South America 2008

Our beautiful hotel in Antigua, Guatemala

The view from the terrace of the hotel  in Antigua

Ramon, Roar, and Lucila planning our off road route in Guatemala City

On the roads from Guatemala City to Escuipulas, Guatemala

It’s common for people to get their vehicles decorated in Esquipulas so we tried to blend in, too. I rigged up this plastic folder so that I could easily look at the map, which came in handy many times. For the next trip I plan on getting a real tank or handlebar mounted map holder made for a motorcycle (although I’ve been told that “maps are for gays” (inside joke)). It’s a necessity.

The road from Gracias, Honduras to Esperanza, Honduras along La Ruta Lenca. Too bad we couldn’t snap photos of the sketchy detour around a bridge but we both had our hands full trying to keep from crashing.

People look at us all the time as if we were aliens. Looking at this picture I can see why. Here, in Esperanza, Honduras we took a short break and got the biggest, widest smiles from the locals. It was nice.

We had bumped into the Swedes a couple of times that morning. Shortly after this picture was taken we took off and ran into the Swedes (also riding through town) for about the third time that day. Without saying anything to each other we rode together for about the next hour before taking a bathroom break by the side of the road. We all rode at about the same pace and it was fun riding together but it was kind of funny how it happened. We didn’t talk about riding or hanging out together. It just happened naturally on its own…