Pitstop in Antigua

A swim in the morning and we were away after an epic camping spot. Over one more windy pass we dropped into the biggest town we'd seen for quite a few days, Coban. It's a mountain town on a busy crossroads with a bustling market and we went to resupply. First stop an electrical store to check our batteries and solar for a suspicious power draw and a couple of other stops later we cruised out of town, up into the mountains of Central Guatemala. Our afternoon stop was at an orchid garden with a campsite. After a week or more hard on the road through the jungle we paused to cleanse and reenergize with a cooler mountain air around.

The orchid forest was lush and full of small trails, we hiked and hung out and had a peaceful evening in the forest. We left in the morning, up and into the country. Stopped into the market and terrified the shoe stall asking if they had size 12 flip flops, admired the local fashion of colourful hand made skirts and sparkly tops then terrified ourselves by seeing a giant box of neon coloured chicks (Jelly suggested van chickens, but I managed to redirect her to the chilli stand!). The road now was the main road through from Peten Province and it improved towards the Capital, but it was still a mountain road through a high valley, every corner a different view, small settlements along the roadside and the usual potholes, 'topes', and various road warnings! We detoured to a sacred Maya cave, candles and insence burning we dropped into a mouth in the limestone earth and on our way out met a minibus full of locals coming to give prayer who were keen to see what we were lunching on. By the afternoon we made it to the cloud forest and stayed close to the National Park for the next two days on the grounds of a restaurant with woodland cabins. We camped in peace in the woods and the cool air, hiked the next day for 3hrs through damp forest on a steep hillside searching for the national bird of Guatemala - the resplendent Quetzal, only to find one hanging out next to the carpark when we returned! A sacred Maya symbol of the god's, hard to find but easy to enjoy with a fat red belly, emerald jacket and a foot long tail to match, I'm no twitcher but helleva bird! We felt it a good omen and stayed at the restaurant again, early the next day it was time to start the drive down and into Guatemala City and shoot out the other side of it, little intentions to stop as driving in/around the city was pure chaos. It went smoothly enough (minimal road rules, 1-4 lanes of traffic and/or parked abandoned cars, diversions and big, hot, furious busses) and we made it out the other side of town towards a huge Walmart. Jelly kindly drove, with no scratches other than a pack of rowdy young bikers trying to kick off our mirror for changing lanes - they got me out the passenger window shouting at them and quickly sped on.

We replaced some hard-to-find items at Walmart, randomly had lunch in the food court of a big mall, spoke with the Chevrolet garage about parts and left, up and out the other side of the city. We spent a surprisingly peaceful and welcomed night, on the grounds of a big café/restaurant on the ridge overlooking the city lights. A good day getting places and plans the next few days to be camped up at a mechanics garden/workshop on the edge of Antigua to get our overdue and very necessary service and full inspection of the beast that is Franky.

We stayed for 4 days, Axel and his friend Rodrigo were great guys and very good mechanics. We trusted them after the first day, watching wheels, brakes and dash board come off, oils and fluids out. We took the bus to town every day and Antigua was a beautiful place to kill some time. As the old colonial capital it was full of beautiful architecture, colourful houses and cobbled roads.

The town's backdrop was a 360? of mountains and volcanoes, the most impressive being the perfect cone of Volcan Agua and the ever erupting Volcan Fuego, stealing the skyline. We wandered the streets, found a rooftop café for cold chocolate shakes and a then a rooftop Irish pub, with its own mad Irish owner and a collection of eccentrics. A pretty great place to stand on tables on the roof and watch the sun down over the local volcanoes! Cheers!

It was a good city break and mechanical stop for us. The guys did everything they could in 3 days to get us away again. It was done in comfort and security at Axels place and again we were so grateful to such fantastic local mechanics. They sent us on our way with a full service, oil and fluid changes, new filters, new home-fabricated head gasket and O ring, new rear brakes, cleaned and resurfaced front brakes, suspension inspection, general look over and good company.

On the last afternoon we left after a very fair invoice and a shared pizza, they had full confidence we were solid, other than the long list of parts to find in Mexico! We also had confidence and hit the road before sunset with Franky feeling good, destination Volcan Fuego, we had a hill to hike and a strong draw towards that lava.