Table of contents

• Motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize Mayans, machos & Myths
• Soon the navigation system will show 3000 meters in altitude
• Alternative drugs in the German Bakery
• Caribbean feeling? Not here today

Jo Deleker

30th pictures

Jo Deleker

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

Jo Deleker

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Healthy “Fast food” by the roadside: watermelons are sold in handy slices.

Jo Deleker

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The active volcano Santiaguito erupts. Next to it his big brother, the 3770 meter high Santa Maria.

Jo Deleker

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

Jo Deleker

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

Jo Deleker

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

Jo Deleker

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

Jo Deleker

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The Tenere is allowed to go into the pension.

Jo Deleker

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

Jo Deleker

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

Jo Deleker

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

Jo Deleker

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

Jo Deleker

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

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The limit is over: As a reward, wait in El Salvador “real Pilsener”.

Jo Deleker

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Curious, always hungry coati in the ruins of Tikal.

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In the colonial towns the streets are often paved, like in Suchitoto, El Salvador.

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Colorful church facade near San Andres in the highlands of Guatemala.

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Nobody in Central America is afraid of colors.

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Rustic ferry on the way to Tikal.

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Some of the main roads in the Guatemalan mountains are enduro-friendly slopes like this one west of Coban.

Jo Deleker

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View over the magnificent Lago de Atitlán with the almost 4000 meter high volcanoes on the other bank.

Jo Deleker

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In Belize the atmosphere changes towards Caribbean-English.

Jo Deleker

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Where no buses can get there, rickety pick-ups take care of local public transport in the highlands of Guatemala.

Jo Deleker

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The magic of the famous ancient Mayan city of Tikal can be felt as the sun rises over the Peten rainforest.

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Coastal Highway in Belize. What a self-confident name for this mud runway in the tropical rainforest.

Jo Deleker

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There are many reasons why you shouldn’t drive at night.

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The sign on the way to Tikal warns of dangerous jaguars.

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Vibrant life in the Indian market in San Francisco el Alto.

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Impressions from Jo Deleker’s motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize.

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Motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize

Motorcycle tour through Guatemala and Belize
Mayans, machos & Myths

Guatemala is the highlight of a Central America crossing by motorcycle. The most beautiful volcanoes far and wide, an old city with maximum comfort factor, the legendary highland lake Lago de Atitlán, Indian markets with crowded narrowness and the tingling magic of the ancient Mayan site of Tikal. And Belize? Is completely different.

Joachim Deleker

02/18/2016

Happy too early, the calm lasted only a short time. It’s a shame, because after the overcrowded streets in densely populated El Salvador and the surprisingly relaxed little border crossing at Las Chimanas, we had just got used to the peaceful National Road 8. Until it is sucked up in El Molino by the Panamericana. Noise, hustle and bustle and the anarchic traffic wash away the calm. Motorcycling in Central America not only demands all the senses, it is definitely not for those who hesitate. Who hesitates loses. Still, I’d rather lose 20 times a day than get riveted once. We have long since got used to a different driving style: always pretending to have the right of way, but also always be ready to brake and expect locals to follow the same motto and also use their home game advantage. And yet driving is fun if you interpret the rules creatively and think along with them. Also: Naples or Paris are much worse.

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Mayans, machos & Myths

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End of town, relax and follow the “Panam” up to the highlands at 80 km / h. Time for the senses to be able to receive other stimuli. Like the silhouettes of sky-high volcanoes that shimmer through the haze around the capital Guatemala City and magically attract our eyes. Hours later, we are finally behind the ugly suburbs of the three million juggernaut and are rolling down a wide, tree-lined avenue to Antigua.

The Guatemalan world is changing right now. What a city, perhaps the most beautiful in America! Roughly cobbled streets between red, yellow, white and blue colonial houses, in between some large churches that the violent earthquake of 1773 shook into ruins, the huge plaza with street vendors, musicians and cozy cafes in paradisiacal courtyards, the patios. Sure, Antigua is full of tourists, but the old capital has still remained authentic, it is clean, rustic, colorful and full of atmosphere, blessed with a sensational location. The wide basin is guarded by the beautiful volcanoes Agua, Acatenango and the smoking Fuego, all of which are almost 4000 meters high.

Soon the navigation system will show 3000 meters in altitude

We stay for almost a week, postponing the departure several times to “mañana”, as is typical for the country – tomorrow, until we can no longer resist the call of the next highlight, the Lago de Atitlán, which Alexander von Humboldt had already named the most beautiful lake in the world. What superlatives we hadn’t heard about this magical lake in the highlands of Guatemala. Werner and I start our single-cylinder engines early in the morning, leave Antigua and pound up into the highlands. The CA 1 gains altitude in wide, fast corners, and the air becomes clearer and fresher. Pine forests, harvested brown corn fields, pastures and small villages, predominantly inhabited by the descendants of the Maya, garnish the fertile hills. But what does a hill mean, the GPS will soon show 3000 meters, an altitude where rock and ice have long dominated the Alps. Here, barely 1,500 kilometers north of the equator, there are tons of fertile fields, arable land and gnarled trees thanks to the mild and humid climate.

