Quit our jobs, sold our home and everything in it, gone riding...
- Thread starter Lightcycle
- Start date
I knew lurking in this thread would pay off eventually :agave:
As our boat anchored near the reef, it was cool watching the waves from the ocean abruptly stop seemingly in the middle of nowhere
Neda looks like a superheroine! AquaGirl!
AquaGirl chases after a Nurse Shark. Um, is that really a good idea?
Chasing after a stingray. Is there no animal dangerous enough for AquaGirl not to chase after?!?
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/80.html
We would love to have stayed longer in San Pedro, but when we initially entered the country, we had only applied for a 1-week visa, thinking it was such a small country, how long would we need? The 4 day stopover in the islands was entirely unplanned and as we sat in our hammocks on the beach, we regretted only applying for 1 week. I think it worked out in the end, because we probably would have drained all our travel funds in this one place.
Neda is Belizeing a path through the lush scenery!
After getting off the water taxi back to Belize City, we rode a very short distance to San Ignacio, which is close to the Belize/Guatemala border. We're stopping here for the evening to get all our documents in order for the border crossing. As we walked around the small tourist area (a single street) in San Ignacio, we noticed we were in the company of a lot of foreign tourists. We eavesdropped on a few of them and recognized that subtle Canadian accent that separated them from Americans - also the way Canadians always end their sentences on a higher pitch, as if constantly asking a question.
Belize is very popular with North Americans because the primary language here is English, even though more than half of the population speaks Spanish.
Neda makes a new friend while walking around San Ignacio
There's not much to see in the town of San Ignacio. It's more of a hub for the tours that fan out to see the Tikal ruins or cave tubing or other adventure sports in the area. Since we blew our budget in San Pedro, we're going to skip Tikal and head straight for the Guatemala border the next morning. That, and our 7-day Belizean insurance expires on Feb-29-2013. There is no Feb-29th! So because of an insurance slip-up, we're leaving on the 28th, just to "insure" we don't run into any problems!
Bye-Bye San Igancio, we're going to Guatemala!
Roadside stop to pet a horsie...
Aduana (Customs) at the Belize/Guatemala border
The Guatemala customs border was fairly easy, at least according to Neda as she did all the talking, since she was the Spanish-language expert. I noticed that the border official we were dealing with was originally very cool towards us, almost annoyed at us, until Neda started speaking fluent Espanol. Then instantly he warmed up to us. Actually he warmed up to Neda. He was still annoyed at my amateurish attempts to speak Spanish. So I just shut up and tried to stay out of the way as Neda got us out of Belize and into Guatemala in a heartbeat, telling jokes and charming all the border people in Spanish.
I think this is the primary reason why people report so much difficulty crossing Central American borders - not being able to communicate in the official language.
Ta-DA! We don't need no steenkin helpers, we have a Neda!
Amazing roads in Guatemala
Passing lots of farmland in the north of Guatemala
We're kind of heading south-west, back towards the Mexican border, trying to get as much distance done today. The roads are in way better shape than Belize, and it surprised us a bit. Quite a lot of twists and turns along the way which made us happy as well. There's a bit of a discrepancy between our two GPS maps. Neda's map routes us quite a distance to the south, while mind shaves off 150kms and seems like it's a more direct route.
This is the reason - ferry crossing at Sayaxche
Turns out Neda's map didn't know there was a ferry to take us across at Sayaxche, while mine did. I'm glad we've got two different maps to consult. The ferry was powered by a small outboard motor off towards the side!
10 minutes waiting for the ferry to load, 5 minutes to cross
Riding through Sayaxche
We were running low on Quetzals, since we didn't buy too many from the money changers running around at the border, fearing that they'd rip us off with exorbitant exchange rates. Unfortunately, my bank card doesn't seem to work in Guatemala, something that Kari (fellow Canuck we met in Oaxaca) had warned me about over e-mail. So Neda is officially our money person for this country.
I am feeling a bit like a useless appendage on this leg of our trip. My wife plans the route, finds the hotels, does all the border crossings and gets all the money. All I do is take pictures...
