One of the things that I love about our cycling trip is how, by leaving our schedule and routing flexible, we find ourselves being presented with extremely rewarding opportunities. How we ended up at Maya Pedal is a great example of this. It was simply through a chance encounter with a social media acquaintance, Dave Renfrow, that we found ourselves first invited to visit Maya Pedal in San Andres Itzapa, and then later, being drawn into the great work that…

It's not too often that one gets a chance to see a volcano erupt. It's even less common to be able to spend the night near the top of a volcano while watching an adjacent one erupt over and over. Fortunately for us, just such an opportunity is available for visitors to this area of Guatemala and as you might imagine, we jumped at the chance to take part. Volcán Fuego is a very active volcano in Guatemala and several…

It was five days ago that we made the 56 km run from Santa Cruz to Lago Atitlan and since that time, we've enjoyed several days off the bike. Fortunately, these rest days were for much more positive reasons than the food-poisoning-induced day off that I described at the end of my last post. The ride should have been simple enough: just climb 500 or so meters and then coast downhill to the lake. If only it were that easy.…

Our last four days of traveling from Lanquín to Santa Cruz could very well be described as going for a hike with our bikes, that's how much walking we did. It also made our relationship with bridges much more clear. There seems to be virtually no end to the incredibly steep Guatemalan hills and our legs and lungs have been getting a significant workout. The only reason we managed to make it as far as we have in that period…

I have found that the days that involve the greatest amount of suffering for us are ones where we underestimate how difficult the riding will be. It is our expectations of the upcoming ride more so than the actual challenge itself that creates our mood. It is in this way that our ride from El Estor to Lanquin presented us with a significant amount of suffering. "I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep my expectations."…

From the time that we first started planning our cycling trip south, we had always imagined that we may, at some time, be able to connect with some of our sailing friends along the way. We were particularly aware that our friends David, Janice, and Steve had chosen the Rio Dulce area in Guatemala as their hurricane hole for this season. On several occasions, we had discussed the idea of hooking up with them but the question in all of…