Fun in the rain

I leave the smog of Guatemala City behind me, happy to be away from the place. What a nightmare. I wind slowly through the rain soaked roads towards Honduras, avoiding the odd mudslide and a lot of flooding. I figure I can make Zacapa before dark, and I reflect sourly on the day thus far. How can it get any worse? Taking a right hand bend the bike bucks and feels like it's going over, then again at the next bend. Great, that'll be a puncture then...

Huehuetenango had been nice, and I stayed an extra day there in the slightly odd hotel drying out and listening to a bizarre selection of Guatemalan music in the restaurant. A short but beautiful ride through the Western Highlands got me to Quetzaltenango, an eclectic mix of Mayan folks dressed in traditional bright colours and Guatemalans dressed in WWF t-shirts. It was a bit of a let down after the views from the road, and the rain didn't really help. The following day another short ride took me to Lake Atitlan, described by Aldous Huxley as the most beautiful lake in the world. The lake is pretty, blue/green waters surrounded by volcanoes, but I quickly decided that Aldous had been at the hallucinogens again, he really needed to visit the Canadian Rockies ;)

However, staying near the lake had given me the opportunity to go for a paddle, so I rented a kayak for a couple of hours and headed out on the lake. That turned out to be a mistake as the weather, which had been fine all morning, had other ideas. It got windier and the lake got rougher until I was having trouble staying upright. Finally I heard a deep boom come from the other side of the lake, I turned and there was a storm headed my way across the water. Having given up on kayaking, I returned to the hotel and tried the pool, which being surrounded by tropical gardens and strange bird calls was a little like Jurassic Park. But it was unheated, the sky rapidly blackening, and when the rain started I beat a retreat.

The hotel grounds were cool though, sheltering trees of lime and orange, and several other fruits I can't name competed for space with flowers and hummingbirds. If it had been sunny it would have been great.

Next day I was planning to head to Antigua Guatemala which was supposed to be nice, "elegantly ruined" by an earthquake. When I got there the flooded, cobbled streets were a nightmare on the bike, it was impossible to see the surrounding volcanoes and I started to lose interest rapidly. Red 5 politely complained about the cobbles a couple of times and that was it, I was heading for Guatemala City. The day went downhill from there, really.

I'd read Guatemala City wasn't much to see, but I wasn't prepared for the sprawling chaos, total lack of directional signs, and the worst smog and pollution I've ever seen. Stuck behind lorries and buses belching choking black fumes, I followed my compass as east as I could, eventually passing through a narrow street lined with scantily dressed women in doorways, which came to a dead end. Feeling unsafe for the first real time on the trip, I made a hasty left and tracking north for a bit, eventually found a main road east out of the city.

I think I was maybe 20 kilometers out of town before I picked up a sign that confirmed I was on the right road. The weather worstened and my soaking was complete, if I'd jumped in a river I wouldn't have got any wetter. I stopped to get some money from an ATM and a brief conversation with a couple of guys who were admiring the bike revealled there were a couple of good hotels in Teculutan about 25 minutes up the road.

Getting back on the road, I realised I had a puncture and as I was looking for somewhere to pull in the situation started to sink in, it was too dark to see without a light, it was pouring with rain and I had a flat which I couldn't ride any further on. I got off cursing, checked and sure enough the back tyre was flat. I figured I would ride around the corner as the road there was not a good place to stop, and as I did so the lights of a petrol station came in view.

I figured I would stop there under shelter and light, and repair the flat. When I arrived at the garage I ignored the guys who wanted to fuel the bike and set about unloading all the luggage. Then I put the bike on the centre stand and got my pump out. At that point the garage staff descended on me offering to assist, and using a pneumatic pump we quickly found a gaping hole. First I tried to use "Slime" in the tyre, which is a liquid rubber you pour in, then pressure seals the hole. Having messed about removing the valve core and inserting the goo, I repressurised the tyre and it still leaked badly. So I fished out my puncture repair kit, which was a tubeless type that inserts little rubber mushrooms into the hole.

After figuring out how the whole contraption worked, I gave it a try and the head of the mushroom just sheared off. Useless stuff! One of the garage guys made a call - I'd assumed to a tyre shop - and ten minutes later whilst I was still trying to get a plug to seat, help arrived, in the shape of a kid of no more than ten years old (seriously). He had a different type of plugging kit using rubber worms, and at the second attempt the repair held. We couldn't find any bubbles after chucking water on the tyre, so I thanked the kid and gave him $20. The garage guys wouldn't accept a penny for their efforts, they just wanted to know who I was and where I was from.

We all exchanged names and I left repeating "that's very kind of you", a phrase I've learned since I got to Guatemala. The people here are amazing and will hold a place in my memory long after this trip is over.

I'd dropped one of my gloves but managed to find it a couple of hundred metres down the road in the hard shoulder, having retrieved it I roared off in the lightning and torrential rain to find an hotel. The two I'd been told about had no rooms available, and I ended up in the Hotel California (such a lovely place). It had no hot water, stank, and lorries hammered past all night on their way east. As I curled up under my mosquito net and tried to sleep, I realised that what made today worse than the day I crashed in Alaska was having no company to laugh it off with.

As Donkey from Shrek might say "I need a hug" ;)

Frase.