Heading out of La Paz north to Loreto the one thing in no short supply were bikers. Every few kms I came across a group of bikers usually Harley riders in groups of 6 to 12, but a few single riders or couples. It was fantastic, obviously all friendly and happy to see a single female riders travelling through Mexico. I subsequently found out that there is a huge bike meet up in Cabo next week, sadly I do not have time to go as that would have been fun especially as I am missing out on Daytona bike week … just not enough time to do all the things I want to do.

Other than the riders and more street dogs that I desperately wanted to adopt the ride was easy, uneventful but with some great views. Loreto is a nice seaside town, very picturesque and I just chilled for 2 days. I am not much of a sea beach person I am definitely more a mountain person, however there is something about the ocean that is just very calming. I just wanted to spend some time at the beach simply being. It was so nice to walk along the beach and watch the pelicans fishing, I am really getting into pelicans I thing they are just lovely. I also spotted a couple of woodpeckers, and a road runner on the road going into Loreto that was cute.

Breakfast view

Fish in mango sauce yumm

 Loreto

Buzzards in the desert, not sure how reassuring that is … but at least I know my body won’t go to waste

After Loreto I headed across to the west coast to San Ignacio to see the whales. I had another nice ride to San Ignacio which is a tiny quaint town. I am really taking it easy on the Bahia, relaxing, and enjoying my riding.

I met a really nice group of Americans who come to Bahia every year to see the whales and were staying in the same hotel. I joined them on the whale tour and WOW I never guessed it would be as good as it was. I thought I’d see whales well… I Touched a Whale and it was awesome. The humpback whales come to San Ignacio every year to calve, there were 300 whales in the bay with calves. The area is a marine reserve and the wardens limit the number of boats on the water. You are only allowed in the bay for 1.5 hrs, and no swimming. They also restrict the area the boats can go so if the whales do not want to interact they just swim away. It is the calves that come to the boats to check us out, but the mothers will also push them up to see us … or perhaps to show off their beautiful babies. They stay in the bay for 4 months while the calves get big and strong and then head north to the arctic.

It was just AWESOME to see them and get to touch them. We were told that at this time they are less playful as the mothers now put the calves in training and literally swim laps up and down the lagoon to get them fit and ready for the big swim north. I could not have wished for a better experience, especially since I only found out about the whale watching when I was in Cabo, I had no idea this was the season to see them with calves, what a nice surprise.

Saying good-bye to Dario and Elias and heading off for the final bit of my Mexican adventure, I was a little sad that my trip was nearing its end but I was so filled with excitement to see the Bahia . What nice guys, but then again they are Mexican and I have yet to meet a Mexican person I don’t like. So much for all the media bollox about how dangerous Mexico is. Obviously you need to be careful in some places and avoid others and have some common sense but that goes for every country in the world even Switzerland.

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After arriving so late into La Paz I didn’t really get to see much of it. I rode alongside the boardwalk and only got to the hotel at 5pm. By this time I was famished so had a quick shower and went down to the Chinese buffet restaurant next door to the hotel and had a huge and very yummy Chinese dinner.

The next day I headed down to Cabo. I took the longer scenic route and it was well worth it. I also just took my time, stopping often to enjoy the views. When I arrived in Cabo I was pretty hungry so stopped near the pier and went for lunch after which I just walked around for ages seeing what the place is like. It is very touristy but still very nice, I met a really nice group of American bikers who are in the Bahia for 10 days dirt biking. The leader Richard was fantastic and gave me some really good maps and ideas for my trip north.

I was told by multiple people that I must see Cabo which is why I took the 2 days to go south and see it. I will admit I liked it, but to be honest cannot say it is the most awesome place to see. One of the most important things I needed to do in Cabo was try get a new tire. I had checked my tires while in Queretaro and even Daniel agreed that they should get me to the states. However within 2 days the front tire just dropped in tread so quickly I was really surprised. It had done 18000kms by then but my front TKC80 tires usually last me 20 to 22000kms. This had now become a small emergency, however I did know that if I could not get one in Cabo I could in La Paz, however that meant going back to La Paz for an extra 2 days, due to the 28th being a Sunday.

 Gadgets gets to visit the seaside in Cabo

I went to TodoMotos, as advised, and asked them about tires. The lady said no problem they would have one for me at 9am the next day. She insisted I pay a deposit but took the details and assured me the tire would be there. I arrived at 9am sharp, 9 am came and went and I kept on getting told it is on the way, every 10 mins. At 10:30am the tire arrived. Now I did say (to myself not them) that if they give me a street tire or MX I don’t care as long as it fits I’ll take it. hmmm famous last words. They had a proper hard core MX tire with very big and very spaced out knobblies, and it was a 21 80/100. Oh and it was also usd205

I said no way am I taking this tire as I am riding up to 10000kms on road, I also knew the tire wouldn’t be road legal in the sates so that meant buying another tire. So in effect wasting usd205, which at this stage I can ill afford. So I waited another 30mins and they brought a new tire a nice road tire but it was 70/70, they tried to argue that it would fit WTF it was visibly far too narrow. I even agreed to go with their sales guy to the mechanic Arturo who I had met the day before, he spoke English (no one in the shop did) and I liked him. He took one look at the tire and went ”erm no way will this fit”. He then sent me to Yamaha but was not sure if they had tires as he said they don’t really keep many spares. TodoMoto was recommended which is how I ended up there, otherwise I would have tried Yamaha first. Yamaha had a good Pirelli but a 21 80/90, they assured me it would be okay and after consulting, through Joern with his excellent mechanic in Switzerland I got the tire, and it fitted fine.

