After a few months on nothing but a bicycle for transportation, it stands to reason that one of the first things you notice when you travel is, well, traveling. Mark did a splendid job of recapping our time in Guatemala, and so rather than re-recapping our trip and boring you all to tears, I thought I'd share just a few impressions I had while in the wiles of central america.
the city - saturday afternoon
Traffic crawled out of the city center, save for those motorcyclists and mopeds clever enough to bob and weave through the four lanes of chicken buses, pickups, compact cars, moving vans and work trucks – just the usual mix of urban autos with one notable exception: riding a car in Guatemala does NOT translate to riding IN a car in Guatemala. Passengers share space with the tools and machinery in many of the work trucks, or fill the bed of a pickup truck (standing up or sitting down or any way at all), or between luggage piled atop the roof of a brightly colored “chicken bus” (often climbing up/down from the roof while the bus is in motion via two ladders at the rear) – we even saw a few Guatemalans perched on the big black bags bulging out the back of the city’s garbage trucks. Narrow lanes and almost no shoulders on the road whatsoever meant very few bicyclists and a VERY long time to get around any police activity. Midway through our drive, we passed a swarm of black police pickup trucks surrounding an unmarked moving van stopped in the middle of the highway, and just as many policemen circled around two very guilty looking men sitting despondently on the road beside the van. “Cocaine” said our chauffer Manuel as we rolled by.
the mountains- saturday afternoon
Outside Guatemala City, the road wound up and down Guatemala’s hilly landscape in a series of sharp twists and turns, naturally keeping much of the traffic speeds in check. Billboards and bright advertisements turned to tall palm trees and a wide variety of unfamiliar foliage. Occasionally our road cut through smaller cities or towns nestled in the mountains, heralded by “moderate speed” signs and speed bumps, two additional means of slowing the hectic pace of traffic down once it escaped the city jam. It couldn’t have been more than 15 miles from the airport to Living Water’s base in Antigua, but the drive took almost 90 minutes.
the south - sunday through thursday
A few miles outside Nueva Concepción, we hit nothing but rough dirt roads between the city and the community where we would be building the well. Here, “travel” took on an entirely different role in the daily routine of the local inhabitants and (for the week) our team. “Villages” have spread linearly across the large grid of roads cut into the fertile lowlands of Guatemala – keeping as close to the main routes as possible to cut down on what were often extensive travel times. Few are afforded the luxury of a motorcycle or dirt bike; even fewer the extravagance of a car or truck to bounce down the dusty roads.
Thus we were constantly on the lookout for kids or adults walking alongside the shoulder of the road, not to mention motorcycles passing on the left or right of our van, school buses zipping by in a cloud of dust that often resulted in blizzard-like visibility and finally, huge sugar cane trucks (kicking up just as much dust) rumbling with a slow, unchanging pattern to and from the fields. Narrow two-lane roads squeezed down to just a single lane at times, but Manuel, our fearless driver, was more than up to the task. Not once did I worry about our safety on the roads thanks to his uncanny skills behind the wheel, and was able to fully enjoy the lush vegetation, vibrant Guatemalan country culture and some truly incredible sunrises/sunsets as we rode to the village each morning and night.
until next time,
may the road rise up to meet you
josh & mark
the lifecycle team
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