some old, some new...

Just a quick one from Ramate, Guatemala, as it is late and we have a big day tomorrow...

We entered Belize through the Chetumal border crossing at the base of the Yucatan. It was a pretty easy crossing, relatively speaking. The immigration guy looked up from his paper, starred at me for about 10 seconds and then said, "what do YOU want???". "What the fuck do you think I want, I am at immigration for the love of fuck." is what I said to him, in my head. Out loud, I asked for permision to enter Belize.
Corozal was the border town just in Belize, and if one more guy with gold teeth and a $50 ball cap asked me for a dollar I was gonna lose my shit. I even told Tony at lunch that I thought Belize sucked and that I couldn't wait to get to Guate. We motored away from lunch, and came upon some amazing cane fields (see Tony's previous post), past Belize City, in and through Belmopan and towards the Guate border. Sparsely populated and smaller that NB, we were 3 miles from the Guate border at the end of the day when we found the Trek-Stop. It was an awesome little eco-tourist type place with a great host named Tino.

Our own cabin:


The composting toilet building with bags of wood chips:


The outdoor rainwater showers. The sun heats the water during the day, and the moon lights it at night. It was sweet.


The common room/kitchen/beer fridge/dart board:


The medicinal plant garden:


Complete with guard dog:


It was a truly amazing oasis that changed my mind 180 degrees about Belize. We ended up staying for two days, checking out the Mayan ruins at Xunantunich and Calam Peche, which were also great.

Tony exploring:


The Mayans had a sweet view of Guatemala:


We got up this morning and attacked the crossing into Guate and it was relatively simple too. First, go to immigration to get stamps, then to customs for vehicle registration, payment (40BZ) and inspection, then the "agriculture inspection" where a kid sprays the bike with goop then charges you 20BZ. Tony and I did it separately so we could watch the bikes, although in hindsight, they woulda been fine...I messed about with the camera while waiting for Tony to finish up.

Cheesey border pic:

We rode into El Ramate, on the edge of Lago Peten Itza through some of the most amazing jungle yet. Cool little towns, children playing, horses, donkeys, cattle, dogs, pigs everywhere, men carrying firewood, women cooking outdoors...it was awesome to see and smell. The rumble of the V-twin made it even cooler, if that is possible. We ditched our gear at a hotel and rode up to Tikal, one of the largest Mayan ruins around. I am not gonna say once you've seen one you've seen'em all, but... It was impressive none the less. Tony got some great pics of the Howler Monkeys and wild birds (some sort of turkeys, pheasants, wild parrots and another bird that sounds like C3PO...). He will post later.

We called a night with some Cerveza Gallo and this littel guy.

Guatemala is excellent so far, tomorrow we plan on riding straight south to Peurto Barrios on the edge of the Golf of Honduras. The bikes are holding up excellent, although mine has developed a failing dust seal on carrier bearing which I am keeping an eye on. The grit and grime of the roads here is really hard on gear. The helmet and riding gear is soaked in sweat all day and never really dries out. It hit 100 again today. Aiii.

All for now,

Pedro.