 Arturo the mechanic what a nice guy

So I took the Yamaha tire to Arturo, he fitted it and I went back to the shop and demanded my deposit back, oh yes the Yamaha tire was only usd95. They did not argue about the deposit and apologised a lot for the situation so that was okay. All’s well that ends well.

The WORST part is that I went to Cabo to see the rock arch in the sea and did not get to see it 😦 what a waste of 2 days. In order to see the arch you need to go on a tour or water taxi (just 2 hrs on the water, and only usd10) to see the arch. Yesterday I arrived at 3pm and went for lunch and walked around, then did the tire and then found out that you cannot see the arch from the land so needed a water taxi but they don’t go in the evening (obviously)

 The arch that I missed seeing

So I thought no probs. I get the tire at 9am, drop it and the bike at the mechanic, and go see the arch with a water taxi, have lunch and leave for La Paz after lunch (only 135kms on the direct route).

hmm well all in all the tire thing took so long I only rode out of Cabo at 2pm no time to see arch and get to la paz in one day. Loreto is 500km from Cabo and the road is ok but I wanted to get to La Paz to take a few kms off the journey. Thank goodness I had decided to do the La Paz stop-off  as leaving Cabo at 2pm would never have given me enough time to get to Loreto before dark.

I stopped on the way back to La Paz to watch these guys ride the river bed, it looked like serious fun.

So in a nutshell I did waste my time going to Cabo. I was told I MUST go by 4 different people 2 Canadians and 2 Mexicans so though it was a must see. It is nice but I hope the rest of the Bahia is better, although I cannot really say a waste of time as I enjoyed the riding so much.  I also enjoyed actually getting to see some of La Paz during my second trip there.

 La Paz

 erm yup

The Bahia, diverse scenery, stunning beaches and lovely people.

The ride to Guadalajara was uneventful just direct as I wanted to get there and go to bed so as to kick the last remnants of my cold. The ride to Mazatlan on the other hand, although another straight highway was great. One of those days, just perfect. Easy cruising down the motorway for 480kms, but with lovely scenery so the time and distance just whistled by. Just me, my bike, travelling, happy, healthy and feeling fantastic. DAMN it’s good to be alive and oh so sweet not to be sitting behind a desk 🙂

Although Mazatlan is a touristy seaside town it is nice and the beach is lovely with a great boardwalk. While walking along the beach I saw a small group of people looking at / touching something flapping in the sand. When I got closer I saw it was a small or baby stingray. They were lifting up its fins and taking pictures of its mouth. One guy put his fingers in its mouth. I just pushed past them grabbed it and threw it as far in the water as I could. It was almost washed back but a few waves and a lot of flapping saw it finally swim away. While I stood guard and shouted ‘’swim baby swim’’ much to the amusement / disappointment of the group who had their photo session cut short. People can be such assholes when it comes to animals. I then stood and watched the sun set on a wonderful day. I got that high on life feeling. That feeling that no drug on earth can replicate.

Baby the stingray

I just loved watching the pelicans fishing

wow what a sunset

The following day while walking on the beach I saw a few little stingrays in surf. It was high tide so none got washed ashore, but they were swimming really close to the edge … adrenaline junkies. There were also loads of sea birds (I was not sure what type), seagulls and pelicans. I think there were schools of small fish swimming by and the stingrays and birds were feasting on them.

After my lovely walk and still feeling that life high I got ready to go catch the ferry to La Paz on the Bahia peninsula. I hate ferries and was a little nervous as it is a 17 hour long trip. I thought it would be like the one in Brazil across the Amazon (the 2nd time around), dirty smelly…well just disgusting. I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised. The ferry is very much a trucking ferry and has far more room for trucks than passengers and it is HUGE like 4 stories tall. I had booked a cabin and was glad I did as the seating area although very nice (aeroplane like seats) was crowded and they showed Spanish movies till late into the night. The cabin was huge and had 2×2 bunk beds and a very clean bathroom. I had no idea I had a bathroom in the cabin and I immediately got out of my riding gear and had a very nice hot shower. On the Amazon ferry the bathroom was so disgusting I would clean my teeth over the side of the boat never mind shower in it.

The only bad thing about the La Paz ferry was the delay. I arrived at 1pm 3 hours before the 4pm departure as required on the website. The ferry itself only arrived at 5pm and took over an hour to unload trucks and people, then we could board at about 6pm and the ferry only left at 7pm 3 hours late. We were scheduled to arrive at 9am but only arrived at 3:30pm. However with such nice cabins I did not even mind, and I just plugged in my laptop and watched an entire TV series. I watched Quantico which is not great but it kept me entertained.

 Dario and Elias

I had also met 2 Mexican riders going to the Bahia for 5 days. Elias and Dario, what awesome guys so nice, friendly and funny. I really enjoyed meeting them and making friends with them. They are both riding KTM 1190s and are in the Bahia to test them out.

