Continuation of a Journey

When I arrived back at the lake, I felt a huge sense of relief. I had truly built a family here at the lake and I was extremely excited to see everyone again. I had loved seeing my friends and family back home, but it was back here where I felt like I needed to be.

Acatenango

There was one last thing that needed to be done before I continued my trip. Argo and I had hiked many other volcanoes and we saved one of the most popular for last. Each day, hundreds of people hike this volcano to watch Fuego erupt. While it most certainly is incredible and beautiful, I enjoyed the peace we got on all the other volcanoes, where we were practically the only people on them.

Like our other trips, we went up this volcano solo and with everything we needed. On this volcano, that is pretty strange as almost everyone does this hike with a guide service. Most people we talked to seemed confused or unaware that you could do this hike solo. There are some benefits of doing it with a group, especially if you are a standard traveler and you don’t have any of the camping gear. Argo and I didn’t want to have to be on someone else’s schedule or get stuck in a big group, so we decided to do it on our own.

We passed nearly many large groups of hikers on our way up. Even though we were passing others, I was struggling a lot more than I expected. I had been very lazy the past few months and was eating very unhealthily back in the States. I had lost a lot of my stamina and had to stop nearly every minute to catch my breath. My lack of physical strength bled into my mental strength as well. I began to doubt myself a lot and was wondering how I was going to go back to biking after this. I did all I could do and kept pressing on, one step at a time.

The first view of the top of Acatenango. By here we had finished nearly all the climbing and we were very close to the campsite.

Finding camping can be a bit tricky on this volcano as there are tons of cabins and dorms built here by private tour companies. You can see a few here but imagine many more, maybe hundreds. It’s almost like a small village on the volcano. Some of my cyclist friends had informed me of an area were many had found campsites before.

We found a nice spot to set up the tent that had a wonderful view of Fuego. Fuego is one of three active volcanoes in Guatemala but is by far one of the most exciting as it actively erupts lava nearly every 20-30 minutes.

It didn’t take long to catch our first eruptions. You hear the explosion first and then watch as the massive smoke clouds rise. We sat and watched a few before deciding we needed a nap in the tent, exhausted from the day’s hike.

We were woken up by a French guy asking if we knew about camping in the location we were in. Quickly I realized this was a cyclist since I was communicating with another cyclist the day before and she said she and two French cyclists would be trying to camp in the same area on the same day. There was Greta from Germany, who was cycling around Central America for a bit, and then Hugo and Elisa from France. A couple who had been cycling the past year and a half similar to me.

While looking for a campsite for them, we came across a very large and strong canvas tent that we could get inside. It had plenty of space for all five of us and seemed like no one was using it or any of the cabins around us, so we decided to all sleep in that tonight. It would be much warmer and stronger than our tents.

Some wonderful sunset colors on Fuego.

After getting moved into the large tent, we enjoyed a fantastic show of clouds and colors of the sunset. The volcano in the second photo is Atitlan.

After sunset, Argo and I prepared some delicious burritos for dinner. Normally I’m okay with only beans and hot sauce, but Argo wanted some more on it and brought ham and cheese. While I was hesitant at first, it was very delicious and I’m glad we brought the extra stuff.

After dinner, it was time for the real show. Fuego at night. During the day, you only get to see the smoke of the eruptions. During the night, you can see the lava. I had seen many many photos and videos of the eruptions and was extremely excited to watch the show.

It was truly fantastic. Nature’s fireworks with a wonderful night sky behind it. Watching the lava erupt appears almost like slow motion. We watched eruption after eruption for a few hours. We all decided to head to bed early since we were waking up for a hike to the summit for sunrise in the morning. I quickly found out my sleeping pad had a hole in it, which meant I would be sleeping on the ground the whole night. I have all the stuff to fix it, but it is all with my biking gear back at the hostel. It was a long, hard, and cold night for me.

At around 4:30 am, we started getting ready in the tent for the summit. Immediately after leaving the tent, we realized the weather was horrible. Very winding with no visibility, and a misty rain. I didn’t think it was a good idea to go to the summit because it wouldn’t be very fun and there would also be no reward for a beautiful view. Argo was determined so we decided to push anyway. It was only a 30-minute hike as well. Near the top of the summit, I decided to turn around. My clothes were getting soaked and the weather wasn’t getting any better. Argo and Hugo pushed on. I went right back to the tent, getting a little lost on the way since it was dark and hard to follow the trail.

After a few more hours of rest, we hiked back down and returned to Antigua for the night before heading back to the lake the next day. It was then that I started getting my bike ready to leave a few days later.

Back in the Saddle

After a final few days at the Iguana, it was time to finally get riding again. My last day riding on this tour was 234 days ago. I couldn’t believe how long it had been. It has almost been more time stopped than time traveling before. I also gained a buddy to ride with on the first day. Tim, the free diving instructor, was going to ride with me to El Paredon since his mom was going to be coming to visit on the Latin America cruise she was on. Argo and a few others from the lake were coming also so we would get a few more days hanging out.

