Antigua

I rode towards Antigua via Guatemala city. I didn’t leave until early afternoon and arrived in the city to look for the #BMWMotorrad shop. I was in need of new tyres pretty soon and approaching my next service schedule. I managed to find the BMW car store and they directed me to the motorcycle store. 

When I arrived I spoke to them about tyres and they had #Heidenau K60 Scout’s in stock and could fit them immediately. The price was similar to Australia, and although I could possibly squeeze another 3,000kms out of the rear tyre I had completed 20,000kms on them, so I was happy to spend the money and have them changed.

 In fact I was more than impressed with this tyre choice. I had previously done 13k kms on a rear #Heidenau in Australia but it had squared off in the middle due to most of that distance being long, flat and very hot. I feel that I have justified my choice of going with light gear and lightening the weight of the bike where I could. Part of the thinking was to get better tyre mileage and reduce the pressure on the rear shock absorber and of course the final drive. So completing 20k kms with rubber to spare is great. There were some times of harder riding in Mexico and there had been lots of long flats in the US so I vowed to ride even more gently on these tyres and aim for 25,000kms.

 While I was waiting for the tyres to be fitted a Guatemateco guy started to chat with me. Meet Cisco. He was an interesting and funny guy from the outset and rides an #F800GS so we talked bikes and travel. Once again I had a captive audience.

‘You are travelling for three years? How can you afford that?’

‘You know. No house, no wife, kids are grown up…’

We swapped details and said we would keep in touch. This was one of those ‘chance’ meetings that becomes a defining moment in which direction I will head. Thanks intuition, working hard again.

It was approaching peak hour when I left the workshop to ride the hour and a half to #Antigua but I found myself quickly in traffic gridlock heading out of the city. Against one of my own rules I joined the throng of motorcycles splitting lanes and it was so commonplace that the cars for the most part move to the side of the lane to give the bikes room. Three-quarters of an hour later I was climbing the winding roads into the mountains and down the other side towards Antigua. It was well and truly dusk by the time I arrived and I was met with cobblestone roads, one-way streets, hundreds of accommodation choices but the first three had no parking for Ziggy. Eventually I found a hotel that was comfortable with great parking behind a metal gate, but it was 165 Quetzales with no Internet. Still it ticked the most important box of secure parking and I stopped there for one night. Finding food was a bit of a chore as the hotel was a good two kms out of town so I found some pizza and called it a night.