Apparently Guatemala has a summer. Silly me, I thought since the temperature range year round stays between 65 and 75, no one would have thought of seasons the way we do in the Northern Hemisphere. Diane and I have experienced the wet and dry seasons, but now they expect me to believe that the have summer too? Throughout the city you see stores advertising sales for “Verano,” summer. I mean really, what can they be talking about? Well yesterday we found out.
After sleeping in until 7, because we had dinner guests until midnight, I awoke to piles of dishes left from the night before. Diane and I generally like to entertain for Sunday lunch, mostly because the housekeeper comes in on Monday and she can deal with the aftermath. Yes, I know, life is tough in the developing world, but for whatever reason we decided to have a dinner party on Saturday and now we were paying the price. Finally after cleanup and breakfast, Diane and I took the dogs out for a walk and discovered Guatemalan summer. Absolutely clear blue skies and temperatures well up into the low 80’s. And it being a Sunday, there is little traffic. By the time we got back it was around 11 AM we decided that staying in the house would not be an option. I suggested we take the motorcycle out for a ride. One of the problems of a mountainous country is that the number of roads that are available tend to be limited. So it is either off to either coast or head inland towards Antigua and Lake Atitlan.
Diane agreed to the ride and I looked for something for us to do. After checking Tripadvisor.com , I was that our favorite restaurant in Guatemala was downgraded from the number one spot to number two. It had been replaced by a café, also in Antigua called the Tretto Café. So we decided to ride to Antigua for a coffee. For most people Antigua is a once in a lifetime opportunity, but we probably end up there once a month. It is a pleasant colonial city, the original capitol of Guatemala that has an extensive selection of craft shops and restaurants. The old cobblestoned streets are a bit rough on the BMW’s suspension, but since setting it up to high it no longer bottoms out.
The glory of Sunday travel in Guatemala City is the distinct lack of traffic, today was no different. We headed out through the city and out via Roosevelt, a main thoroughfare. Motorcycles apparently are immune from the law and lane splitting, riding on the shoulder and weaving from lane to lane are normal occurrences. It has gotten so normal that Diane no longer gives me the leg squeeze to indicate her discomfort of my driving.
The one thing that can easily be missed is the plethora of old buses. Apparently Guatemala is the place where buses come to die. Be it old school buses or old Mercedes buses, the one thing that too many of them have in common is the ability to belch black grimy smoke. The air in Guatemala is pretty clean, but if you are behind one of the behemoth black belchers, lung cancer seems to be a breath away. Fortunately we only passed three or four of these and since traffic was light and my passing skills were heavy, we could simply hold our breath until we were past.
Once we were past malls at that end of the city, the road starts to climb as we head down the Pan American highway. As chronicled before, Guatemalan driving is not pretty. Keep right except to pass, why bother. Car not tuned and can’t go uphill, travel at 10 kph. Bus in the left lane, needs to drop off a passenger, just cut across three lanes of traffic. So riding here is an adventure and if you get into it, it can be fun.
As I power up the sharp curves I notice that right toe keeps hitting the pavement, I guess we are leaned over quite a bit. I am guilty of every driving infraction that you would expect. I lane split, I ride in the bus lane (well everyone rides in the bus lane, except perhaps the buses), I go to the front of the line when the light turns red… Of course all of this is considered normal, so no one complains, at least not too much. As we get to the turnoff to Antigua, traffic starts to build. I had forgotten that they are resurfacing the road and like most things Guatemalan, resurfacing takes time. Rather than resurface one lane of the divided highway at a time, they simply close the road and make the other side a “doble via.” So traffic back up and the shoulder is not too inviting. Our enjoyable freewheeling ride has changed into poking through a slow moving traffic jam. I use some of my NYC skills and the lack of concern for any traffic laws to make up time, but it is still slow going. We reach the middle of a small town, where one of the traffic police is “helping” by directing traffic. Just like all other places, the traffic police helping means things go slowly. Once we are past him, the road opens up and we are back traveling through the twisties to Antigua. Once in Antigua, I stop to pull out the piece of paper that has the address of the café. I look through all my pockets to no avail, but I think I remember the street it is on. For some reason there are many people selling parking permits and there seems to be a lot of people coming into Antigua for this time on a Sunday. Having been here many times, I take a turn away from the slow moving traffic and make my way towards the central square. I see an opportune time to turn and head to what I think will be the street. Lo and behold I park at the white curb, the white curb is reserved for Motorcycles, directly in front of the entrance to the café. Am I good or what? Nah, more likely lucky.
You enter a beautiful two story Spanish style building, with a center courtyard and doors opening on to a covered walkway. We go up to the café and look at the menu. Basically it is coffee, in any variety, and cookies or doughnuts. It must have taken a sustained effort on the part of the management to move this place up to #1 on the tripadvisor website. The, now, number 2 restaurant, Hectors, is the best place we have found to eat a real meal in Guatemala. We are not disillusioned and order two cappuccinos. I will admit, it was the finest cappuccino I have had in Guatemala and we did not even order the specialty beans. But the number 1 restaurant, I don’t think so. After enjoying our beverage we walk downstairs where there is an art gallery. It contained some of the finest pieces of Guatemalan art that we have seen, with prices to match. A small painting for 85 dollars, a large one for 3 thousand dollars, a lovely unique mask for 150 dollars… We looked but did not buy.
We were going to spend some time walking around Antigua, but as I exited I notice a sticker on my bike that tells me I should park in a white zone. I am in a white zone and I see the guy who issued the sticker. I am about to go after him (even though no fine is incurred) when a local English speaker tells me it is because I am in a no parking zone. Where is the sign I ask and he points down to the next block or the beginning of the block that I am on, facing the wrong direction of course. Okay, even I know futility when I see it, so we try to peel off the sticky tape and are moderately successful. Since we have to move the bike we decide to return home a different way, in that way missing the traffic jam caused by the construction. Of course we have only gone to Antigua via this route and never have left using it. It soon becomes apparent that we are going the wrong way and now we just want to get out of town. With a plethora of one way streets and us being on the outside of town, we apparently are getting close to the area where a procession is beginning. Remember those guys selling parking tickets when we entered Antigua and the temporary no parking areas, well they were for some sort of celebration in Antigua, and I don’t think it is St. Paddy’s day. We eventually find ourselves on the correct road and leave Antigua the same way we came. Using an ample amount of passing, and a lot of skill on the twisties we are home by around 2:30. Both Diane and I enjoyed a “summer” ride here in Guatemala and expect to do so again.