 Watching the sunset from the ferry before it departed 

So here I am in La Pas on the famous Bahia peninsula 🙂 My last Latin American adventure before crossing into the states for the final leg of my journey.

The ride from Puebla to Queretaro was another long easy boring highway but I made good time and was excited about getting to Queretaro to see Daniel and Aline. After leaving the Yucatan the one thing I have noticed is the increase in traffic. There is very little traffic all over Mexico and the increase was not that much until I got about an hour outside of Queretaro. Wow it was nuts the traffic was almost bumper to bumper except driving at 100km/hr. The Mexicans are not bad drivers just incredibly impatient and drive fast. After the lovely quiet road of the Yucatan this took me by surprise and I had to shift gear back into crazy Latin American driving mode to survive.

The landscape had also changed it is a lot drier more arid in this region and reminds me of some areas of South Africa. Aline and Daniel live in a new suburb is a stunning house. The area is really nice and very safe, I liked it immediately. I cannot even begin to describe how awesome it was to see them again, they left Switzerland a year ago to come back to Mexico and seeing them again was fantastic. I had planned on staying 3 nights but ended up staying 5 due to the ferry timetable to La Paz. I was so happy to spend the extra days in Queretaro it all turned out really well.

I was suffering from quite a cold when I arrived and over the next coupe of days it got worse finally breaking the day I left. So it was really good to just have one place to stay, relax and recover. Aline was awesome, she looked after me really well and would put up a huge argument if I even tried to wash a single dish. I am not used to staying at people houses and not helping out, but Aline was having none of it, I felt extremely spoilt 🙂 Other than seeing Aline and Daniel again it was also great to see their cats Trotsky and Frieda, they are the most beautiful cats, a bit weary of strangers but I like them a lot. The best pet they now have is a little cocker spaniel called Luke. He is the sweetest dog you have ever met, he was abandoned in a house and Aline rescued him. I just totally fell in love with Luke and wanted to bring him home with me … I don’t understand why Aline would not let me do that 🙂

Trotsky who looks like he wants to take over the world

Frieda contemplating life with a bike in the house

 Daniel and Aline

I was so busy over the 5 days in Queretaro it went so fast. I went sightseeing, shopping, house hunting, out to eat, off-road riding, walking and also just relaxed. Aline and I went into Queretaro town and had lunch with Rob, who was on the Amazon tour with me. It was so nice to see him again and catch up on all the news. He is a really nice and funny guy, we had a great lunch and then Aline and I went shopping. Unless you are a girl who hasn’t been shopping for over 8 months you just won’t understand how much fun I had. I will admit that I am not a shopping girl, I usually hate clothes shopping. However when you haven’t been shopping and get to go with someone you know and like it is just great. We did also do some sightseeing and Queretaro old town is a really lovely town, well worth seeing.

Aline and me with Rob

Aline and me at the train transport museum

 Queretero

 What the Queretero aqueduct looked like when it was first build

We went to see a couple of houses as Alien and Daniel are looking to buy a place. I love looking at houses as I imagine decorating every house I enter. However what we did the most of was eat, the food in Mexico is fantastic and when you are with people who live there you go to the places that serve the best food.

When you go to a good restaurant you get good food, good drinks and a quality Mariachi band

Daniel also spoilt me by doing a service on my bike … in the living room. His sports bike lives in the living room, and when he does any work on bikes it is in the house. I was quite shocked but also amused, I think Aline is amazing to allow that.

Gadget in da houuuuse

 Daniel parking after work

Daniel and I spent the Saturday going sightseeing and riding off-road. It was one of the best days I have had on the trip. We went to San Miguel which is a beautiful city. We also went to see two abandoned haciendas that were old mines, but are now just ghost towns and very interesting. On the way to the first one we stopped in a tiny village that Daniel had not been to before and accidentally come across as we were off the beaten track and this town isn’t even on the map. It has the most stunning little church, where we met two Canadian couples one of who have a winter house near there. Like all Canadians they were very nice people. It took Daniel and I 11 hours to ride 240kms (over half off-road) and do all the sightseeing we did. We got home just as the sun set, exhausted but extremely happy.

San Miguel

We accidentally discovered this lovely little church

Santa brigida mine in Pozos

looking down one of the old mineshafts, scary stuff

Date above the door is 1888. Kilns at the Santa brigida mine in Pozos, these were the first kilns on the continent

The Ccinco Senores mine in Pozos

Some of the beautiful scenery we saw

I spent the Sunday sitting in the TV room vegging, I watched 3 movies with Luke and just chilled and tried to get over my cold. It was a good day. The following day I had to leave for Guadalajara in order to get the Mazatlan to catch the ferry to the Bahia peninsula. I was so sad to leave Daniel and Aline I had such a great time with them and have already made plans with Joern to come back and see them and more of Mexico.

After Chichen-Itza I could not wait to see the Mayan runes at Palenque as I heard they were even better. The ride to Palenque was good, easy and just fun.

The Mayan runes were breathtaking, I was just blown away at how stunning they are. I love seeing old runes, temples, castles etc and these were certainly up there in my top 10. What I loved was that you could go inside one of them and see into others. You could climb up them and see what they are like up at the top as well as some great views. I just highly recommend them I had a great day seeing them and spent hours walking around.

