The road to Heaven

Day 310

Semuc Champey, Guatemala

I had to wait to pass a couple of buses filled with curious locals to survey the damage. Somehow the genius of Bills repair had held. No oil was coming out and I could continue. At least until I hit another big rock.

Nothing was going to stop the sun from setting though and I was passing through local villages and ignoring the children shouting ‘Gringo‘ to concentrate on the rocks jutting everywhere. By driving my wheels on the rocks I was managing to avoid them but with every knock I would diligently jump out and check to make sure I hadn‘t knocked my weld off.

Pretty soon I was having to use my torch to do this and I was regretting my desire upon reaching Guatemala to be driving a rutted track through the jungle. I was asking any locals I met whether I was still on the right track whenever I could. There were very few turns since I was now following a track on the side of a mountain and praying I would make it.

The estimate of  1 1/2 hours to my destination was popular. That’s all I heard until I got to some unnamed village and the gas station attendant lowered it to 45 minutes. It seemed I was getting closer!

Finally I made it to the village of Lanquin and chose to push on to a guesthouse by the waterfalls. This meant another 9km of nasty roads but at least then I could relax. It was 9pm when I pulled into the darkened car park of Las Marias and got myself a dorm room on my own for Q30. I would worry about the lack of electricity the next day. For now all I had on my mind was sleep.

Tags: semuc champey, electricity, road to heaven, sleep, las marias, wheel, set, guesthouse, side of a mountain, Travel, q30, gas station attendant, hadn, locals