Antigua, Guatemala to Granada, Nicaragua

Due to Seth getting sick and the need to replace his rear wheel, we stayed one extra day in Antigua. To tell the truth it really didn't take much of an excuse to extend our stay at Anne's beautiful home while enjoying Francisca's incredible cooking. Seth and I spent most of this day relaxing and preparing our gear for the next push into El Salvador while Chris, not knowing the meaning of the word relax, took the opportunity to go on one last hike in the beautiful hills surrounding Antigua. His final day of exploring and sightseeing turned out to be quite a bit more eventful than he had planned. I have asked him to recount the events that took place during this final evening because it makes one hell of a good story and that's what this blog is all about. So, please welcome our first guest writer, Mr. Chris Zwolinski:

“You remember Brigette, who rode with us on our 16 hour marathon trip from Placencia, Belize by boat, bus, boat, bus, breakdown, new bus, and taxi to Antigua? She and I went the following day up to the Pacaya volcano and saw an absolutely stunning display of lava, even getting to roast marshmallows in a flow beside us. The next day, after going to the vendors market, we decided to go up to the Cerra del Cruz, or hill of the cross, where there is a good view of the city. It is a common place to visit, and you can either hike up there on a very wide concrete path and steps through the forest, or drive up on the other side. It is frequented by tourists and locals alike, although it is well known that you should not hike up without a police escort. But after a great review by a local gentleman who assured us that it was very safe these days with the Tourist Police patrolling the area, we decided that we could hike up on our own.

Another girl, Judith, from the hostel where Brigette was staying had joined us for the day, to the market, coffee shop, and now to go up the hill, which was uneventful. In fact, I was surprised at how short a walk it is. We were up and overlooking Antigua in less than fifteen minutes. There were a few locals there, sitting in the grass or on the concrete wall that curves below the giant cross. And above that, in the parking lot, several of the tourist police were sitting around talking.We only stayed ten minutes before starting our walk down. Now, as I describe this, I should have seen it all coming. We passed two guys sitting beside the path, then a third guy slowly walking. Ages between 17 and 22. When the two guys started walking down a cement water drain path to cut off time on the path, I remember thinking what a great set-up this would be for a theft, but that was all I thought.
 Now, with the girls ahead of me talking, and the three strangers behind me, the next thing I know there was an arm around my neck and as I turned to respond my heel caught the curb and we both fell backwards. As I struggled to retain this guy, the other two ran forward. Brigitte told me later that they had the knife, about a five inch swithblade, and told them they would kill them if they didn't give up their backpacks. Brigitte ran downhill and was yelling for help. (She told me later that her initial thought was, first and foremost: safety. And secondly: "No way in hell are they going to get my iPod Touch!!")

Judith had a burlap handbag and lost it to them in the first seconds. I wasn't there to witness that, but when the other two guys came back to me, I was still on the ground trying to gain control. The one guy holding the bag in one hand and a knife in the other, yelled at me several times: "la muchilla y nada mas!!" (your backpack and nothing else) so I reached out with my left hand and grabbed a hold of the bag. My right hand still wrapped around this guys neck. But, it didn't take much, and both guys standing were able to wrestle the bag out of my hand and take off running. Somehow, the guy that I thought I had secured, wiggled out from underneath me and took off as well, but was not successful in taking my pack.Shit!!! I got up and took off running after them, but they were gone through the woods in no time at all. As they disappeared from sight, I had neither her bag, nor the one guy I thought I had a chokehold on. And then struck the harsh reality that I am not twenty years old anymore.


After all of this, the police who heard the yelling came down the hill. I combed through the woods hoping that they might have dropped something. The police stayed on the path, where no thief would ever stay.
As it turns out, none of the three of us got hurt, except for more of the cuts on my knees that seems to be perpetual. Judith lost a camera, about $3 in Quetzales, and a guide-book. (the same guide book that tells you not to go up the hill alone). And in the struggle, all five of the huge avocados that I bought at the market were found smashed beyond use inside my backpack. Enough to make a person angry.
The police gave us a ride back to the hostel and wanted to know if we wanted to file a report. A report? Really? I mean, how would I describe the guys? Three Latin American males between the ages of 17 and 22? Gee, that certainly narrows down the suspect list.

Officially, no thefts have occurred in the years since the tourist police force has been formed about 8 years ago. But then, if nobody reports it, it has never occurred.
So, a couple of drinks at the pub, and my final evening in Antigua was over. Don't tell my Mom, OK?”
It is very important to note that what happened to Chris during our final evening in Antigua has not influenced our positive feelings towards Guatemala and the majority of the experiences we enjoyed there. 99.9% of the people we met and interacted with in both Antigua and the rest of Guatemala were extremely friendly and excessively hospitable. As in many places around the world including many places in the United States shit can happen and occasionally it does. Luckily, Guatemalans are relatively small people and Chris is a beast who wrestles Grizzly bears back in Alaska for exercise. I can just imagine the three thieves looking at one another after escaping from Chris's wrath and saying, “Dios Mio! What was up with that crazy gringo?”
So all is well that ends well and Chris got away with just a couple of skinned knees, which he manages to do on his own about every 4-5 days anyway, and the girl who would not stop complaining got her camera stolen, which works out splendidly because she now has something else to complain about as I heard she was running low on material. All joking aside we are very thankful that nobody was hurt and we can move onto El Salvador looking forward to a whole new set of adventures.
With our new companion, Tracy, we put in a full day of about 100km and made it about 60km from the El Salvadorian border. This was no easy day of cycling for any of us after being off the bikes for an entire month. The day was especially hard for both Seth who was still very sick and Tracy who endured two flat tires and some serious issues with her chain. After a late start that morning and numerous stops throughout the day we arrived at a small town with one hotel just before dark. The rooms turned out to be ridiculously overpriced so I negotiated with the owner to allow us to camp out next to the pool on little grass field. This actually turned out to be even better than the rooms and we got a decent night of sleep.

