Municipio de Santa Cruz Verapaz

At the riders meeting we are warned that this is the toughest day of the tour, particularly given the tough day we had the day before. We are going to climb over 9,000 feet and it’s going to be hot and at altitude. I didn’t sleep well at all due to the road noise and breakfast wasn’t the best so it’s not great preparation for a tough day.
The first climb starts immediately, is 6 miles long and about 3,000 feet of climbing. There are some great views as we climb and there is a beautiful sweeping descent where you have to keep remembering to look at the road surface as the views are quite spectacular. However the next climb starts and my legs die. I crawl into lunch but it’s so hot I don’t feel like eating - just take a bottle of cold water and try and rest. Andrew comes in and is suffering from a terrible bout of gastrointestinal something or other and has had to dive into the bushes a few times. I offer to ride slowly with him if he wants to continue and John goes on.
Lunch is by a (very basic and precarious looking) viewing platform with amazing views across the rainforest covered mountains.
Andrew and I set off in the searing heat, sometimes getting off to walk up the steeper sections of the 13 mile, 3,600 feet climb 🥵 . After a while the sweep rider catches us up so I leave Andrew with them and continue to crawl along. It takes all my will to keep going as I have zero energy. However the scenery is beautiful as we pass through little villages along the edge of the hillside. At one point there is the most amazing live music coming from a wooden building high up - lots of people are walking up to it. I look across the end of the hillside at the top of the valley and wonder whether there has been a landslide as there is a scar on the side that appears to be smoking. I realise it is a large rubbish tip that is smouldering. Just as I reach the point where the paved road becomes dusty gravel, Malcolm the tour leader pulls up in the Mafiosa and asks if I want a lift across the 2km gravel section - avoiding the burning rubbish dump - I leap at the chance! John has long since ridden this and passed the people washing themselves / their cars in the water pouring off the hillside above the gravel road.
I get dropped off at the end of the gravel section and crawl the last 6 miles or so - I don’t know how I managed to make it to the hotel - one of the hardest rides I have done. 9,000 feet of climbing and 8 hours in the saddleRead more