The High Road

One more day of rest and we were ready to ride again. We said goodbye to the roundhouse at 9 am, and climbed surprisingly gentle grades up to our highest elevation on bikes at 3031 m. Joe, a British cyclist who stayed a night at the roundhouse as well, caught us near the summit and shared the awesome descent back to 2500 m with us. From there, the three of us rolled through small villages and passed numerous shafts in the hillside where people were mining sand and gravel. It took a surprisingly long time to find a good place to buy lunch, but we eventually had a good feed before descending through the clouds on grades over 20%. Our brakes were really put to the test as we descended 1000 m in 2 scary pitches to the shores of Lago Atitlan and the town of San Pedro La Laguna. We made it in one piece, but Karl's rear wheel developed a wobble from the intense heat of his rim brakes. We later met a couple on a tandem who's front tire burst from the heat of rim brakes - not a descent to be taken lightly...Read more