The next day did not turn out much better for poor Tracy as she suffered through another 3 flat tires and was almost not allowed access into El Salvador. She had already been in the C4 (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua) for 88 days and you are only allowed 90 before you have to leave these four countries. After much fuss they granted her entry with the condition that she had to report to the immigration office in San Salvador within 2 days. That night we camped out on the beach at Playa Metalillo under a beautiful little palapa. As soon as we got there we all sprinted for the water as we had not seen the Pacific in months and had not yet adjusted to the intense heat of El Salvador. I am not really sure if one ever does adjust to this kind of heat. At the time of writing this I have been here for here for over 10 days and am still doing some pretty serious adjusting.

By the following morning I had caught Seth's cold and was not looking forward to another day of riding in 100+ degree heat. Tracy was also not looking forward to another big day and she decided to stay in the neighboring town of Acajutla and take a bus to San Salvador the following day. Our time with Tracy was short lived but we were glad we could escort her across the border and wish her the best of luck in her travels.

The destination for that evening was Playa El Tunco which Seth's friend Justin Dodd claimed was one of his favorite beach towns in Central America. Getting there that day was nothing short of dreadful as the heat was unbearable and the terrain was classic up and down coastal riding. Nonetheless we made it there and decided to take the following day off to relax and allow Seth and me to get over our colds. We did in fact enjoy our time in El Tunco very much along with hundreds of other El Salvadorians on vacation. The place was packed but mostly with local tourists and very few foreigners. We did however meet an Irish couple, Martin and Nessa, who started cycling in Cancun and plan to make the entire trip to Argentina. They also decided to join us on our May 10th Panama to Columbia sailing trip with about 10 of our friends from the US. They will be a great addition to this adventure and they seemed very excited to be included.

 

I finally checked my email on our day off and discovered a very long thread of emails between our new one woman promotion team, Ana Huson, and what seemed like half of the population of El Salvador. I discovered that in our mere two days of being in El Salvador we had already missed two of the houses that Ana had set up for us to stay at. Luckily she had yet another spot lined up for us directly next to El Tunco in La Libertad. The plan was to meet up with Ana's sister Marta at about 6:30PM in Sunzal and she would escort us to the new spot. We never expect much when people do us favors and we are always more than appreciative when even the most meager of accommodations are offered to us. Which is why when we walk into a place like the house that Ana and Marta lined up for us we can't help but feel like we won the lottery. What's more is that the entire time Marta and her husband, Quique, were showing us around the house they kept assuring us that if we didn't like the place we could move to a private club on another beach the following day. The house is a beautiful two story 4 bedroom home that had enormous 9 foot glass bifold doors which open to an immaculately landscaped yard with a huge pool and a picturesque ocean view. Needless to say we we had no desire to move anywhere and were very excited to have a few extra days to relax on the beach.

Two days later we heard from Marta that Ana who had arranged another television interview on a morning program called Viva La Manana. After this interview we headed over to the newspaper La Prensa Grafica and did another interview which was published in an article the following day. With all of our press completed we prepared to move to the next beach house that Ana had set up for us in Costa Del Sol. We finally got a little bit smarter and got a jump on the sun by leaving while it was still dark around 5:00AM. Unfortunately, we didn't really think about the fact that we would finish the ride by 9:00AM and we were not supposed to meet Quique and Rodrigo until about 3:00PM. However waiting around in the shade beats riding in that kind of heat any day. Once again our friends hooked us up with yet another incredible house, this time located between an estuary and the Pacific Ocean on a long peninsula similar to Placencia. Quique and his two sons drove over a hour and a half simply to make sure we got into the house and show us around the property before returning back to their restaurant, Tre Fretelli, in San Salvador. The level of hospitality that has been extended to us during our time in El Salvador is truly inspiring and really says a lot about this wonderful country and people that live in it.

Speaking of hospitable people, our new friend and interpreter from the aforementioned newspaper interview, Luis, and his buddy Limon also drove over an hour from San Salvador to treat us to dinner in Costa Del Sol. Dinner was excellent but we were even more excited about the invitation that Limon extended to us to go fishing in the estuary on Friday, then again on his boat in the ocean on Saturday, then meeting up with Luis and hanging out at his lake house on Sunday. After thinking that we would be back in the sweltering heat cycling south the following day this was a very pleasant surprise. The next day we met up with Limon's contact in Costa Del Sol who took us fishing all over the estuary where we trolled the mangrove shorelines. Although we had a few hits and an impressive hook-up on Seth's fly rod, we were unable to land any fish.

