January 19 :: Cunen, Guatemala

January 19 :: Cunen, Guatemala :: 78km / 1080km total

Another long hard brutal day in the mountains, but I was amply rewarded with beautiful mountain scenery. The route started with a 25km gravel stretch that was about 1.5 lanes wide, on average, with plenty of trucks and road construction going on. Backhoes perched precariously above the road, knocking down rocks and dirt directly onto the road, blocking it; there were no safeguards (other than common sense), and I waited until the backhoe driver saw me and waved before dashing across the piles of rock and dirt beneath it. It would have been a bad day to drive the road, and there were lineups of vehicles waiting to get through (a bulldozer would have to clear a path under each backhoe before that could happen). The drivers were a little agitated when I came zooming through... but then, they can´t lift their vehicle onto their shoulder and run over rubble!

I rode plenty of switchbacking road today, both up and down. The road in the Guatemalan mountains continues to be very steep, forcing me to walk in many places, so much so, that one foot is close to blistering from the sandals. One particular descent near the end of the day had me quite scared... steep, long, multipitch switchbacks with strong gusting winds blowing up the mountainside, threatening to knock me over. At the bottom I was treated to a 3km walk up the opposite, mirror switchbacking pitch. Overall I think I´ve gained another several thousand feet overall, but again there were tremendous climbs and descents in-between, making the net gain insignificant, effortwise... except that its chilly up here! brrrrr.

I was surprised to find internet in this little town, but again will have to wait to upload pictures from the last several days. I´m heading into Tourist Guatemala tomorrow, so should have plenty of fast computers and net connections.