 Mayan runes at Palenque

The town of Palenque is also nice with a lot of good restaurants and a lot nicer than Chichen-Itza so I was happy to spend two nights there to have a whole day free for sightseeing.

After he mom swept outside her shop this little guy got the broom and started sweeping, too cute. Maybe he thought she didn’t do a good job.

After Palenque I headed out to Lago Catemaco. I had simply chosen this spot as it was too far to ride from Palenque to Queretero and knew I would need 3 days so just looked at the map and chose 2 spots each roughly a third of the way, but worth seeing and at least one off the beaten track. So I ended up at lake Catemaco and what a lovely surprise.

The lake is stunning and the road there and then on to Pueblo is a small secondary country road so travelling though small villages and over hills, with amazing views. I did not stay in the town of Catemaco but a tiny small village called La Victoria in a small family run B&B. This is really my kind of place, clean, comfortable and right on the lake. I took an afternoon stroll around the village and everyone I met said hello, this is the Mexico worth seeing not only the tourist places, so I enjoyed it and found it very interesting. There were lovely small but nicely painted houses and also a few tiny shacks, evidence that this was a low income fishing village. I spent the evening sitting on the balcony outside my room watching the fishermen and listening to the cacophony of birds in the trees. I could not have been more relaxed. There are no restaurants in this village but the lady at the B&B cooks and wow what a meal. Fresh out of the lake fish home cooked, a little taste of heaven.

One of my favourite pictures of the lake taken from my balcony. It was just so peaceful.

The following day I pushed onto Pueblo and what a difference. A Large busy city, modern and nice but just too big for me to enjoy. I stayed in a city express just off the motorway, impersonal but very clean and comfortable. This was a real travelling stop over with no character. The best thing about Pueblo is that met up with Cesar who I travelled across Russia with in 2012, we did the BAM together and we got on very well, so had a lot of catching up to do. It was so fantastically wonderful to see him again, and he told me that had had come back from Russia and did his private pilots license. He actually flew to Pueblo form Acapulco where he was for a few days on vacation. Wow I was pretty impressed at that. It is always good to see friends when you are on the road.

Tulum beaches

Tulum It took me 3 seconds in Mexico to realise that when a Mexican says ‘’no it is not hot spicy at all’’ that it will blow the roof of my mouth clean through the top of my head. DAMN the food is spicy 🙂 However the food is soooooo good that even I am enjoying the milder (not as head blowing) spicy food. I have also discovered the non spicy food like Chicken breast in Mango sauce ohhh yum.

The other thing about Mexico is that it is a tad chilly. I have finally reached the northern hemisphere winter and was wondering when that would happen and how cold it would be. However when I say chilly, I mean a slight chill in the air especially in the early mornings but NOTHING like any winter I’ve ever experienced. In fact generally the temperatures are just great especially for riding, gone are those hot sweaty days when I need to drink 3 litres of water just to keep sane.

My first stop in Mexico was Tulum and it’s a nice place. Somewhat touristy but not over the top. The beaches are lovely and the Tulum Mayan runes nice but a little crowded. I only stayed 2 nights just enough time to see the runes and beachs and eat some good food.

There were loads of these little guys all over the Mayan runes in Tulum

The Tulum Mayan runes

I can’t get enough of the skeletons in Mexico

Cake and coffee on the beach, what more could I want?

Chichen-Itza Next I headed to Chichen-Itza one of the most famous Mayan rune site with one of the largest Mayan pyramids. I loved seeing this place as I just love seeing ancient runes, however I have to say it pales in comparison to Tikal in Guatemala. One of the reasons is that Tikal is in the jungle and has very few visitors so it kind of feels a little Indiana Jonesy. It is easy to go find a rune in the jungle with no people on it to explore at your leisure. The runes at Chichen-itza are in great condition but all roped off which makes sense due the number of visitors. So there is no climbing on or exploring the runes. The place is also packed with vendors selling tourist trinkets, they are however very friendly and not pushy or abusive like those at the Egyptian pyramids so it is not at all unpleasant. The town of Chichen-itza itself is not worth seeing so I only stayed one night as I arrived early enough to go see the Mayan runes in the afternoon. I did also however find time to go see the Ik Kil Cenote which is stunning. I was staying very close to it and sine I arrived in Chichen-Itze very early I decided to stop off before going to the hotel. What a good idea as I arrived before the large tourist buses. There must have been about 15 people there already but as I left 2 large tourist buses and 3 mini vans just pulled up. I am not quite sure how they all fit in the Cenote but guess they must regulate how many people can swim at once. The Cenotes in the Yucatan region of are amazing and there are hundreds of them and hundreds of Mayan runes. It was quite amusing to see a couple right in the middle of the motorway they literally just build the road around them.

 the Ik Kil Cenote

The Chichen-Itza mayan runes

skeletons were a big thing in mexico way way back

It must have taken ages to play noughts and crosses this way

Campeche So far I am really enjoying Mexico, the sites, the people and the food. The roads are in very good condition and there is not much traffic, well in the Yucatan region that is. After Chichen-itza I headed to the Gulf of Mexico to a town called Campeche which is a UNESCO heritage site and just lovely. The whole town in painted in vibrant colours and it is just  a pleasant place to visit, also touristy but not at all overcrowded or unpleasant.