The following day Luis returned to pick us up and informed us that there had been a change of plans. He told us that Limon had something even better lined up for the weekend and that he was extremely bummed that he could not join us because of a wedding he had previously committed to. He dropped us off at Limon's office in San Salvador where we were updated on the new plans. Instead of heading to Metalillo where Limon has his boat and beach house, we were headed out to Marina Las Barillas to meet his cousin Luis (Pipe) and his wife Kitty whose family owns the marina and surrounding plantations. It is never good to hear that a fishing trip has been canceled but little did we know that we would have one of the most eventful weekends of our entire trip. The plan was to head out to the marina where we would be shuttled on a boat to their remote house out on the bay. Because we did not get to the marina until later in the evening it was decided that we would stay in a couple of the rental condos in the marina which were nicer than anything we could have imagined. Here we met some more of Luis and Limon's friends and prepared for our action packed schedule.

First thing in the morning we were on the water fishing and this time had some better luck as we landed a number of good size jacks while trolling behind a shrimping boat. Luis had never landed a single fish in his life which rapidly changed as he reeled in two jacks at the same time on the same Rapala lure. As soon as we finished fishing we got a quick bite to eat then headed back out on the water with a huge pontoon party boat followed by a smaller skiff which we used for water skiing. Our destination was a secluded beach accessible only by watercraft where we enjoyed waterskiing and a few cocktails while watching the sunset.
We were woken up the next morning by Luis who had rounded up three brand new 4-wheelers along with the manger of the entire estate to tour us around all of the various plantations. Luis explained to us that after the Civil War in El Salvador all of the land was taken from any person owning more than 200 acres and redistributed to the people. Many of the new landowners were unable to utilize and produce anything on their newly acquired real estate causing the overall production in El Salvador to decrease significantly. Kitty's family is in the process of re-acquiring much of the land that was taken from them after the war. Luckily, we were able to tour much of this land on the 4-wheelers and saw some amazing scenery.

After checking out the various plantations and crops we were taken to a small house amongst a number of banana trees. The man who owned this house had managed much of the surrounding land for decades and was infamous for his ability to call a troop of about 30 monkeys by screaming the name of the alpha male, “PANCHO!” Within about 60 seconds monkeys could be seen diverging on our location from all directions led by their fearless leader, Pancho, who walked directly up to the old man and snatched a ripe banana out of his hand. Many of the troop followed Pancho's lead and took the bananas from our hands and devoured them while swinging around above our heads.

After the 4-runners we quickly got a bite to eat and were back out on the water, this time using kayaks to navigate through a maze of narrow mangrove channels. After the kayaking we finally said our good-byes to everyone and headed back to San Salvador with Limon to meet up with Luis for dinner.

We can't thank Pipe and Kitty enough for showing us one hell of a weekend and extending us an invitation to a truly magical place. What I find so inspiring about our time in El Salvador is that all of these invitations, hook ups, and connections were offered to us by people that really had no clue who we even were. What's more is that we were rarely asked how we knew the host or why we were even there. To tell you the truth it would have been a hard question to answer considering by the end of our time in El Salvador the “chain of connections” was almost longer than I could remember. It was enough for everyone that we met, that someone they knew had asked them to show us a good time and in turn treated us like we had been friends our entire lives. And furthermore, setting us with all of their friends living in countries south of El Salvador.

The plan was to stay the night at Limon's place in San Salvador then get a ride back out to Costa Del Sol the following day but Seth became extremely ill from a bad case of food poisoning. We were forced to stay another night in San Salvador and thank God that we had Limon's air conditioned apartment or Seth would have been in serious trouble. This did however allow Chris and I the time to do another interview with the other major newspaper in El Salvador. After sleeping for a day and a half Seth felt well enough to make it back to the beach house in Costa Del Sol and we set out at 5.30AM the following morning. This turned out to be a very bad decision as it was not more than about 30 miles into the day when Seth started throwing up off the side of his bike every couple of miles. By this time however we were in between towns and had to push on to our intended destination of Usulutan. Unfortunately this meant that Seth had to put in a nearly 70 mile day while feeling worse than he had on the entire trip.
We decided we would stop every 10 miles or so to give Seth a much needed break and allow him the luxury of throwing up in a toilet rather than off the side of his bike. During one such stop Seth was curled up sleeping on the ground behind a gas station while Chris and I were picking mangoes and talking to two security guards sporting sawed-off shotguns. They saw that Chris had a camera and wanted him to take their pictures. My personal favorite is the one of this guy multitasking the duties of watering the lawn and guarding the register.