Posing in Sayaxche
It was getting pretty late so we decide to stop in Sayaxche for the evening. We found a casita just outside of town to stay for the night. The owner had twin 10-year-old boys who clamoured around the motorcycles and peppered me with a million and one questions in Spanish. Since Neda was already busy talking to someone else, I had to fend for myself.
Guatemalan Spanish sounds a lot different than the Mexican Spanish I had learned in La Paz, so I had no idea what these two boys were asking me, which frustrated both of them! They brought out their English textbooks but because they only studied family members, were only able to ask if I had a grandmother, a sister, a nephew... Finally Neda finished up and was able to translate for them: they wanted a ride around the block on the back of the bike!
Taking one of the twins out for a spin around the block
So I made them a deal: they could each take turns sitting in the back if they guided me into town and then helped me with my Espanol so I could buy groceries for dinner.
To further thank them, I also bought them some chocolate, so I think I've made some friends for life..
Renaldo and Rivaldo hanging out in our room playing video games on our computers and iPhones.
When their mother called them out to finish their homework, they were very disappointed!
I took each of the twins out separately to the corner store for chocolate. The second twin was very sneaky - while in town, he wanted to extend his ride a bit longer so he made me do 7 left-hand turns in a row... all the while the GPS in front of me was drawing nice overlapping squares all over the map...
We would love to have stayed longer in San Pedro, but when we initially entered the country, we had only applied for a 1-week visa, thinking it was such a small country, how long would we need? The 4 day stopover in the islands was entirely unplanned and as we sat in our hammocks on the beach, we regretted only applying for 1 week. I think it worked out in the end, because we probably would have drained all our travel funds in this one place.
Neda is Belizeing a path through the lush scenery!
After getting off the water taxi back to Belize City, we rode a very short distance to San Ignacio, which is close to the Belize/Guatemala border. We're stopping here for the evening to get all our documents in order for the border crossing. As we walked around the small tourist area (a single street) in San Ignacio, we noticed we were in the company of a lot of foreign tourists. We eavesdropped on a few of them and recognized that subtle Canadian accent that separated them from Americans - also the way Canadians always end their sentences on a higher pitch, as if constantly asking a question.
Belize is very popular with North Americans because the primary language here is English, even though more than half of the population speaks Spanish.
Neda makes a new friend while walking around San Ignacio
There's not much to see in the town of San Ignacio. It's more of a hub for the tours that fan out to see the Tikal ruins or cave tubing or other adventure sports in the area. Since we blew our budget in San Pedro, we're going to skip Tikal and head straight for the Guatemala border the next morning. That, and our 7-day Belizean insurance expires on Feb-29-2013. There is no Feb-29th! So because of an insurance slip-up, we're leaving on the 28th, just to "insure" we don't run into any problems!
Bye-Bye San Igancio, we're going to Guatemala!
Roadside stop to pet a horsie...
Aduana (Customs) at the Belize/Guatemala border
The Guatemala customs border was fairly easy, at least according to Neda as she did all the talking, since she was the Spanish-language expert. I noticed that the border official we were dealing with was originally very cool towards us, almost annoyed at us, until Neda started speaking fluent Espanol. Then instantly he warmed up to us. Actually he warmed up to Neda. He was still annoyed at my amateurish attempts to speak Spanish. So I just shut up and tried to stay out of the way as Neda got us out of Belize and into Guatemala in a heartbeat, telling jokes and charming all the border people in Spanish.
I think this is the primary reason why people report so much difficulty crossing Central American borders - not being able to communicate in the official language.
Ta-DA! We don't need no steenkin helpers, we have a Neda!
Amazing roads in Guatemala
Passing lots of farmland in the north of Guatemala
We're kind of heading south-west, back towards the Mexican border, trying to get as much distance done today. The roads are in way better shape than Belize, and it surprised us a bit. Quite a lot of twists and turns along the way which made us happy as well. There's a bit of a discrepancy between our two GPS maps. Neda's map routes us quite a distance to the south, while mind shaves off 150kms and seems like it's a more direct route.
This is the reason - ferry crossing at Sayaxche
Turns out Neda's map didn't know there was a ferry to take us across at Sayaxche, while mine did. I'm glad we've got two different maps to consult. The ferry was powered by a small outboard motor off towards the side!