The street dogs in Latin America break my heart and I want to take them all home. This little girl nearly got a forever home from me, but I could not catch her. She was so young she had clearly not had a litter yet and she was so scared and limping. It really broke my heart to leave her.

Campeche’s very colourful buildings

I am not sure how it fits in but there is a distinct pirate theme all over Campeche

The Gulf of Mexico

Heading towards Palenque after Campeche I rode along the coast and had one of those amazing riding days where I remembered why I do this. I just love the feeling / experience / adventure of going from one interesting / exotic place to another  on my motorbike. Seeing the people and villages along the way and how the scenery changes. I had such a super cool experience riding along the coast right alongside a pelican for quite a few seconds. I cannot begin to describe how awesome this was. I kept on having to remind myself to look at the road, which was fortunately dead straight. Once I passed one pelican I’d come across another flying level  with my bike it was something surreal and I felt like I was in a commercial or something as it felt  just too good to be true … only it wasn’t. It was one of those stand on the foot pegs and punch the sky moments.

pelicans everywhere

One of the beauties that flew next to me along the coast, what a thrill

I have never seen so many pelicans in one place in my life as in the small fishing village of Champoton. It’s days like this that make me feel happy, wonderful and just downright alive.

The night before I left Tikal it started raining and did not stop for 3 days. So I left Tikal riding in the rain but it was just heavy drizzle not hard torrential rain, so I got wet (even with my rain suit) but it was ok. It only took a couple of hours to ride to San Ignacio, plus 2 hours for the border crossing which was quite easy.

San Ignacio

I had decided to spend 2 nights in San Ignacio so that I could go down to Caracol to see the Mayan runes. However unfortunately day tours to the site cost usd 95 and the companies will only do the tours with a minimum of 2 people or I had to pay double, and no tour companies had tours going for the next 3 days. I was also warned about the bad road (I know a bike group that turned back due to rain and mud conditions on this road) so decided not to go on my own. My second option was to go to the sites a bit closer to town, one a 45min walk away and another 15 mins by bus. However I also decided against these due to the heavy rain, I mean how much fun can traipsing around Mayan sites in the rain be. Since I am planning on seeing 3 top sites in Mexico and the weather forecast in Mexico is excellent, I decided to wait until I go to Mexico to see more Mayan runes. So I spent the day in San Ignacio sitting in coffee shops on the internet, eating cheesecake and drinking coffee. However I did have an awesome afternoon at the Iguana Rescue centre. These are lovely animals and the numbers have been declining rapidly due to deforestation and the fact that people eat them in Central America. The Iguana project tries to educate people about them and breeds them for release. It was only an hour but I did enjoy seeing them and the guide was very good and knowledgeable.

 ”uggghhh more tourists”

 The Iguanas as the rescue centre

The following day I rode out, in the rain again but feeling happy as I was heading to the dry north where temperatures are between 25 and 28 degrees c, PERFECT 🙂

The Belize north coast I believe it is stunning down south but I didn’t have an opportunity to ride south to see for myself

I spent the night in a nice hotel in Corozal near the border in anticipation of finally getting to Mexico where I would spend 3 weeks and boy was I looking forward to it. So my trip to Belize was very short but nice, it is a nice country with nice people. I cannot say however that San Ignacio is a great town but it is okay, I have seen worse.

 One of the baby Iguanas

Another enjoyable early morning ride down the Route de Flores to the Guatemala border. I am not an early morning person so usually avoid getting up early like one would avoid the plague. However I enjoy these early morning rides so much I think I might start doing this when I am back home.

The El Salvador border was quiet and I was the only person in both the immigration and customs queue, easy peezy and finished in 15 minutes. Entering Guatemala took the usual silly paperwork process. It is not difficult just time consuming and totally inefficient something that drives me crazy. I grin and bear it and being a small border I am done in an hour, photocopies and all.

The first thing I notice about Guatemala is that it is far more populated than any Central America country I have visited so far. There is also a lot of litter on the roads, but the roads themselves are okay. Some are in very good conditions others not excellent but not too bad either. Things go well for the first hour until I hit traffic. I guess this comes with an increase in population. It took me 6 hours to do 200kms and most of that was bumper to bumper traffic. There is only so much lane splitting you can do with panniers on your bike. Door to door, traffic jams and border crossing all included it took me 10 hours to get to Lake Atilan from Apaneca.  By time I arrived in Panajachel at Lake Atilan, I have to admit I was in a less than savoury mood. However the gorgeous hostel I was staying in, a hot shower and a good meal soon put me right.

Lake Atilan

 Playing can be such hard work

Panajachel is a typical tourist town full of local arts and crafts, some tourist tat, a lot of tour companies and many restaurants. I have to admit though I enjoyed walking around it and got some good advice about the route to San Agustin Lanquin from an extremely nice and helpful man at one of the tour companies. Despite knowing I was not going to take one of his tours, as I was on my own bike, he still spent a good 30 mins with me talking about the route and biking through Central America. Lake Atilan is also quite beautiful. Sadly it was quite hazy so my photos are not great.