By this time the temperature had reached about 100 degrees and was even hotter on the black asphalt road. The town of Usulutan was still about 10 miles away and Seth pushed on without complaining. When we finally arrived we immediately started asking for the nearest hotel and prayed that they had a room with AC so that Seth could get some relief from the heat. Of course we get 10 different sets of directions to hotels that didn't exist and Seth was looking like he was on the verge of passing out. At one point we were surrounded my a mob of people all yelling different directions while some lunatic was screaming in Chris's ear and repeating everything he was saying while dancing around like a maniac. Meanwhile Seth was sitting on the side of the road with his head between his legs trying to stay conscious and I was viewing the whole scene in disbelief. I could not help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. I only wish I had taken a picture of the transvestite that was prancing around Chris and mimicking his every word. We finally escaped the mob and Chris's new admirer and continued south down the highway after unsuccessfully scouring the town.

Further south we finally came upon a drive-in motel called The Nevada Hotel. We were forced to settle on a room that had a single bed for the three of us and I knew we were in for a treat when the negotiations started with rates by the hour. I finally worked out a deal to stay for 2 nights, or 36 hours, as there was no way Seth was going anywhere the following morning. We even got the guy to throw another mattress in the little love dungeon. All Seth cared about was the fact that the room had AC, a private bathroom, and all of the free hardcore porn he could handle. Gotta love it when there is a toilet paper dispenser directly next to the head of the bed and the entire room is tiled for easy hose down cleaning. Good thing we didn't have a blacklight!
While Seth recovered back to life, Chris and I spent the following two days walking around the town of Usulutan where we stuck out like sore thumbs wherever we went. I ate 4 straight meals at the same pupusaria where all the food I could eat including drinks would come out to just under 2 bucks (pupusas are national specialty in El Salvador). By the second night the owner came up to the table and actually started speaking to us in English. He informed me that he used to work in LA as a delivery man for those blow up castles that little kids rent for their birthday parties. He now owns 6 different pupusarias in El Salvador and is also the director of the local red cross. We talked for over an hour and he treated us to all the pupusas and hot chocolate we could handle. He could not figure out what the hell we were doing hanging out in Usulutan. Mind you this is no small town with a population of over 350,000 and this guy said he had noticed us every time we walked by. He informed us that they don't get many North American tourists hanging around for multi-day vacations. The entirety of our conversion took place amongst the occasional small drug deal that he nonchalantly excused himself to complete outside the front door of his restaurant. Very nice man.
After two nights of luxury living in the Nevada Drive-In Sex Motel, Seth was ready to roll and we headed south for the Honduras border. The only highlight of this crossing was catching a guy trying to steal something off my bike while I was talking to immigration. Luckily I could see him and his buddy setting the whole thing up as one of them tried to block my line of site and the other sneak his hand into my handlebar bag. I immediately confronted the man who was closer to the size of a 12 year old boy and he quickly removed his hand from my bag and scurried off. Our short time in Honduras was characterized by scorching hot days, a pleasant night in Choluteca, and being chased by more kids screaming GRINGO than all of the other countries combined. This was hilarious and it was as if they could sense us coming from miles away. No matter what these kids were doing the second they saw us they would explode into a chorus of gringo chants. While most of the kids preferred to just scream the word chaotically, occasionally we would be treated with a slow and harmonious number that always gave us that little extra push.

After two days and one night in Honduras we entered Nicaragua and made it to the town of Chinandega by about 3PM. Earlier that day we stopped at a small roadside tienda to get some cold water and had to step over a number of fine gentelmen sleeping of a mid day hangover. Seth made a new friend with one of the individuals who was not yet quite hungover and rather still much in the prime of his intoxication. He insisted on pulling Seth's face down just inches from his own so he could whisper undecipherable secrets into Seth's ear. He would follow up each one of these secrets by putting a finger up to his lips and loudly hissing shhhhhhhh! After this continued for about 10 straight minutes Seth was ready to move on but apparently his new friend still had some more top secret info to disclose. When I looked back Seth's buddy had a firm grip on the back of his bike and was sprinting after him as fast as he could until his little legs could no longer keep up and he stumbled down on the side of the road. As we made our escape I could see the man in my rear view mirror holding his finger to his lips reiterating the importance of Seth's discretion. Never a dull moment in Central America.
As we cycled around Chinandega looking for some reasonably priced lodging we were stopped by an older gentlemen running after us with a cocktail glass in hand. We stopped and he insisted that we join him for a drink in his friends house just up the street. We figured that our search for accommodations could wait and we decided to join the man and his friends for a drink. 2 bottles of Flor de Cana rum later and we were invited to stay for dinner which we gladly accepted as we were starving. We were also invited to sleep on the floor of their home which we also gladly accepted as we still did not have a place to stay. We were even invited out to a local salsa club where we made fools out of ourselves while dancing early into the morning. The following day our new friend and host wanted to take us out to the beach and show us around but we decided to push forward to Leon. Once again we were astounded by the generosity of complete strangers.

Leon is a cool city and we stayed in a popular spot called Bigfoot Hostal. I have never in my life seen a city with so many churches and cathedrals. We could not go more than two blocks without being confronted by yet another large holy establishment.

