The Highs and Lows of Guatemala

After our relaxing morning we pedalled to El Estor, where we ate an early lunch and learned a bit about the history of the nearby nickel mine that had recently changed from Canadian to Russian ownership. The wonderful concrete road ended in El Estor so the ride past the mine was rough, with a small break where only one side of the road had been paved and we got to pretend that we were riding in New Zealand again. We were surprised at how big and beautiful Rio Cahabon was when we crossed it so stopped for yet another break to swim and cool down. Looking at the map we realized we will ride along this river all the way to Cobán, unfortunately for us we will do many more metres of elevation gain than the river (double, triple or more?). We started up the road toward Santa Maria Cahabon at 4 pm after only having ridden ~60 km (where did the day go?!) and managed to sweat our way up to the hamlet of Bella Vista, alternating between cycling and pushing the bikes up 5 km of the steepest stretch of dirt road we have ridden on the trip so far, and arriving just before dark. We were let into the grounds of a Mormon church and were then joined by a bunch of friendly guys, who had been playing soccer in the adjacent school yard until dark, asking about our bikes and gear, and teaching us words in the local language of Q'echi.Read more