Thurs, Feb 26 - Raxruja, Guatemala

I saw some crazy things on the road today. First off, I got very confused coming out of Flores. It´s like many roads in Mexico and Central America, that starts out as the main road into town, and suddenly turns into a city street, then an alley, and YOU have to figure out how to get to the road that goes out of that town and to the next one. I took the wrong road out of that town, and ended up going far out of my way (for the third time today). I´m getting good at asking ¨Donde esta la ruta a Coban? Es esta la ruta? Todo recto? Bien, gracias¨.

Soon after coming onto the correct ruta, I came across a road block. Not with the police, the military, robbers, or people trying to sell things. This one was by a large herd of cattle, all running up the road towards me! After a while they cleared out, and I got to pass through.

This road is one of only two that connect the Northeastern part of Guatemala with the cities in the south and west parts of the country. So I expected it to be relatively well paved and devoid of obstacles, which it mostly was. That is, until the road ended in a small body of water.

Naturally, I was confused for a minute until I noticed a ferry loading up cars on the other side. This one wasn´t hand cranked, though. It was rigged up with 3 outboard motors, all along the downstream side of the boat. I felt just a bit out of place on this rickety makeshift ferry (that cost 5Q) with cattle trucks, old beat up cars, and a 100cc dirt bike. The largest bump yet on this trip has to be the one getting off the ramp of this ferry onto the gravel road up the riverbank - it sent my butt flying so far off the seat I was standing straight up and had to death-grip the handlebars to sit back down.

I also saw the largest spider I´ve ever seen. I don´t know what kind it was (I didn´t stop to ask it), but I can say that I passed it at 60mph and could see EACH LEG moving! AARRGGHHH!

I´m far away from the tourist towns now, with the ¨eco-tourism¨resorts and ¨adventure tours¨and ¨jungle safaris¨. Now I´m riding through towns so isolated and traditional it looks like I´m watching National Geographic. The way people look at me pass by, or yell, or whistle, or wave, I might as well be driving a DeLorean. People bathe in the streams, by the road, the women balance their belongings on their heads, and every building has a grass roof, regardless of the composition of the walls.

I found a very simple hotel room for 35Q, by far the cheapest yet, and had dinner at a restaurant down the street for 40. Guatemala so far rates significantly under Mexico for food, but makes up for it in the gringo-on-a-motorcycle shock value.

No specific plans yet for tomorrow, I´ll just keep heading south and play it by ear.