The following day we made it to Managua and met up with Limon and Luis's good friend, Javier. Javier picked us up and treated us to drinks and dinner where we swapped fishing stories for hours. It was immediately evident that we were going to get along with this guy as he clearly loves to fish as much as we do. He even set up a trip to take us fishing on his boat in Lake Nicaragua for Rainbow Bass which Seth and I have never before fished for. Javier met us in Granada two days later and we set out for the marina where he keeps his boat only a short distance from where we were staying. He brought along his buddy Juan who had joined the adventure last second and headed out on the water still wearing his slacks and oxford button up shirt.

Lago Nicaragua is a very unique lake that I cannot really relate to anything I have ever seen. The lake is surrounded by massive volcanoes that deposited huge pieces of rock into lake which created a long archipelago of islands that are privately owned and boast beautiful and luxurious vacation homes. We even stopped at the island and home that Juan's wife's family owns which is nothing short of spectacular. After touring around the islands for a while we headed out to Javier's favorite local fishing hole and it did not take long to get into some nice Rainbows. As I knew we would be fishing for bass I made the veteran call of trimming my beard into a Southern style lip slug. It is a scientific fact that all species of bass are more likely to hit a lure if the fisherman holding the rod is rocking a stache. It was NO coincidence that I caught the biggest fish of the trip. Although as my buddy Craig pointed out I look more like Freddie Mercury than a Southern hick.

We returned to Granada with our catch and had a sports bar cook it up in the local style and I can honestly say it was some of the best fish I have ever eaten. We even got to watch UW lose in the Sweet 16 which was the only bad part of the meal. Javier surprised us by extending his generosity even further with an invitation to his birthday party the following night at his house in Managua. Luis had warned us in El Salvador that his Nicaraguan friends could throw some serious parties so we knew this was an invitation we could not pass up.

The next day we caught a bus back to Managua and arrived at Javier's house around 9PM. His house, like all the other houses we have visited amongst this network of friends, is absolutely beautiful and the party was out held out around the pool. The night was fully catered including a whole pig roasting over an open flame on a hand rotated spit. The food was delicious and the party lasted until about 5 in the morning with music blaring so loud that a similar party in the US would have probably been broken up by a SWAT team.
After a late check out from our hotel the following morning we caught the bus back to Granada and checked back into the hostal where our bikes were being stored. Today we signed up for a week of some much needed Spanish classes and will be doing 4 hours of one on one tutoring for the next 5 days. We also said farewell to our great friend Chris who will be ending his trip and flying home out of San Jose, Costa Rica in about one week. We were very sorry to see our traveling companion of the last two months leave but we look forward to possibly seeing him again in South America.

As for moving forward we are very excited about some upcoming events in Costa Rica including invitations to stay in a number of sure to be beautiful homes in the Nicoya Peninsula. In addition our good friend and biggest supporter Mr. Bill Walton has arranged for us to stay in his favorite lodge in Dominical. MOST importantly 10 of our closest friends from California and Washington will be joining us in Panama City to sail to Cartegena via the remote and pristine San Blas Islands.

Sure to be some good times and hopefully some great stories.

Pebble Pedalers Featured in the El Salvadorian News

We were recently featured in two El Salvadorian Newspapers and also appeared on Viva La Manana (The El Salvadorian equivalent of Good Morning America). More to come about these appearances in our next blog entry.  We are currently in San Salvador and will be back on the road again tomorrow heading for Honduras. 

La Prensa Grafica
http://www.laprensagrafica.com/deportes/otros-deportes/99237-desde-alaska-hasta-argentina-ciclismo-con-causa.html


http://www.elsalvador.com/mwedh/pdf/20100316/EDH20100316DEP101P.pdf

Antigua, Guatemala to Antigua, Guatemala (via Belize)

When our mother's long term friend caught wind that we would be visiting Antigua she wasted no time in offering us her house. As we got closer to the city and the details of the arrangement began to surface we knew we were in for something very, very special. However, the rumors did not come close to doing our experience justice.

When we arrived in the city we were welcomed by the house manager, Denis and his wife, Jazmin. The two did everything to make us feel right at home. Fracesca, arrived on the second day and prepared our absolutely phenomenal meals. We were so spoiled during our week in Antigua that I'm almost embarrassed to report on our temporary life of luxury. The juxtaposition of our life day to day never ceases to amaze. One day we will be looking for solace in a road side ditch and the next we will be in five star accommodations with a personal cook. I am so humbled and thankful for these displays of generosity.

On our first morning in Antigua over a breakfast prepared by Francesca the three of us casually mentioned to Denis that we all love a good cup of coffee and the next thing we knew we were whisked off, touring the areas most renowned coffee plantations and processing centers. Denis blew us away with his coffee knowledge and provided us with an amazingly informative trip. We got the full back-of- the-house tour, where we were able to see the process from start to finish and talk to some of the employees.

Months ago when our friend Peter mentioned that we should meet up with his parents in Guatemala City for their new restaurant grand opening, I was sceptical that the stars would align once again and put us in Guatemala City at the exact same time as the opening; however, both Parker and I remained optimistic. Sure enough, our timing worked out awesomely and we found ourselves enjoying dinner at Tres Fratelli in Guatemala City with Peter and Anna discussing the following days grand opening.