After seeing Lake Atilan I headed out to San Agustin Lanquin, this area is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in Central America and the scenery certainly is spectacular. Since it was only 287kms away I thought I’d be there by lunch and have the afternoon to visit the natural sites. Hmmm this was wishful thinking. My GPS does not work in Central America but with my map and asking directions I have had no issues on any of the roads in any of the countries … until Guatemala. I made a couple of bad assumptions with regards the roads I thought I was on and got badly lost twice. Plus each village you pass has a number of those darn speed bumps and Guatemala is fairy densely populated so you pass village after village. The main roads also go straight through the towns which are not on grid system and have these infernal one way systems, so every town was like a maze to me. The great thing is that the Guatemalan people are lovely, very friendly and helpful, so asking directions was never a problem even with no Spanish. The amusing thing though is that the answer is always ‘directo’ with fingers pointing as to which road to go ‘directo’ on. It took me a little while to realise that it was only ‘directo’ to the next intersection. Some people gave me great and detailed instructions but in Spanish. I’d usually understand the ‘directo 4 quadrant’ bit and then get lost after that. Once I realised the pattern I simply stopped and asked directions at every intersection and often simply in the middle of a long stretch of road to confirm that I was going the right way.

One more Guatemalan traffic jam

One things about traffic jams in small towns is that you get to watch the world around you. I spent quite a few minutes mesmerised by these ladies making Tortillas

Gorgeous Guatemala

A dirt road somewhere in the centre of Guatemala but who knows where I was.

All this took time, especially since I had gotten lost and got myself on a secondary dirt road. I still got to where I was going but only at 5pm, 10 hours on the road and I was exhausted. So no natural sites for me, I showered, ate and had an early night. However not before meeting Claire, another solo female biker. What are the odds? We were literally in a hostel in this tiny little village town and bumped into each other. What a nice and interesting lady. Claire is from the UK but lives in Australia and is riding through South and Central America on a Honda 250. She had been on the road for a year when we met and will soon be going back to Oz to find work (she is an archaeologist) while storing her bike in Mexico so that she can return and keep travelling.

Knowing now that travelling in Guatemala takes longer than anticipated I got up early and left the hostel at 7:30am. The first 55kms from Lanquin to Chipam is dirt so I was prepared for it, but boy this was no simple dirt road, this was steep up and down rocky tracks. At some point I felt like I was riding on a road made of marbles and bricks. Funny enough I was enjoying it, it had been a long time since my knobblies had been on dirt and gadget is just an awesome litter bike to ride off road. However just as I was settling into enjoying myself and not wanting the dirt to end, things went wrong.

I stopped to ask these kids directions and they were just so funny and kept laughing at my English pronunciation of the Spanish town names

The best thing about dirt roads is that they are usually in the most stunning areas of the country

Seeing the people and how hard they work truly makes me appreciate my life. This man was carrying a sack of grain for miles and yet still greeted me with  a lovely warm smile and Buenos Dias like everyeon in the rural areas do.

In Guatemala instead of begging many people fix the potholes on the road and then stand next to them and ask for money. On many occasion I have stopped and given the people a few Quetzal. I do this only if I think they have made a real effort and a difference which I find the old people and women often do. Contrary to the young teenagers and kids who just fill a hole or two with stones and dirt but don’t really do a good job and I won’t stop and give them anything. I will also only do this on tarmac as potholes are just rubbish. On dirt roads I don’t really care about the road as I’m on a dirt bike, and to make matters worse the people who fix them put a rope across the road to stop you and demand money. This is just extortion and I won’t pay anything, also if I stopped and gave everyone money I’d whip through my budget in no time. So the road rope thieves, as I call them, get a few choice words from me and let me pass.

Gadget before reached the step road and I unceremoniously dropped him

Going down a rather steep slippery rocky spot I came across a road rope thief. Seriously what a dumb place to put a rope, I mean never mind engine breaking, this particular stretch had me engine braking and constantly touching both my front and back breaks. So when I saw him I waved to get out the way and shouted ‘no move’ as loud as I could. He didn’t and so I had to slam on brakes and promptly dropped the bike. I swore like a trooper and extremely loudly, he came rushing over apologetically and helped me get the bike upright. I was furious; however hope that in future he will not stop bikers and only cars, which would benefit from his fixing efforts. I was fine the bike was okay ish… I had snapped the front brake almost clean off, it was just not usable and guess which spare part I don’t have (you can’t carry everything) Damn I was doubly incensed, but got back on happy to continue just on my back brake. This was nearly impossible on these steep rocky roads. I tried going really slowly but after dropping the bike a second time I realised that I needed to do something.

So out came the toolbox and all I could find was a flattish steel pipe that fitted over the broken stump of the brake. I thought this was a good find and a great fix but sadly it was too long and did not give me the leverage I need to brake fully. I eventually resorted to duct taping the broken piece as far across the stump as possible and as tight as possible. This only gave me about a 2cm piece to use as a brake, but enough to get me down the mountain.

 I have never been so happy to see tarmac before

Fortunately once down (about 8kms from the repair site) the road was flat all the way to Tikal. This was good as I could use my back brake and also the duct tape had started to stretch, so my temp fix wasn’t very effective anymore. I knew I had to find a permanent fix but decided I’d do so in Belize as Tikal is a tiny town with no bike dealers.

