We´re In The Jungle Baby!!! Adios Mexico y Bienvenidos Guatemala

Well we were in the jungle....for about 20 minutes, then we started climbing. Within a matter of 2 hours after crossing the border outside Tapachula, Mexico, we had climbed roughly 7,o00 feet and saw a drop of 40 degrees in temperature which was a godsend since it was about 105F at the border. The past week of riding has given us steady temperatures in the upper 90´s and low 100´s, and we have literally been sweating our asses off. Now we´re in the Guatemalan highlands and it is absolutely beautiful. We spent last night in Guatemala´s second most populous city of Quetzaltenango, or commonly know as Xela (shel-lah). The city is set high in the mountains and is perfectly tucked in between several volcanoes in the heart of the Sierra Madre mountains. Just as Lonely Planet describes Xela, it may well be the perfect Guatemalan town and supports a wide range of both tourists and locals. There are a bunch of gothic type buildings set throughout the city that were a result of the Germans moving into the area once the Spanish moved out.

The past 2 days spent in Guatemala has almost been amazing enough to make me forget about what a pain in the ass the border crossing was. The border is literally set up to cause mad confusion and chaos among people who are not familar with it. As soon as Kyle and I pulled into the vicinity of the border we were swarmed by about 20 Mexican and Guatemala guys offering their ¨services¨to us which included everything from exchanging our Pesos to Quetzales (their exchange rate is crap) or helping us with getting our vehicle import permits from the border agency. The crazy thing is that everybody, and I mean everybody is in on the scam, from the border officials to the Passport stampers to the stray dogs running around everywhere, no one is clean. So we figured out that it does help to hire one of these ¨helpers¨ to walk you through the process, especially if you are not fluent in Spanish. I tried to get my passport stamped on the Mexican side since we didn´t do this on the way in the country, which I was refused. However magically after I gave one of these guys 200 pesos and he took my passport in the backdoor, it was magically stamped, no questions asked. Anyways to make a long story short, after a couple hours of going back and forth from office to office and basically sitting through loads of BS, we were through.

Today we arrived at the small town of San Marcos La Laguna on Lago de Atitlan. Lago de Atitlan is one of the most incredible lakes I´ve ever seen. It´s surrounded by mountains and 3 volcanoes, and is the deepest lake in Central America. San Marcos is probably the nicest of the villages sitting on the lake. There´s a very strange following of people that have gathered in San Marcos. There´s a large international community of hippies here, most sporting full on dreadlocks and teva sandals. This was never more evident by the fact that when we ordered tacos tonight we were asked for the first time ever if we wanted chicken OR vegetarian tacos. I could see the angst in Kyle´s eyes but he did a good job of hiding it. Let´s just say that Kyle is not the world´s biggest hippie lover. Anyhew...the place is amazing and I have some really cool pictures but it doesn´t look like this computer is going to let me upload them. Of course I will however when I next get the chance.

We got to play some soccer with some of the local kids this evening which was pretty cool. We also went kayaking in the lake and are staying at an amazing Hostel right down on the water. Tomorrow we head to Antigua. Till next time...

Clay