We attended the grand opening for Frisco Grill. The private party was held for family and friends and we felt honored to be included among the crowd. It was absolutely surreal to sit in a restaurant in Guatemala City and to be surrounded by photographs and memorabilia depicting our hometown. The ambiance and food were both nostalgic not to mention excellent! That night we met one of the restaurant owners who casually told us that he would be setting up an interview with one of the biggest stations in Guatemala for the following morning.

The next morning we woke early to meet Peter and Anna who planned to accompany us to the interview. As if it wasn't enough that Peter and Anna had a restaurant opening to contend with they both decided to support and transport us to the interview. Anna even stood in as our translator to make sure we did not blunder on any of the questions.

Despite the fact that Peter had chosen not to advertise the opening of Frisco Grill we returned to the restaurant after the interview to find a packed house. Apparently the word had gotten out that the brainchild of the Guatemalan favorite, Tres Fratelli had something else up his sleeve. Before we could say our good-byes Anna told us that she would be contacting all of her friends through Central America in order to set up places for us to stay. How did we get so fortunate?

During one of our days in Guatemala City we traveled down to old town in Zone 1 to check out some of the historical buildings.  The highlight of this trip was watching Chris purchase a cup of milk from a goat hearder in the middle of the city that proceeded to milk one of his heard and hand Chris a cup of fresh warm goat's milk.  Chris enjoyed this so much that he ordered another cup.

Before catching the bus to Puerto Barrios we even caught our segment on the news, which apparently aired a number of times over the next week. Puerto Barrios is somewhere you definitely don't want to spend anytime and the only thing notable about this town is that it provided us with our worst hotel room to date. I'd say the blood handprints on the wall were a good indication of the quality of the establishment.

The trip to Puerto Barrios was uneventful and reminded us how much we have grown to love our bikes and the slow mode of travel they provide. Riding by bus, completely separates you from the environment and the trip becomes more about the destinations rather than the journey. I felt kind of like a Fed Ex Package. Unfortunately, our boating and rafting plans in Belize made bringing our bikes extremely undesirable. Our experiences on some of the small boats made us thankful that we decided to leave our monsters behind.

Tarpon Caye Lodge

Parker and I have blundered into so many things that have worked out so well in the end that it has left me suspicious that there aren't as many accidents in life as there appear to be. It's tantalizing to think that we have ended up exactly where we were supposed to be. Our trip to Tarpon Caye Lodge had us both feeling like we ended up in exactly the right place.

We met Charlie the in the late morning in Placencia and joined him for the hour boat ride out to his private Caye, appropriately named Tarpon Caye. Once on the island we had a few minutes to look around and get settled before we started to rig up our rods for an afternoon session on the water. It was immediately apparent to both of us that we were in for something special. Maybe it was Charlie's wisdom and personality, maybe it was the fact that we had our own private island, maybe it was the fact that we were choicely positioned in some of the best flats waters in the Carribean or maybe it was a combination of all these that made us confident that our stay would be memorable.

Any scepticism about the presence of tarpon was dismissed in the first hour an a half when Parker and I hooked into two and landed one beautiful fish. We were even able to capture some amazing Tarpon aerials on film. Did I mention that we were a two minute boat ride from our room?

That evening we let the Tarpon rest and went in search of permit. Within the fist hour we were casting to our first fish. We had some excellent shots at these fish but we both went to bed that evening thinking we could've made better casts. Casting to permit is like taking a freethrow to win the game with one second on the clock. The pressure is always on, you have one shot and if you miss your chance you replay the scenario over in your head a thousand times. God it is addicting.

The next day we woke early to hit the flats while the tides were coming in. Within the first hour or so, I had hooked into and landed my first permit. It was no world record fish but one of the most satisfying fishing experience of me life. The permit photo was featured as Pic Of The Day on Wild On The Fly’s website, http://www.wildonthefly.com/content/pic-day?vid=282&pageid=11. No more than a half hour later Parker hooked into an even better fish that screamed off line until it was able to wrap the leader around some coral and break the leader. If there is anything more frustrating than blowing a cast, it is breaking of a nice fish after you have done everything else correctly.

Shortly thereafter, Charlie looked at his watch and realized that I still had time to obtain the infamous “grand slam.” So within a few minutes we were off to track down the only fish that had alluded us so far...the bonefish. True to form, Charlie had us on a huge school of fish within about a half hour and next thing I knew I was watching a bonefish pick my fly up off the sand.

Our fishing techniques are inventive and sometimes unorthodox but I'm pretty sure I blew the staff away when I swam out to the edge of a drop off, fully clothed with fly rod in hand to dislodge a snapper that had gotten wrapped around some coral. I was also able to employ a new technique of using my sunglasses as goggles by just submerging the lenses. Sometimes I surprise myself with my own genius. Chris almost wet himself when Marlin pulled the boat up alongside me and they realized that I was treading water.