10 minutes waiting for the ferry to load, 5 minutes to cross
Riding through Sayaxche
We were running low on Quetzals, since we didn't buy too many from the money changers running around at the border, fearing that they'd rip us off with exorbitant exchange rates. Unfortunately, my bank card doesn't seem to work in Guatemala, something that Kari (fellow Canuck we met in Oaxaca) had warned me about over e-mail. So Neda is officially our money person for this country.
I am feeling a bit like a useless appendage on this leg of our trip. My wife plans the route, finds the hotels, does all the border crossings and gets all the money. All I do is take pictures...
Posing in Sayaxche
It was getting pretty late so we decide to stop in Sayaxche for the evening. We found a casita just outside of town to stay for the night. The owner had twin 10-year-old boys who clamoured around the motorcycles and peppered me with a million and one questions in Spanish. Since Neda was already busy talking to someone else, I had to fend for myself.
Guatemalan Spanish sounds a lot different than the Mexican Spanish I had learned in La Paz, so I had no idea what these two boys were asking me, which frustrated both of them! They brought out their English textbooks but because they only studied family members, were only able to ask if I had a grandmother, a sister, a nephew... Finally Neda finished up and was able to translate for them: they wanted a ride around the block on the back of the bike!
Taking one of the twins out for a spin around the block
So I made them a deal: they could each take turns sitting in the back if they guided me into town and then helped me with my Espanol so I could buy groceries for dinner.
To further thank them, I also bought them some chocolate, so I think I've made some friends for life..
Renaldo and Rivaldo hanging out in our room playing video games on our computers and iPhones.
When their mother called them out to finish their homework, they were very disappointed!
I took each of the twins out separately to the corner store for chocolate. The second twin was very sneaky - while in town, he wanted to extend his ride a bit longer so he made me do 7 left-hand turns in a row... all the while the GPS in front of me was drawing nice overlapping squares all over the map...
Kri$han
Well-known member
Thank you so much (again) for this blog, Gene and Neda. Your travels are truly inspiring.
I've only been riding for 4 seasons now - my wife is a 'fair weather' rider (but hey, at least she rides!), so although I eventually would like to start doing touring trips, camping and traveling via moto, I doubt we would ever take on something as thrilling/challenging/adventurous as what you two are undertaking.
Living vicariously through your blog is a happy medium I can live with (for now)... Safe travels!
I've only been riding for 4 seasons now - my wife is a 'fair weather' rider (but hey, at least she rides!), so although I eventually would like to start doing touring trips, camping and traveling via moto, I doubt we would ever take on something as thrilling/challenging/adventurous as what you two are undertaking.
Living vicariously through your blog is a happy medium I can live with (for now)... Safe travels!
BTW homeless wanderers 
....instead of the high expense of shipping your bikes to Oz I have two machines here that sit idle 9 months of the year ( the best time to come BTW are those 9 months which is unfortunate for me but good for you._
KLR650 would not be a bad ride for your purposes.
The ST1100 certainly not for off the road but you could two up on the paved parts for out and back rides or some such.
I actually have some interest from riders here on the ST1100 use as getting bike to Aus and getting it steam cleaned etc is expensive and a pain. Put it in the think about mix. Meanwhile love the pix and adventures...safe travels
THIS
is too precious......:clap:
This too....
....instead of the high expense of shipping your bikes to Oz I have two machines here that sit idle 9 months of the year ( the best time to come BTW are those 9 months which is unfortunate for me but good for you._KLR650 would not be a bad ride for your purposes.
The ST1100 certainly not for off the road but you could two up on the paved parts for out and back rides or some such.
I actually have some interest from riders here on the ST1100 use as getting bike to Aus and getting it steam cleaned etc is expensive and a pain. Put it in the think about mix. Meanwhile love the pix and adventures...safe travels
THIS
is too precious......:clap:
This too....
Last edited:
killerkeith
Well-known member
I would take this offer.
Hope it works out - need to figure out insurance ( which is cheap here. ) Basic insurance is with the bike but additional riders usually require a bit extra coverage.
My kid is coming out I hope the summer of 2014. Be nice to have a few Canadian riders over here. Qantas has some amazing cheap deals to Brisbane out of New York. GF just signed up for one as we are doing a South West US road trip ( car
) this October.
