Entering Guatemala

Location:

Talisman to Esquipalas

We arrived at the border crossing early but only to find that they would not process the bike documentation. They sent us back to a point 10 miles earlier where late last night, tired and weary, we had passed without seeing it. It causes us a delay of 1 1/2 hours. It is a bad start to the day.

We get a guide to help us crossing into Guatemala. For a few dollars they take all the paperwork and run around for you. It is painless and the costs of getting into Guatemala are low - the permit for the bike is only about $4.

Guatemala is hot steamy and very tropical. We run the CA1 and then head into Guatemala City. This route will take us direct to Honduras and miss El Salvador, avoiding a border crossing here.

The city is hell. The road dumps you in a myriad of narrow streets with no signs and bumper to bumper traffic. In desperation, we have to hire a taxi to follow out of the city. It is all eating into time. As we finaly hit the road from Guatemala, it runs a series of steep ridges, clogged by old trucks doing 10 mph and belching out fumes. Our time is ticking away today. If we want to claw back our day we have to try and cross into Honduras today as well.

The border closes at 6pm. We miss it by half an hour. The Aduana office is closed. We have to go back to Esquipalas and hole up there for the night. We are still one day behind our plan.