The night before our third and final day of fishing a powerful cold front rolled over the Caye. We again went in search of permit early in the day but despite our efforts we were not able to hook into any fish. That's not to say we did not have plenty of chances. We had the opportunity to watch numerous permit approach our flies..literally touch them with their noses and then turn away, every time trying to stay relaxed enough to control our bodies from trembling in anticipation. We had to turn back to the Caye when the tide rolled in enough so that we could no longer track the permit tails.

We changed up our rods for heavier setups and headed back to chase Tarpon in the cove in front of the island. With only about an hour left to fish, my skepticism started to creep in about the possibility of hooking another silver monster. With just three minutes left in his turn (Parker and I were taking 30 min turns) Parker strip set into one hell of a fish that immediately started performing aerial acrobatics. Watching the video still gives me shivers. Even after over an hour and a half the fish was still jumping. Parker finally brought the fish up alongside the boat after nearly an hour and forty minutes. After a quick photo we released the fish. Absolutely awesome finale to a perfect trip. Our first and last hours at Tarpon Caye were spent landing tarpon.

We can't thank everyone at Tarpon Caye enough for their generosity in sponsoring our trip. As we told the staff, we will absolutely be back to create more memories with these awesome people. I've guided and been guided by dozens of people and Charlie is one of the best.

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We returned from Tarpon Caye, to Placencia in order to meet our favorite ladies. Eliza, Liana and our awesome mother made the trip all the way from the states to spend 8 days with us. After a harrowing night drive through the dirt roads of Belize the ladies arrived in Placencia unscathed. To celebrate this special occasion we rented a four bedroom villa on the lagoon in Placencia complete with a roof top pool. The house provided a perfect place to relax and drink mom's infamous Mai Thais (Mighty Thais) in preparation of our pending action packed adventures.

We departed Placencia and made the beautiful trek to Ian Anderson's Caves Branch Lodge where we had arranged a room for a night and a river tubing trip through a 7 mile cave. We arrived at the fairytale lodge in the mid afternoon with just enough time to explore the immediate jungle and cascading pool.

The next day marks a new trip highlight. The tubing trip absolutely exceeded our expectations and the caves were more majestic (not a word I typically throw around) and beautiful than I had imagined. The pictures do a decent job of translating the awesomeness of the caves, light, water, and the contrast of the creeping jungle at every opening.

From caves branch we headed directly for El Remate, Guatemala where we set up camp for the following days trip to Tikal. I won't spend too much time describing the ruins because I am sure someone else has already done it better and because this is something I think everyone should see for themselves. I'm not sure you could even over hype Tikal because no description can prepare you for the feeling you get when you first arrive at the base of these massive structures set among such dense jungle.

From Tikal we spent the afternoon in Flores, Guatemala and enjoyed some cocktails while watching the sunset on Lake Peten Itza.

We awoke early the next morning in order to make the trek back to Belize City. We accompanied the ladies to the airport where we said our goodbyes and then jumped a boat to Caye Caulker where we reunited with Chris. Unfortunately, we were unable to find him and the hostel he was staying at was full. After searching many of the remaining hotels and hostels we finally found a place with vacancy and got some much needed rest. The next day we explored the island and headed out to find a fly shop that supposedly existed to get some info on fishing the area. The fly shop was closed but we did find Chris sitting on a bench waiting for us as he knew we would eventually show up. We returned to the shop multiple times before we left Caulker but the shop was never open. Caye Caulker is a very mellow island that was a great place to hang out before heading back to Plecencia via sailboat.

We decided to use a tour company called Raggamuffin which runs a 2 night and 3 day sailboat tour from Caye Caulker to Plecencia stopping at 2 remote cayes. We were very excited to get back on the water and do some fishing and snorkeling on some very beautiful reefs. The idea of the tour as well as the places that we stopped was excellent and we had a great time hanging out with the other people on the trip. The only negative aspect was the crew who ran the trip like a elementary school summer camp. The captain had one of the worst cases of “small man's complex” I have ever seen. The very first day Seth and I got scolded like we were 8 years old for snorkeling too long and venturing too far from the boat. We were hoping that guy was just having a bad day but it soon became apparent that he needed to be the center of attention and have full control of everyone on the trip at all times. We were very happy to arrive at Rendezvous Caye where we would camp for our first night and have some time to ourselves. We would not be so lucky as the captain decided he would tell stories and jokes around the campfire for hours on end. Unfortunately, the caye was so small that we could not escape the sound of his voice without the help of our new friend and one of my favorite people that we have met thus far on our trip, Sir Alrich. Alrich is the keeper, the emperor, and king of Rendezvous Caye and lives in his “mansion” by himself for months at a time. His “mansion” is a small concrete and plywood room that has everything he needs to survive including a stove, a bed, and a single 50 watt light that runs off of a car battery.

As we approached the island we could see that there was someone walking around who quickly disappeared. When I inquired about the figure to the captain and his crew they assured me that the caretaker of the island was antisocial and that he would not want to talk to us. Once again the captain could not be more wrong. When I saw the same character immerge from his dwelling later in the evening I decided to test their judgement and approach the man myself.