KK are you referring to you or our wandering homeless riders?
There is a rowdy ST1100 group here to help with routes.
http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=3737.new#new
My kid is coming out I hope the summer of 2014. Be nice to have a few Canadian riders over here. Qantas has some amazing cheap deals to Brisbane out of New York. GF just signed up for one as we are doing a South West US road trip ( car
) this October.KK are you referring to you or our wandering homeless riders?
There is a rowdy ST1100 group here to help with routes.
http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=3737.new#new
killerkeith
Well-known member
Hope it works out - need to figure out insurance ( which is cheap here. ) Basic insurance is with the bike but additional riders usually require a bit extra coverage.
My kid is coming out I hope the summer of 2014. Be nice to have a few Canadian riders over here. Qantas has some amazing cheap deals to Brisbane out of New York. GF just signed up for one as we are doing a South West US road trip ( car
KK are you referring to you or our wandering homeless riders?
There is a rowdy ST1100 group here to help with routes.
http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=3737.new#new
Them. I hope they take you up on it. I'm too busy living off "the man" right now.
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/81.html
We've got a couple of travel days ahead of us, as we are booked for more Spanish school in Quetzeltenango in the south of Guatemala next week. Since we're dropping into the country at the very north end, we've got some mileage to do, so not a lot of pictures off the bike.
We ride through many villages, some tiny, others a bit larger
It's a rainy ride through the northern department (states are called departments in Guatemala) of Peten. The first time we've ridden in rain for months. The land here is very flat but the hills start to turn into mountains, as we enter the central highlands of the southern region.
Vast tracts of farmland everywhere! Guatemala is so lush!
Weather is slightly cooler, so we didn't mind donning our rainsuits
Women carrying bowls of corn on their head. If they were carrying jars, the jars were always painted with stripes
Hilly terrain in the background
Our stop for the evening is in a town called Coban, in the department of Alta Verapaz. Instead of looking for accommodations right away, we ate a late lunch in a restaurant. When we came out to the bikes, Neda exclaimed, "Oh no! One of my dry bags must have fallen off!" Upon inspection, someone had cut the Rok-Straps holding the bag onto the sidecase and made off with a sleeping bag and pillow. Most of the stuff not in our hardcases are just clothing, sleeping bags and camping equipment. Nothing that we'd thought we'd be too bummed out about if they were stolen.
Until it was stolen... It's still a hassle having to replace it, and the Drybag and the Rok-Straps are not as easy to find around here. So we are kind of bummed. I'm thinking about getting a PacSafe to secure our drybags, but I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle of locking and unlocking every night.
The thief hid between Neda's bike and a parked car next to it while he worked away at cutting the straps holding the drybag down. Since we parked on a quiet side-street, they took advantage of the fact that there was little traffic around the area. We are parking in the middle of crowded streets next time!
Some colonial buildings in downtown Coban
After finding a hotel, we walked through the markets in Coban and Neda told me she was half-hoping to find her sleeping bag for sale in one of the stalls!
Walking the wet streets of Coban
Our next riding day to Quetzaltenango was much dryer. Neda's GPS pointed to a 450 km round about way all the way south-east, through Guatemala City and then back west again. My GPS had a much shorter route, although it wasn't on a highway, was only 250 kms! Since we had good luck with my map on the way to Sayaxche, we decided to follow my GPS again.
Stuck in a religious parade in the streets of one of the villages we rode through
Neda's bike looks unbalanced without the right drybag
Not to spend too much time dwelling on the stolen drybag, since we've basically shrugged it off by now - there's a saying, "Don't bring anything that you can't afford to lose". However, there were two drybags on Neda's bike, one containing my sleeping bag and an old ratty pillow that Neda's been trying to get me throw out but I love it cause it's so comfortable. The other contains Neda's sleeping bag and a special orthopedic pillow that you can fill with water. This was given to us by a friend before we left. And of course, this was the one that was stolen...
The road is getting a bit gravelly... But the scenery rocks! I mean, there are a lot of rocks here...
The northern road through the mountains of the central highlands turns from broken asphalt to hard packed gravel, and then mud and loose stone. We have to make it to Quetzaltenango to meet our host family in the evening, and our estimated time of arrival is not looking very realistic given the terrain.
