World Tour - Europe, Asia, North and South America - Entries for: Guatemala
29° | sunny / rainy | km 445
Mayan Slip 'n Slide
on 2017-09-20 in Guatemala
Crossing the border went as usual, lots of running around from one official to another. Having to pay small fees here and there, some in the local currency others in Dollar. Slowly we realized how good we had it in the past 7 Months with only 3 border crossings. But as always all you need is time and patience and since we had both we crossed without any problems.
Our main goal this day was to get as close to Tikal as possible. We wanted to visit the famous ancient ruins the next day and so we had planned to stay nearby for two nights. Since the border had taken longer than anticipated we arrived at nightfall. Once again our first experience in a new country was riding in the dark. Once we had found a nice hotel in our price range we settled down and after a small dinner went quickly to bed.
The next morning we headed deeper into the woods to find this ancient city, called Tikal. At the first entrance we bought our Tickets and received a paper stating that we would have to take 20 Minutes to get to the main parking lot. This way they checked that we would not speed in the area between the gates... smart thinking. After creeping along what felt like ages we managed to arrive at the main parking lot without receiving a ticket for speeding. The area of the ancient city is enormous and can easily fill an entire day of exploring. We decided to pick out the best spots on the map and take the most direct route. While walking towards the center and probably most spectacular part of Tikal we were thrilled to see a group of monkeys jump from one tree to another. Little did we know that we would see many other strange and foreign animals in this area. The temples were definitely worth seeing but once again our interest was mostly taken up by the wildlife around. Big groups of monkeys (Howler Monkeys), a whole bunch of long nosed raccoons (Coatimundi), Agoutis and many different strange birds. Sadly we were not able to spot some Toucans. A bird that so far has escaped our views. After about 3 hours we had walked and seen enough. It is an extraordinary sight to behold and worth every penny and second of it.
We did not spend much more time in Guatemala but one thing that must be mentioned that when riding during rain the roads became unbelievably slippery. The slightest pull on the throttle lead to either your back wheel spinning out or in our case the anti slip control to go wild! We have ridden quite a lot especially this past year but never have we ever encountered slippery roads like these. In turn our cruising speed went down by a lot during rain... and it rained... a lot!
We arrived at the border two days later for our next adventure with the officials and once again just when we arrived it started to rain some more...
Our main goal this day was to get as close to Tikal as possible. We wanted to visit the famous ancient ruins the next day and so we had planned to stay nearby for two nights. Since the border had taken longer than anticipated we arrived at nightfall. Once again our first experience in a new country was riding in the dark. Once we had found a nice hotel in our price range we settled down and after a small dinner went quickly to bed.
The next morning we headed deeper into the woods to find this ancient city, called Tikal. At the first entrance we bought our Tickets and received a paper stating that we would have to take 20 Minutes to get to the main parking lot. This way they checked that we would not speed in the area between the gates... smart thinking. After creeping along what felt like ages we managed to arrive at the main parking lot without receiving a ticket for speeding. The area of the ancient city is enormous and can easily fill an entire day of exploring. We decided to pick out the best spots on the map and take the most direct route. While walking towards the center and probably most spectacular part of Tikal we were thrilled to see a group of monkeys jump from one tree to another. Little did we know that we would see many other strange and foreign animals in this area. The temples were definitely worth seeing but once again our interest was mostly taken up by the wildlife around. Big groups of monkeys (Howler Monkeys), a whole bunch of long nosed raccoons (Coatimundi), Agoutis and many different strange birds. Sadly we were not able to spot some Toucans. A bird that so far has escaped our views. After about 3 hours we had walked and seen enough. It is an extraordinary sight to behold and worth every penny and second of it.
We did not spend much more time in Guatemala but one thing that must be mentioned that when riding during rain the roads became unbelievably slippery. The slightest pull on the throttle lead to either your back wheel spinning out or in our case the anti slip control to go wild! We have ridden quite a lot especially this past year but never have we ever encountered slippery roads like these. In turn our cruising speed went down by a lot during rain... and it rained... a lot!
We arrived at the border two days later for our next adventure with the officials and once again just when we arrived it started to rain some more...