Within minutes Parker and I were in a full blown conversation with Alrich and next thing we knew we were being invited back to his “mansion.” During his MTV cribs style tour of the place, Alrich made a point to show us his water bottles full of rum, his 50 watt light bulb, his grill made from an old propane tank, his FM radio, his bed that also acted as his dresser, and his depleted pot stash of which he says he goes through about ½ pound a month. The guy was nothing short of amazing. If that wasn't enough, Alrich let us in on the fact that he has “smashed” exactly “two hundred and terty seven” women. Never mind the fact that he is only 20 years old! When we asked him how he accomplished such a feat he let us in on his little secret.

So here it is... when you are in a club or bar and there are a number of girls around you not paying heed simply expose some money from your pocket and scratch it in order to create a sort of money arroma. When the girls smell and see the money they won't be able to resist and “the bitches will come runnin.” If it gets really bad you may even be “fighting those bitches off.” I'd say it's only a matter of time before Alrich lands his TV show.

When a huge yacht pulled up next to the island the following day and dropped of some spedo clad euro divers from Monaco, Parker, Alrich and I approached the driver of the 30' transportation skiff. The deckhand could not talk about his current employer but informed us that he used to work on Paul Allen's 450' yach and that when the fuel tanks went empty it cost over a million US dollars to fill them up again. To this Alrich exclaimed “Paul Allen mus make like ten times my salary.”

Before leaving Alrich gave us some more insight into his life and his daily activities. He usually dives off the west side of the island for conch and lobster which he stockpiles for weeks of consumption. It is not everyday you meet someone who says they are sick and tired of eating to much lobster. He also introduced us to all of his friends on the island including his flock of sandpipers which he knows each one by name as well as his arch nemesis, Larry. Larry is a hawk that Alrich said he used to be cool with until Larry swooped down and stole a a snapper that he had caught which was all spiced up and curing in the sun. He looked the hawk directly in the eyes and said “You know what you done Larry. I'm gonna get you for that shit.”

Please know that the opinions expressed here are not those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect reflect the positions of anyone besides Sir Alrich. These details have been included only to paint an accurate picture.

It was tough to part ways with our new found friend and get back on an overcrowded sailboat with our bad vibe producing captain but alas we had no choice. Later that afternoon as we approached our snorkeling spot and the sailboat engine gave out one last cough before finally crapping out altogether. This wouldn't be much of an issue on a short journey but the Raggamuffins rely on the help of the engine to make the voyage to Placencia in three days. Trying to maintain his composure our captain assured us that a mechanic would be visiting our boat that night to make the necessary repairs. Given our remoteness, we had our doubts.

The next morning we awoke to find a large crowd on the boat messing with the engine and making quite a fuss as to what should be done. It is important to note here that the mechanic could not be located the previous night which is quite odd on an island the size of a city square block. It wasn't like the guy had gone to the movies or out for a drive. When we approached the boat we could see that that the mechanic was so drunk that he could barely form words had to hold onto the tiller at all times as not to fall in the water. What's more is that he was still drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette directly over the oil and gasoline soaked engine. The seen was truly priceless. Needless to say the engine was not fixed and we departed a few hours late with only the use of the sails.

The captain informed us that because we could not use the motor we would be skipping the snorkeling trip that day in order to make it to Plecencia before night. As much as it sucked to miss the snorkeling it was very nice to be sailing without the noise of the small outboard. It was not until late into the afternoon that one of the crew started to make lunch which took close to an hour and a half to prepare tuna fish sandwiches. It was during this time that Josh, another client on the trip who had a few run-ins with the captain, asked the crew if maybe they should put up the other sail. I thought the captain was going to throw him overboard. Later when all 16 of us were informed by the captain to sit below deck in the cabin, I mentioned that it looked like one of the Florida bound Cuban boats you see on the news. Josh replied, “Yeah but they usually have much nicer boats and I hear the food is way better.” As you can imagine the captain was thrilled with this comment.

We finally arrived in Plecencia and said our teary goodbyes to the Raggamuffin crew and found a spot to get a good nights rest before our long day of traveling back to Antigua the following day. We caught the first water taxi the next morning at 6:30AM and did not arrive in Antigua until 11:30PM. The day included 2 boat trips and 4 buses including one broken down bus before we finally arrived in Antigua. It was to late to contact Dennis that night so we stayed in a hostel and hooked up with Denis the next day at Anne's Guatemalan palace. I repaired my wheel and we are ready to take off today for El Salvador. While I was searching for a shop to build my wheel I learned of a girl that just started cycling in Guatemala and was desperately looking for some cyclist to travel with as her partner fell in love with a mechanic in northern Guatemala and decided to go no further. So we are happy to welcome Tracy who will be riding with us for unknown amount of time.

Back in Antigua, Guatemala

After an action packed month of travel through Belize we have arrived back in Antigua.  A few highlights include, fishing trips, cave tubing, women, sailboating, interviews with the Guatemalan news, a restaurant grand opening, not to mention a trip to the ruins of Tikal.  There are so many events and misadventures to cover I am a little overwhelmed. Nonetheless, I have started to write and upload pics. It's hard to Belize this segment of the trip has already concluded but regardless we are very excited to begin the next leg. More to come...