Steep drop on the left as we encounter wide traffic ahead
She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes!
Amazing views! We are glad we took this route instead of the highway, but it's taking a lot of time
"'Let's take the shortcut', he says.
'This'll save us some time', he says..."
Oh, and also mud. Next to sand, our favorite terrain...
Some really tiny villages
And then a bridge. Is that pavement at the other end?
Pavement!
We were going to be a couple of hours late, so at a restaurant in one of the villages we passed through, we borrowed a phone and called the school to let them know. We arrived in Quetzeltenango late in the evening, with the temperatures dropping to single digits. Shivering in the town square, we waited for our host family to arrive and take us to a warm home.
We've got a couple of travel days ahead of us, as we are booked for more Spanish school in Quetzeltenango in the south of Guatemala next week. Since we're dropping into the country at the very north end, we've got some mileage to do, so not a lot of pictures off the bike.
We ride through many villages, some tiny, others a bit larger
It's a rainy ride through the northern department (states are called departments in Guatemala) of Peten. The first time we've ridden in rain for months. The land here is very flat but the hills start to turn into mountains, as we enter the central highlands of the southern region.
Vast tracts of farmland everywhere! Guatemala is so lush!
Weather is slightly cooler, so we didn't mind donning our rainsuits
Women carrying bowls of corn on their head. If they were carrying jars, the jars were always painted with stripes
Hilly terrain in the background
Our stop for the evening is in a town called Coban, in the department of Alta Verapaz. Instead of looking for accommodations right away, we ate a late lunch in a restaurant. When we came out to the bikes, Neda exclaimed, "Oh no! One of my dry bags must have fallen off!" Upon inspection, someone had cut the Rok-Straps holding the bag onto the sidecase and made off with a sleeping bag and pillow. Most of the stuff not in our hardcases are just clothing, sleeping bags and camping equipment. Nothing that we'd thought we'd be too bummed out about if they were stolen.
Until it was stolen... It's still a hassle having to replace it, and the Drybag and the Rok-Straps are not as easy to find around here. So we are kind of bummed. I'm thinking about getting a PacSafe to secure our drybags, but I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle of locking and unlocking every night.
The thief hid between Neda's bike and a parked car next to it while he worked away at cutting the straps holding the drybag down. Since we parked on a quiet side-street, they took advantage of the fact that there was little traffic around the area. We are parking in the middle of crowded streets next time!
Some colonial buildings in downtown Coban
After finding a hotel, we walked through the markets in Coban and Neda told me she was half-hoping to find her sleeping bag for sale in one of the stalls!
Walking the wet streets of Coban
Our next riding day to Quetzaltenango was much dryer. Neda's GPS pointed to a 450 km round about way all the way south-east, through Guatemala City and then back west again. My GPS had a much shorter route, although it wasn't on a highway, was only 250 kms! Since we had good luck with my map on the way to Sayaxche, we decided to follow my GPS again.
Stuck in a religious parade in the streets of one of the villages we rode through
Neda's bike looks unbalanced without the right drybag
Not to spend too much time dwelling on the stolen drybag, since we've basically shrugged it off by now - there's a saying, "Don't bring anything that you can't afford to lose". However, there were two drybags on Neda's bike, one containing my sleeping bag and an old ratty pillow that Neda's been trying to get me throw out but I love it cause it's so comfortable. The other contains Neda's sleeping bag and a special orthopedic pillow that you can fill with water. This was given to us by a friend before we left. And of course, this was the one that was stolen...
The road is getting a bit gravelly... But the scenery rocks! I mean, there are a lot of rocks here...
The northern road through the mountains of the central highlands turns from broken asphalt to hard packed gravel, and then mud and loose stone. We have to make it to Quetzaltenango to meet our host family in the evening, and our estimated time of arrival is not looking very realistic given the terrain.
Steep drop on the left as we encounter wide traffic ahead
She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes!
Amazing views! We are glad we took this route instead of the highway, but it's taking a lot of time
"'Let's take the shortcut', he says.
'This'll save us some time', he says..."
Oh, and also mud. Next to sand, our favorite terrain...
