Parked our Motorcycles in San Pedro, Guatemala due to landslides
Just a brief note to let you know we're okay in case you've been reading
about the weather in Central America, both Guatemala and El Salvador (and possibly others ) issued nation state of emergencies last week due to the severe tropical storms, many related deaths, tons of flooding and many roads and bridges washed away... quite serious.
Road to San Pedro Guatemala
Photo credit: http://esr.cc/p8XVaA Jay Kannaiyan, On a multi-year motorcycle journey through Latin America and Africa
We got stuck in San Pedro, Guatemala near where we were robbed for 4 or 5 days due to landslides and were in jeopardy of missing our boat to Colombia on the 24th so in the end we hired 2 4x4 pickup trucks to carry our bikes out on the road where we were robbed, as the main road was still blocked in many places by landslides. It was in much worse condition after the storm and it was was not passable by bike. We made it to the next town, but still had to get back to the highway and to Guatemala City, and it was raining hard. We road up into the mountains and road by, over, around and through hundreds of landslides varying in size from small to massive. Lots and lots of mud, some of which was a little scary on my bald tires. Crossed many streams running across the road and saw many sections of the road that has been washed away.
We would never ride in conditions lime this back home but here it made for some very memorable and exciting riding. Ive never seen anything like it. We've spent the last few days racing across the rest of Guatemala and have crossed El Salvador and Honduras and we are now in Nicaragua crossing into Costa Rica tomorrow, we've been chased by heavy rains everyday and have been soaked from start to finish of each day. The roads and scenery are fantastic in this part of the world, so we don't mind getting wet, really great riding. Border crossing have all gone very well, however leaving Honduras and entering Nicaragua the morning took about 2.5 - 3 hours.
We should make the boat by he 23rd, but we still have to cross all of Costa Rica and Panama 1st. My only regret is rushing through these countries, they are so beautiful and there is so much to see. Oh well, there's always next time.
Managed 22,000 km on my tires, got a new set in GC, had them mounted in the street for $7.50. The BMW dealer in Calgary charged me $95 to mount a single rear tire on my GS last year, and I took off the wheel and brought it to them! Luckily before pulling away I noticed they put the front tire on backwards... it's all good now.
Met up with a guy from Halifax on an R1200GS ADV and been riding together for a few days, our 3 filthy bikes are parked in the small lobby of the hotel in front of the desk, it looks like a mini BMW showroom in there. Nice!
Cheers,
Jordan