All in all it took me 3.5 hours to do the first 55kms of the day and I had almost 300 more to go. The scenery at the start of the day was fantastic just breathtaking but soon got flat and boring. However the road was good so the rest of the day was uneventful, just long. It ended up being another 10 hour day and I arrived at the hotel in Tikal park at 4:30pm. I had now had 3 x 10 hours days in a row even though the distance was only between 275 and 355 kms, but with traffic, border crossings, dirt roads, getting lost and breaking the bike the days took forever. So I arrived in Tikal exhausted and was very glad to have 2 days there plus another 2 days in San Ignacio in Belize. I was looking forward to taking it a little easier.

I could not wait to see the Tikal Mayan runes so had decided to take the 4am sunrise tour. Getting up at 3:30am was no easy task but it was well worth it, not so much the sunrise as it was totally overcast so we saw no sunrise at all. However the guide was fantastic and getting to the site so early and sitting on top of a huge Mayan temple listening to the jungle slowly wake up is totally awesome. We walked for an hour and climbed the Mayan temple and waited for another hour for the sunrise. During this time we first heard a large bird flex and flap its wings with no sound, then for almost an hour a ground pheasant grunting. This honestly sounds like a dull throaty snore (as opposed to nasal snore, and apparently jaguars sound the same) Then the monkeys start, the howler monkeys make the creepiest sound but it’s fantastic to hear this cacophony kick off one monkey at a time. It is only the alpha male in the group that howls but the alpha males from the other groups will reply one after another building into the amazing symphony of sound. After the monkeys the parrots wake up, or are perhaps woken by the monkeys, no wonder the screech so much.

Watching the jungle slowly wake up

I saw more wildlife in Tikal in one morning than during all my forest / jungle walks over the last 6 months put together. We saw a toad, coatis, a grey fox, howler and squirrel monkeys and so many birds I cannot name them all but includes a large ground crested pheasant, small peregrine falcon and many toucans and parrots and a beautiful red headed woodpecker. The guide had a small bird watching telescope so we go to see the birds up close, it was simply amazing. Wildlife aside, Tikal is spectacular, the Mayan runes, of which we only saw a handful, are unbelievably impressive. One of the best things about going so early is that our group of 6 was only one of 3 groups in the park. However even when I went back later in the afternoon to walk around on my own there were relatively few people on the site. Unlike Machu Pichu and Angkor Wat where it is near impossible to get a picture without people in it, Tikal has relatively few visitors.

Tikal beautiful and very interesting

I have wanted to see Mayan ruins for a long long time and was definitely not disappointed. I cannot wait to see more sites in Belize and Mexico.

After the early tour and before I went back to see more of Tikal I returned to the hotel and had breakfast with an America couple Judy and Kevin from Seattle. What a lovely couple, they are both fire-fighters and paramedics and we had a really interesting chat about Donald Trump, politics, big corporate companies, their jobs and many other things. They were so interesting and I learnt a lot, I was also glad to hear that they are not Donald Trump fans.

I was so happy to see Tikal and cannot wait to see the Mayan site in Mexico

Arriving in El Salvador, after my good but tiring day, I just went directly to the hotel, had a hot shower and very good meal. I was just too shattered to go anywhere and San Miguel is a big busy city and I am not a huge city fan.

I like El Salvador however have noticed two things. The first is that there is a lot more garbage littering the roads and the drivers are not as good as those in the other Central American counties I have visited so far. Generally I have had no issues with the drivers in Central America they are nothing like a lot of countries in South America, but so far the ones in El Salvador are my least favourite.

 Lake Coatepeque (pic borrowed off net as my battery died)

Since Central American counties are so small there is no need to get up early to travel from one end to the other unless you have a border crossing as it pays to get to the borders early.  So I slept in and left for Apaneca at 9:30 am. I took it easy stopping to take pictures and visit Lago Coatepeque which is stunning, just as my camera battery died – NOTE to self always CHARGE the camera battery. Shortly after the lake I stopped to fill up and get a drink and think I found one reason the El Salvadorian drivers are not that great. There was a covered eating area just next to the petrol station and a car park with about 6 to 8 cars and a couple of bikes. The seating area was almost full of guys who would go to the shop at the petrol station buy a six pack and sit and drink. It seemed to be the social Saturday thing to do and I am damn sure there were no designated non drinking drivers. They were relaxed not falling over drunk and a few of them greeted me when I sat down at one of the tables. It was all quite chilled but I was still a bit shocked coming from a no tolerance country.

 Santa Ana Volcano (pic borrowed off net as my battery died)

The road to Apaneca is along the ‘route de Flores’ and it is quite lovely, I also passed the Santa Ana Volcano. Another enjoyable riding day completed successfully.

Apaneca must be one of the smallest towns I have stayed it, it is extremely quiet but very quaint. Some of the streets are cobbled and many of the buildings are painted with nice pictures. I’m staying in a lovely family run place with cabanas and have decided to stay for 2 nights. I feel like I need to slow down and smell the roses. The Central American countries are so small it is easy to just shoot through them when you are used to riding 400 to 500kms a day so a 250km day is nothing. Most days I just ride in the morning and spend the afternoons exploring or chilling. However I think I need to do more sightseeing and am seriously looking forward to seeing the Mayan ruins at Tikal in Guatemala.

Sitting having a coffee in the hotel restaurant and this little cutie puts his paws on the windowsill and barks at me demanding some of my cake. He nearly got cake and a new home.