Some really tiny villages
And then a bridge. Is that pavement at the other end?
Pavement!
We were going to be a couple of hours late, so at a restaurant in one of the villages we passed through, we borrowed a phone and called the school to let them know. We arrived in Quetzeltenango late in the evening, with the temperatures dropping to single digits. Shivering in the town square, we waited for our host family to arrive and take us to a warm home.
hehe, give it another 5-10 years, with names like those I'm sure they'll put Guatemala on the map in the World Cup!
Thanks for the offer MacDoc! While it would be preferable to do the tour on our bikes, it's good to have options!
Of course better but cost is huge factor for shipping and prepping.
IF it's a stop on your way to other areas then investing in the shipment cost would be worth it but just for Oz might be best to work out something else and there is time sitting on your hands waiting for the ship to arrive and then the clearance.
There are some seriously cheap flights to Brisbane under $1200 from LAX, and 1500 for New York return.
44 KG baggage each and I'd guess the KLR might be able to take a rack for one set of your panniers.
Brisbane to Cairns is about $129 each one way tho you might have to pay a bit for baggage unless you book directly to Cairns from where ever.
There is a strong riding community here so you'd not lack for routes and likely places to stay. Fuel is expensive and eating out can be. Camping however is extensive and with your skill sets that aspect should be easy.
Even if it's a ways off.... the riders here can at least answer questions and give you stuff to noodle about.
http://ozstoc.com/index.php
There is an Oz section on ADVRider as well.
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=757409&page=9
This is my area but there are various regions covered.
•••••
Once you complete South America ....what's next?
There is an extensive ferry network in the North Atlantic that can get you to Iceland, Faroes, Shetland and Norway with your bikes if you can get to the UK.
Norway is a must do.
IF it's a stop on your way to other areas then investing in the shipment cost would be worth it but just for Oz might be best to work out something else and there is time sitting on your hands waiting for the ship to arrive and then the clearance.
There are some seriously cheap flights to Brisbane under $1200 from LAX, and 1500 for New York return.
44 KG baggage each and I'd guess the KLR might be able to take a rack for one set of your panniers.
Brisbane to Cairns is about $129 each one way tho you might have to pay a bit for baggage unless you book directly to Cairns from where ever.
There is a strong riding community here so you'd not lack for routes and likely places to stay. Fuel is expensive and eating out can be. Camping however is extensive and with your skill sets that aspect should be easy.
Even if it's a ways off.... the riders here can at least answer questions and give you stuff to noodle about.
http://ozstoc.com/index.php
There is an Oz section on ADVRider as well.
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=757409&page=9
This is my area but there are various regions covered.
•••••
Once you complete South America ....what's next?
There is an extensive ferry network in the North Atlantic that can get you to Iceland, Faroes, Shetland and Norway with your bikes if you can get to the UK.
Norway is a must do.
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/82.html
Quetzeltenango is quite a mouthful, but the town is also known as Xela (Shay-La), its indigenous name. It's the second largest city in Guatemala, and it's where we're going to stay for the next week learning more Spanish. As in most Latin American towns, the main square, called Parque Central is where most of the people congregate, day and night, and after classes we take the opportunity to walk around and people-watch.
This church is called Iglesia del Espiritu Santu
Candles vendor outside the church
Intense lunch break at Parque Central
More leisurely lunch break, man's best friend in tow
Neda's Spanish teacher, Susanne. Hours of fun dialog everyday!
Our Spanish school has tables scattered all over the building, with teachers and students paired off one-on-one
Xela is quite a popular place for Spanish classes. Since it's a university town, there's an air of scholarliness everywhere, and it's not uncommon to see coffee shops and diners filled with students deep in study in a textbook. And the tuition fees are a fraction of what we paid in La Paz! We are amazed at the disparity in prices between the two countries. Mexico now seems like a such first-world country compared to Guatemala in terms of the modernity but also how expensive everything was!
Shopping in the market after classes, schoolbooks in hand
Street vendors having a yak and a laugh
Waiting for a bus
A couple of fellow students took us to their favorite Mennonite bakery. Yummy pastries here!
