Sanarate

Luckily, it didn't rain when we left Jorge's place. The route was pretty as usual, rolling through green mountains, but not too steep. After some 20km however, it started raining and didn't stop for a while, so we got quite wet and decided to stop in a bakery to fill up some calories and warm up as well. We cycled through a beautiful forest, but couldn't enjoy the views that much due to the rain. People told us that you can usually see quetzals, the bird on the Guatemalan flag, in this forest. But birds don't like rain either and prefer hiding.
After about 50km, we reached the turning point of today's ride, the end of a mountain range and also an intersection leading to some bigger towns. Here, things changed significantly: We had a long downhill ahead of us (50km, 1200m elevation loss), it stopped raining (positive!), but on the other hand, the landscape got way drier, there was a lot more traffic and rubbish along the road.
It felt like being in another country - what a difference a mountain range and the close distance to the the capital can make!
After the downhill, we reached a road that several people had warned us about because it's the main connection between the Atlantic and Pacific side in Guatemala. There's heavy traffic, exhaust gases and climbing on a one lane road - so no fun to cycle. So we hitchbiked again and were very lucky when we got a ride after only 10min. The family from the North of Guatemala dropped us after 30km at Sanarate where we found a hotel to spend the night.Read more