January 22 :: Chiquimulilla, Guatemala

January 22 :: Chiquimulilla, Guatemala :: 177km / 1374km total

From Panajachel it was an 8km climb back up to the top of the volcanic rim... quite the way to start the day! Then, a spectacular traverse along the Eastern side of the rim with many views of the lake below, and the volcanoes across. After a quick breakfast I began a 35km descent, down the backside of the massive caldera towards the Pacific. What a joyride! I raced along, playing cat-and-mouse with a truck and a bus, sometimes passing them, sometimes being passed by them. In the end I beat the truck, but was beaten by the bus. Considering I´d pedalled for less than 5 minutes over the previous 40 minutes, not bad!

Now I was in a very different part of Guatemala, the Pacific slope... on the left (North), the mountains and volcanoes rise... to the right, a gradual slope down towards the Pacific Ocean. As I turned East towards El Salvador, 3 local racing cyclists went by. Sigh. Can´t let them get away with that! It took a couple of kilometres but I chased them down... and it was ON! The four of us raced along towards Santa Lucia over tremedous rolling hills. Eventually 2 of them pulled away from me on the big climbs, sacrificing the 3rd one... too bad for him. At the Santa Lucia turnoff I waved to him, and off I continued towards Escuintla.

The heat and humidity are back, now that I was at sea level (more or less). The pace slowed as I stopped every 10-15km to knock back yet another Gatorade. I must be keeping Gatorade in business down here, solo. Eventually I cruised into Taxisco... but the hotel was just not up to par (you can imagine the details for yourself). Very tired I rolled slowly along, eventually stopping at a roadside hotel on the main highway just past the Chiquimulilla turnoff. After 2 double-decker hamburgers I rolled myself off to bed.