Spanish is still coming very slowly for me. The accent is a little different from Mexico (they say Guatemalans speak a purer form of Spanish, closer to Spain), and some words are bit different here. Plus I'm not a very scholarly person to begin with... I barely scraped by in school and had (still have) trouble sitting still for long periods of time and concentrating on a single task. Neda is the complete opposite and if she had her wish, she'd be a student for life.
What I really enjoyed about our Spanish school was that every evening, they had extra-curricular activities planned. One night we took some Salsa lessons, and another day, Mario, my Spanish teacher, took us sightseeing. We hiked to the top of a lava dome called El Baul, overlooking Xela to get a better view of the city.
The view was nice, but these slides at the top were way more fun! Neda may be a bright Spanish student, but she's a little slow at slides...
March beneath our school windows for International Women's Day
Another trivial comparison between Mexico and Guatemala are the size of the food portions. Both our homestay and restaurant meals were very modest-sized and made our Mexican meals seem Texas-Super-Sized. Because I lack self-control when it comes to eating, I'm very glad that the portions here are normal-size and I can feel myself losing the Taco-Gut I gained in Mexico.
Quetzeltenango is quite a mouthful, but the town is also known as Xela (Shay-La), its indigenous name. It's the second largest city in Guatemala, and it's where we're going to stay for the next week learning more Spanish. As in most Latin American towns, the main square, called Parque Central is where most of the people congregate, day and night, and after classes we take the opportunity to walk around and people-watch.
This church is called Iglesia del Espiritu Santu
Candles vendor outside the church
Intense lunch break at Parque Central
More leisurely lunch break, man's best friend in tow
Neda's Spanish teacher, Susanne. Hours of fun dialog everyday!
Our Spanish school has tables scattered all over the building, with teachers and students paired off one-on-one
Xela is quite a popular place for Spanish classes. Since it's a university town, there's an air of scholarliness everywhere, and it's not uncommon to see coffee shops and diners filled with students deep in study in a textbook. And the tuition fees are a fraction of what we paid in La Paz! We are amazed at the disparity in prices between the two countries. Mexico now seems like a such first-world country compared to Guatemala in terms of the modernity but also how expensive everything was!
Shopping in the market after classes, schoolbooks in hand
Street vendors having a yak and a laugh
Waiting for a bus
A couple of fellow students took us to their favorite Mennonite bakery. Yummy pastries here!
Spanish is still coming very slowly for me. The accent is a little different from Mexico (they say Guatemalans speak a purer form of Spanish, closer to Spain), and some words are bit different here. Plus I'm not a very scholarly person to begin with... I barely scraped by in school and had (still have) trouble sitting still for long periods of time and concentrating on a single task. Neda is the complete opposite and if she had her wish, she'd be a student for life.
What I really enjoyed about our Spanish school was that every evening, they had extra-curricular activities planned. One night we took some Salsa lessons, and another day, Mario, my Spanish teacher, took us sightseeing. We hiked to the top of a lava dome called El Baul, overlooking Xela to get a better view of the city.
The view was nice, but these slides at the top were way more fun! Neda may be a bright Spanish student, but she's a little slow at slides...
March beneath our school windows for International Women's Day
Another trivial comparison between Mexico and Guatemala are the size of the food portions. Both our homestay and restaurant meals were very modest-sized and made our Mexican meals seem Texas-Super-Sized. Because I lack self-control when it comes to eating, I'm very glad that the portions here are normal-size and I can feel myself losing the Taco-Gut I gained in Mexico.
Night-time brings out amazing colours in the old city
We passed by this vendor's stall every day on the way home from school
Buildings around Parque Central
Our school is located inside a beautiful colonial building called Pasaje Enriquez, right in the Parque Central. On the ground floor are several bars and restaurants
On another evening, our school organized a dinner for all the staff and students, and we spent the evening getting to know each other. This was such an amazing opportunity to hear stories very similar to our own. Travellers to Guatemala seem to share that very rare sense of adventure and we all nodded our heads to the familiar questions from back home: "Why on earth do you want to go to Guatemala/Central America/etc?" It was a question that none of us needed to answer, as we already knew.