The hotels had the most beautiful gardens full of unusual statues.

Apenaca

On my rest day in Apaneca other than just strolling around, taking in the scenery and watching a couple of squirrels play in a tree, I went to Juayua. Juyua is another small town in the area just a little bigger than Apeneca and it hosts a Sunday market and food festival. It was great, packed with locals and lots of local food. The market had your usual cheap tat but also a lot of nice fresh fruit and veggies and local arts and crafts. There was music playing and it was very festive, I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon there. I have liked visiting El Salvador and am looking forward to seeing what Guatemala has to offer.

Juayua

Juayua food festival. One of the many tents filled with people and good food

Sitting in a coffee shop just watching the world go round, it’s amazing the interesting things you see. The dress flapping in the breeze was somehow just poetic.

I got another cute visitor on my last night in the cottage at Las Cabanas hotel, prior to the kitten I had two squirrels playing outside my window. They wee camera shy so I sadly could not get  a good picture of them.

Chinandega is about 70kms from Guasaule border crossing to Honduras and the border opens at 6am. So in order to get there as early as possible I got up at 5 am uugghhh way too early for me. However riding out of town at 6am and seeing the sunrise was actually very nice. It is a lovely time of day the early morning, something I don’t get to see very often.

Beautiful sunrise, just perfect for a border crossing

Exiting Nicaragua and entering Honduras took me exactly 1hr 5min to the time I first parked my bike to the time I got on and left in Honduras.  It was in fact my best border experience so far.  Before I did this crossing I had really got myself in a tizzy as I had read far too many negative things about it and am not a huge fan of border crossing anyway.  This was yet one more reminder NOT to read / or to just ignore negative stuff on the internet. I had literally read about a couple being chased by a car load of fixers. To people being scammed and having to ”fire” their fixer etc

Since I knew Honduras was less than savoury I also opted to cross to El Salvador in one day which meant two notoriously bad border crossing. Well I was sure surprised as they were great. No fixers bothered me. One came up to me and very politely asked if I speak Spanish and if not did I want help with the border process. I just said no and that was it. He did offer to watch my bike and since he was such a nice and polite young guy I said sure. When I came out he walked towards me eating and said ‘’ah miss Lorena I watched your bike ’’I laughed and said ‘’you can’t be watching my bike you are eating’’ (of course I was joking) we had a bit of a giggle as he assured me he could multitask and I gave him usd2.

Just an ordinary road in Honduras

The people at all the borders were fantastic so friendly and helpful, no need for a fixer and no need for any photocopies they just did them all in the office. The ride through Honduras was great (my GPS isn’t working so I am using a map and stop a lot to ask if I am on the right road) everyone I asked for directions was just so lovely, a couple of people even patted me on the back and wished me ‘’ viaje bueno’’ (good journey). I stopped for a coke in a small suburb of someplace, can’t remember where now but it was nice and I felt good. I am now a bit sad that I rushed through Honduras so quickly and didn’t spend more time there as, like all Central American countries, it seems to be nice with lovely people. If I was Latin American I’d be so proud because they really are the most genuinely nice people in the world. I have never once got the feeling that people are nice because they want something or see me as a walking wallet or because it is their job. The friendly warm smiles and greetings are genuine.

I think I made a mistake rushing through this country so fast I think there is a lot to see here, it certainly looks beautiful.

Exiting Honduras was as simple as anything and the minute the customs lady saw my passports she told me that Lorraine is Lorena in Spanish and her name was Lorena and she was pleased to meet me … COOOOOOOOOOOL. Doing the immigration at the border of El Salvador also took only 15 minutes. So all together it was 35 minutes and I was on the road to the El Salvador customs office which is about 5kms past the border. This is where things got SLOW, thank goodness there were a few friendly and funny truckers there to keep me company as the whole process took 2 hours.

Plus I got to watch a police sniffer dog search luggage and trucks for drugs, it was interesting. The one policeman also waved and greeted me like a long lost friend and wished me ’ viaje bueno’’. Sometimes at customs offices they have a huge pile of documents to process for the truckers and so when a tourist arrives they just put you on top of the pile. This sounds unfair but the truckers are paid to wait at borders and are often there for days while their good gets processed so it makes sense. Some borders have a separate customs for the actual import of goods as opposed to the temporary import of transit vehicles. Well not this customs office. I was sent to the full on trucker importing goods customs office (the only one at the El Salvador border) and it was full of trucks, literally rows and rows of them. I fortunately could jump the truck queue and went to the front but there was no jumping the paperwork. Well maybe they jumped me a little, I’m not sure.

They were super nice and friendly and helpful. I had to fill out a lot of paperwork, which the security guard helped me with as it was all in Spanish. I did not understand a lot of it as it had to do with good importing. He could not speak English but with my limited Spanish, hand signals and a few drawings we go the paperwork done, but had a few giggles in the process over my charades. Then I just had to sit … and sit … and sit, 1.5 hours later they called me and went through the actual customs process. They were pretty thorough with all the numbers etc but I was glad when it was over.

 The truck drivers know how to wait at a border

From the border it was a simple 50 or so kms to San Miguel, which is a busy ugly city but I was so tired I just headed straight to the hotel for a nice shower and a good meal.

All in all a very good day, tiring but good 🙂