To be able to continue our journey, we cut down a side track through private property where someone has graded a pathway that we could use. There were some water crossings and 'interesting' turns to negotiate, but we eventually found ourselves back on the main track.
Lunch was a welcome respite at a small restaurant with dubious decor and food to match.
The little town itself was very friendly though, with quite a few people attempting to engage us in conversation. We can get by with the basics, but anything more than that is very difficult. It's not just a language gap either. Matthais has explained that these people tend to not travel very far from their home towns at all, and for us to say we are going to a place three towns away in just one day is almost incomprehensible for them. Most of them have never been more than a few miles from home. Saying that we are going to Honduras and then Nicaragua is akin to saying we are heading off to the moon. This same issue makes getting directions very difficult. People can point in the direction of a request, but have no concept of distance and asking them is pointless.
Having managed to stay dry for the entire day, it was only in the last five km that we got wet. Arriving in the town for the night, the sky was kind enough to open up and wash off some of the dust and filth that had accumulated during the day. We were all very muddy and caked with a fine white powdery dust from the track, so far from being unwanted, the shower allowed us to arrive in some form of decency.
We have now stopped for the night, showered and eaten, and are ready for bed. It will be a deep sleep tonight. We are all quite exhausted from standing up on the foot pegs for much of the day, thigh muscles are aching, and we are looking forward to doing the same thing all over again tomorrow as we head up to Tikal to view the Mayan ruins.
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