Finally the junction down to the lake. And then the first view of Lake Atitlán, which glitters 1000 meters below us in the backlight, guarded by sleeping volcanoes. Caramba! What a panorama. In tight, steep curves the pitted sandy road rappels down to San Pedro, a small lively place full of backpackers, dropouts and young hippies, whose simple stone houses are stacked on the steep slope between the lake and the volcano of the same name. We circle the lake, can hardly get enough of this picture-perfect landscape and set up our tents under palm trees in Panajachel directly on the lake, the volcanoes in front of our noses, but the hustle and bustle of the place is far enough away.

Pana, as the place is called in a nutshell, is the country’s alternative epicenter. On the New Year’s weekend, the loud and crazy techno and esoteric festival Cosmic Convergence roars here. Well over 10,000 visitors, hardly anyone who is not looking for enlightenment and is helped by all sorts of mind-expanding substances to reach another mental orbit beyond the earthly. Even days after the festival, we see drawn figures on the festival grounds, which the cosmic enlightenment has apparently passed by. Next chance? Next year. After all, regional Indian projects benefit from this non-profit event, which raised over 60,000 dollars last year.

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Alternative drugs in the German Bakery

We stay a few more days, the magic and the unique atmosphere of Lake Atitlán nail us down. Alternative drugs are available in the “German Bakery” with buttercream cake, mulled wine and sauerkraut. After a piece of Black Forest cherry, however, my desire for such drugs is sated for a long time. Mother’s cake of the same name was light years better back then. So, relaxed enough, we still have a few meters to go to Mexico. The enduros are happy that things are finally going on. We also. Up to the highlands and back to the reality of Guatemala with good roads and smoldering wild garbage dumps, populated by half-wild dogs and completely wild vultures. It’s frightening that people just throw their garbage out of the car or dump it on the side of the road. We try to avoid the annoying main roads, circle the volcano Santa Maria with the smoking crater Santiaguito, dive into the humid heat of the flatlands on the Pacific and climb over the grandiose CA 12 from 300 meters up to 2500. Endless curves, hardly Traffic, a few small villages, the cloud forest swallows us, thick drops splash from meter-sized Nalca leaves, tree ferns are reminiscent of the magical world of the Lord of the Rings.

The next day we throw ourselves into the fray at the largest Indian market in the country in San Francisco el Alto. A challenge for all the senses, which are completely overwhelmed at first. Those who suffer from claustrophobia should better flee. For us it is one of the strongest experiences of this trip. There is simply everything on the market, from used television sets to used cows, from shaving brushes to pineapples, from wool socks to toilet bowls, from live chicken to saucepans, and sometimes even chicken in an aluminum pot. Pure Latin America. Three hours of intensive course, then all our memories overflow.

Caribbean feeling? Not here today

In the big city of Huehuetenango we change our course to east. So it will finally be quiet, the Central American transit highway continues to Mexico, we to Belize. The next 250 kilometers down into the Peten plains are a blast. A fascinating mountain road, sometimes tarred, then again a rough gravel road with a 25 percent gradient. Small places on the way, life often takes place directly on the street, here and there a comedor, the chip shop in Guatemalan. It’s steadily going down, getting greener and warmer, the highlands are behind us. The last steep descent, and we have arrived in the lowlands of the Peten, which only ends in Belize and Mexico on the Caribbean. The Maya lived in this huge jungle area between 200 and 900 AD, a very educated people even by today’s standards. The Maya were able to calculate the length of a year almost to the minute, they knew that a moon phase lasts 29.52 days, and they described complex astronomical processes. The most famous city of its high culture is Tikal, the ruins of which are hidden in the middle of the jungle.

It is still dark at half past five when we use a headlamp to look for the way to the temples. Suddenly a bloodcurdling roar. Did the Tyrannosaurus Rex survive here? They are howler monkeys to whom a lion sounds like a purring kitten. It has long since dawned when we gasp up the last steps to the 68 meter high Temple IV. Once at the top, the magic of the moment overwhelms us. Ghostly wafts of mist waft over the endless hills of the rainforest, which stretches to the horizon of Belize. Only the tips of three Mayan temples protrude from the green sea of ​​trees. The red ball of the sun appears right behind it. Maximum goosebumps.

The next day Belize, a completely different country. Post-colonial English way of life, well-tended lawn instead of wild mountains of rubbish, Land Rover instead of Land Cruiser, tea instead of coffee, English instead of Spanish, gallons instead of liters, blacks instead of Latinos. A colorful world, multicultural. The palm beaches at Dangriga are clouded by nasty drizzle that drowns our cliche images of the Caribbean. Caribbean feeling? Not here today. Nevertheless, the rain also has something good, at least for those who like mud. Because when we turn onto the Coastal Highway, we are rewarded with a red laterite runway that runs through the lush green jungle and is decorated with puddles of all sizes and depths. Our enduro bikes bravely dig their way through the mud and are soon covered with a thick layer of mud. We don’t meet any other vehicle, they all take the long detour over the good tar road. You know, why. We prefer to play in the dirt. And we are far from thinking about tomorrow’s border to Mexico. Should we wash the mopeds again beforehand? Perhaps. Manana.

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