2. made it to Antigua, Guatemala
There is a thick fog covering everything in Qutzeltenango this morning. Forecast calls for breaks around 8. Sure, they were wrong before. Sure enough, blue sky started to show on time. I like that. I am packing up my bike in front of the hotel and 3 separate people asked me for directions somewhere. Really? Do I look like I know the city?🤭
Initial confusion of getting out of the maze of one way streets and I am heading out of the town. The road started to climb right away and after 30 km I was above 3,000m again. Nice road. There were few cyclists on the road, at 3,000m!!! And there were moving. I’d be dead trying to pump my tires at that altitude. The roads here are either left, right, up or down. They don’t know the meaning of a straightaway. The roads are surprisingly good, not to mention difficulties building them on those steep hills. Switchbacks are impossibly tight and narrow. But they drive trucks and buses on them! You have to watch out for those in every turn as they do not fit into one lane. And they do not move. I rode over several ridges up and down on the other side. It was fun. You really have to pay attention and concentrate 100%. If you look away from the road, for sure there will be one of those potholes that can break your wheels. Or the road disappears and there is a river in front of you. That definitely woke me up. The picture doesn’t show it but it was a STEEP gravel descent down to the river. It was muddy so it was hard to judge how deep it was. But sometimes you just have to give a gas and go. I didn’t even stop to think about so I didn’t have time to get scared. It was deep enough to get water in my boots but I managed. Cool crossing. I stopped on the other side to take a victory picture. 🥇🏆🎖️
The route today is short, again. Only about 160 km. But, this is not your Canadian freeway riding. Mr. Google gives me 4 hrs to do it. You can move fairly quickly on the main road to Guatemala City but I took a “shortcut” to Lake Atitlan. Oh geez, if the road was any more narrow and steeper, you would need a horse to do it. I can’t get out of 2nd gear on these roads, many km spent in the 1st! This is something else. I love it! And there are houses and people everywhere. There is no break in houses by the side of the road. Constant stream. People farm on hills which would everywhere else require climbing equipment. This seem to be an onion region. They farm the old fashion way, with their bare hands.
Pretty soon I started the descend to Lake Atitlan. It was more like a freefall then a descent. It was hard to keep my eyes on the road and trying not to look at the beautiful lake. But I found few spots where I was brave enough to pull over and stopped to take pictures. Very nice views. At the bottom, on the north shore of the lake sits a small town of Panajachel. It is a touristy town with lots of gringos. It didn’t change at all since my buddy Brent and I visited here years ago. I didn’t stop, I wanted to get to Antigua before the forecasted rain would get me. But I might come back here for the weekend. Btw, Lake Atitlan is the deepest lake in Central America at 1,120’ and the lake elevation is 1,540m.
Interestingly enough, there was not one road sign for Antigua. And as I was always in an urban environment, I lost track where I am. And as I was thinking that I am lost, again, I realized that my destination is only 2 blocks away and I am heading right for it. A minute later, I am parking my bike in front of a small, very non descript building with the sign Apartamentos Los Nazarenos.
But what was inside, totally surpised me.