The Nomads

Pedro & Maria, owners of Terrazzo Hotel,Restaurant & Bar in Flores. Good food and the BEST coffee we've had since leaving home.

Left Isla Flores, Guatemala
Temp: 36 degrees C
Sunny and hot & Humid

Everything was wet this morning but the rain had stopped and the air had cooled perceptibly from last night’s temp.

We had breakfast and headed out for poptun and agua caliente.

The road was good and the scenery was great.The geography was amazing and the jungle impressive. For a good portion of the drive the hills looked like giant ice-cream scoops of dirt dropped here and there all over the landscape. As we got closer to Honduras the mountains changed to heavily sculpted peaks and valleys.

We are seeing vegetation we haven’t seen before which makes things interesting. Below is a pic of a Morros tree. The fruit grows on the trunk of the tree. The fruit is edible but , not when it is green.

We were quite impressed with the ride because of the scenery but especially because the ever-present trash and litter of Belize andMexico were no longer present.

The people we met were friendly and helpful.

I just realized this evening that I haven’t seen a traffic light for about a week….hmmmm and I haven’t seen plastic litter for at least two days!!!!

I regret to say, though, that as we were pulling into Chiquimula in southeast Guatemala on a rise in the distance were the “Golden Arches” of “Rotten Ronnie’s” . I thought it was a mirage!

No, we didn’t stop!

As we got into the mountains the air got much cooler, to the point where Susie actually wanted to pull on her bike jacket! Nice change!

The bikes have been acting up a bit because of the adulterated gas we’ve been getting, even though we never buy anything but “super” or “Premium”. They cut it with stove oil or vegetable oil or whatever they have on hand, I’ve been told. Whatever it is it causes a gummy mess. I had to scrub hard with a scotch-brite and laundry soap to clean the shellac of gunge from the fill cap…the bike regularly misses, stalls and stutters! The usual power just isn’t there and it’s struggling on the hard climbs in the mountains. I’m going to have to invest in a carb cleaning really soon.

It’s also possible that the air filter is clogged with dust and dirt from those dirt roads last weekend. I’ll have to check that in the morning…duh!

We pulled in to Esquipulas around five and found a comfy place for the night. Off to the Honduran border crossing at Agua Caliente in the morning.

Kilometers - Daytrip: 439 km total: 10,764
Gas: $ 26.00
Lodging: Hotel Portal de La Fe $53