23 October 2011This was a 209 mile day, left at 08:05 and arrived at 18:30.
Ran in to a political struggle between two Guatemalan bureaucrats departing Guatemala. The long and short of it being that a 90 minute process took 3.5 hours and required us to provided written statements, in Spanish, that the bikes are our property and that we're taking them out of Guatemala. Thus we again violated Rule Number 1, NEVER ride at night in Central America.
Got to Santa Ana without a problem and went to the city center to find a hotel. No luck. A shop keeper saw us studying the map and asked to help. Very little English and of course no Spanish on this end. Made it clear that we needed a 'nice' hotel. He hailed down a cab, knows the driver, and for $8 US he lead us about four miles to the Hotel Tolteka. Nice place, $59 US, includes internet and breakfast. We're taking a rest day here.
Yesterday a friend that is about two days behind us went to Lake Atitlan and was beaten and robbed, and his bike damaged. He's OK but of course emotionally upset. The State Department advises to not travel to the Lake Atitlan area.
We're happy to be out of Guatemala with only a bureaucratic fight to which we didn't have a horse entered.
Dinner tonight with local BMW guys.