Birds of a feather, flocking together over dinner
After dinner, we went out to enjoy Xela's very vibrant nightlife
Students and teachers mingle in a nightclub
Peruvian pan flute provides a soundtrack to our lively evening
Brilliant....love the narrative and pics. Brings these smaller countries alive and interesting. :clap:
Tho I might take up your language lessons idea....Aussie speak can be daunting
•••
questions for you ( might have covered them earlier but I'd like to know and I think others as well.
Do you get stiff and sore after a full day's riding??
If so what do you do for it??
What do you consider a full day riding? ( hours not distance )
Do you take scheduled breaks every couple of hours or play by ear?
( I think I don't take enough breaks but then I think I take too many and don't get the distance in )
How are you staying hydrated?
How early do you generally get started on riding days?
How late will you ride? ( assuming you are not stuck riding in the middle of nowhere and have the option of choosing your time )
Do you use a Scala or some such to chat between you. I found again today it really added to the enjoyment.
Thanks
Tho I might take up your language lessons idea....Aussie speak can be daunting
•••
questions for you ( might have covered them earlier but I'd like to know and I think others as well.
Do you get stiff and sore after a full day's riding??
If so what do you do for it??
What do you consider a full day riding? ( hours not distance )
Do you take scheduled breaks every couple of hours or play by ear?
( I think I don't take enough breaks but then I think I take too many and don't get the distance in )
How are you staying hydrated?
How early do you generally get started on riding days?
How late will you ride? ( assuming you are not stuck riding in the middle of nowhere and have the option of choosing your time )
Do you use a Scala or some such to chat between you. I found again today it really added to the enjoyment.
Thanks
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Not sure, it's so far away in terms of time and we're really only focusing on a week or two ahead. There are so many things that can change our plans in an instant, some in our control, others not - we're just taking things as they come.
Yes, I've heard it can be quite confusing down under:
Our bikes are very, very comfortable, the GS seating position is very ergonomically correct - shoulders, bum and heels are all vertically lined up - so we don't get too sore even after a very long day's ride. I think frequent, short breaks off the bike actually help you ride longer distances, than trying to stay in the saddle for 5-10 hours at a time.
Dawn-till-Dusk (about 14 hours) is probably our max these days, although this is a very infrequent occurrence. There's too much to see in Central America, that if you spend that much time in the saddle, you'll miss out on so much. So our typical riding day is about 200-300 kms, which depending on traffic and terrain, might take us 4-5 hours with a good lunch break in between. Then we'll stop and stay in a place for a day or a week. Rinse and repeat.
So much more different than Canada and the US where everything is so far apart that you have to spend hours on the slab to get anywhere.
Definitely by ear. Sometimes we'll ride a whole tank of gas, other times if there are things to see or if we're hungry or tired, we'll take a break. I think we're a lot less regimented because we don't have any time constraints. We purposely avoid booking motels or campgrounds to give us the most latitude on pace and destination.
Early on in our travels, we rode with CamelBaks, but those were a bit cumbersome and the world really is more civlized than people think it is. Even out in the middle of the wilderness, if there's any kind of road (dirt or otherwise), chances are there'll be someone who thinks they can sell a bottle of water to travellers passing by. Just in case, we always keep two 2L bottles of water in my topcase in case we don't run into any entrepeneurs...
Back when we were travelling within time constraints, we used to wake up before dawn, get the bikes packed and be on the road when the sun rose. You get to see the best sunrises, and you're travelling in the coolest time of the day, and the traffic was the least dense.
Now that we're just wandering, we get up around 9AM, lounge around for a couple of hours, have brunch and we're probably out by noon. Stop riding around 4PM and start looking for a place for the night. We've turned into quite the lazy bastard travellers...
Our golden rule is never ride at night. Primarily because there's no lighting on the roads here and a much higher chance of running into animals - lots of stray dogs roaming around the area.
We've broken the golden rule more often than not - mainly because we're lazy bastard travellers...
Yes! We're using Sena SMH10s, and they are invaluable for figuring out directions between our different maps, signalling for breaks, but also for security. A couple of years ago, we were mobbed in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas while on the bikes and Neda was paralyzed with fear and couldn't move. It took a lot of yelling to get her to push her way through the angry crowd. If we had the communicators back then, we could have gotten away much earlier and not have to deal with the escalating violence towards us.