First, we had to load the bikes on the boat. I was a bit nervous about this, as I had a lot of experience on these boats and I know it can get rough sometimes. Thankfully the captain tied the bikes to the boat with some rope because by the end of this ride, my bike had slid and had both tires hanging off the side. Without the rope, it surely would have fallen in. The second boat ride was much slower and the bikes were tied down much better so I had much more confidence.

This is my buddy Tim from Australia. He had grown to become a very good friend of mine during my time at the lake. He is much younger than me, but for someone his age he has accomplished quite a lot and has a great outlook on life. He had created a freediving school out of the lake that does very well. He is a very motivated person and I believe he will accomplish a lot in his life. He has done some bike touring back in Australia and had also completed an Iron Man, so he knew this ride wouldn’t be too hard.

The ride to the beach was going to start very easy. It was nearly 2,000m of decent and only about 200m of climbing. The first 30km were all downhill and it was a blast. I was back to feeling the wind in my hair and seeing the world from my bicycle.

Once we had finished descending, the heat and humidity came full blast. It wasn’t long till we were both dripping in sweat and stopping for every coconut we passed. We were both feeling pretty strong still. The route I had planned for us took us through a bit of farmland that was nice riding.

There was a nice short section through some single track adjacent to some farmlands. It was always fun to see the reaction of locals when they saw us ride by here. They were always very confused and amused. Always extremely friendly also.

It was shortly after this section when my strength was slowing down. We had gone nearly 90km so far and still had about 30km to go. A few route problems caused us to have to take a slightly longer route as well. I hadn’t been hydrating well or eating enough and I was starting to get cramps. Also, my butt was not used to sitting in the saddle yet and every bump hurt so much. I was starting to struggle mentally and physically and was beginning to doubt if I’d be able to make it. We also were losing sunlight quickly. We only had about an hour of sunlight left with nearly two hours of riding left.

Tim was doing a great job of pushing me and keeping my mind focused away from “I can’t” to “I can”, but after a certain amount of time I decided it was best we hitchhike the last section into town. If we wanted to finish by sunset, it was the only way. It didn’t take too long to hitch a ride in a truck to town. From town, we still had a final 6km ride to the boat launch that would take us to El Paredon. It was a tough 6km, but it felt good to finish it on the bike.

The third boat with the bikes today. Thankfully this boat was much easier than the ones this morning. We got here right as the light of the day was fading away, nearly perfect timing. After arriving in El Paredon, we drank a beer and ate some fish tacos to satisfy our extreme hunger and thirst. Then we went to get checked into our hostel where we said hello to some friends and promptly passed out from exhaustion from the day.

The difficulty of the day put me in some low places. Just like on Acatenango, I had moments questioning myself and my ability to bike. How was I going to keep riding to Argentina if I was so weak? My strength and confidence in myself were at a low. Thankfully, I have been in these situations before and I’m well aware that these feelings will pass. It is best to push through it, knowing I’ll be stronger and more confident in the days to come. Strength doesn’t come easy, and it doesn’t come cheap. You have to earn it by pushing yourself.

I was staying at Driftwood Surfer. A party hostel that was closely connected with La Iguana Perdida, the hostel I worked at on the lake. This means I had an awesome free room. I stayed here for three nights and had a great time relaxing and recovering on the beach.

A volleyball tournament would take place every day when the sun started to go down.

Wonderful sunsets here on the beach. It was great to extend my departure from Guatemala a few extra days. By the time the day came to leave, I was extremely excited to head towards El Salvador. I said my final farewell to Argo, a guy who was a great friend and a brother. We planned to see each other again someday, no idea where or when, but we were both sure it would happen sooner or later.

It was only a two-day ride to the border of El Salvador. I got to enjoy a last little section of quiet farmland riding, but after that, it would be a lot of busy pavement. I was planning to take a pretty direct and fast route towards Costa Rica where I would slow down a little bit but then head towards Panama quickly to figure out my way to Colombia. I have been dreaming of the South American Andes for a long time now and can’t wait to get back to the remote, high-mountain wilderness.

I camped at a cool campground near the border called La Combi where Hugo and Elisa from Acatenango were also. They left early in the morning but we were planning on camping at the same place on the beach in El Salvador the next day. I slept in this cool old car at the campground which I got locked inside accidentally. I had to call the owner in the middle of the night to come let me out hahah.

After two boring days of riding from El Paredon, I was finally at the border of El Salvador. The end of my Guatemalan chapter. I was starting to feel strong and confident in my ability to travel by bike again and full of excitement for the new countries ahead of me. The border crossing was quick and easy and next thing I knew, Guatemala was behind me.

That is where I will end this blog post. My next one will share about my quick time riding through El Salvador and Honduras with my new friends. I’m writing this on Christmas Day in Leon, Nicaragua where I’m taking a few days off for the holidays. So Merry Christmas to you all! Thank you all for following along and welcome back to the biking stories again. There is much more to come.