Days 52 and 53: Coban, GT

On day 52, we had initially planned to ride all the way south-west to Quetzaltenango, where I was supposed to take a week of Spanish classes. However, Andy, a British rider we had met at our hostel the day before, told us that it would take us much longer to get there than we initially thought. Since we wouldn't make it before sunset, and the road was not the safest neither, we changed our plan. That morning, Andy was going 65 km south to Coban, so we tagged along. 

The 65 km to Coban were some of the best riding we've done in the past two weeks: twisty roads, smooth pavement, and beautiful scenery. Andy brought us to a very cool hostel, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon looking for a fabrication shop, as Mihai and Andy needed to do some modifications on their bikes. 

Later that night, after a long discussion, we came to the conclusion that, due to time constraints, we will skip going to Quetzaltenango and Lake Attitlan, and that we will instead cross into Honduras on Wednesday, December 12th. Therefore, I will look into taking Spanish lessons in Nicaragua, where we are hoping to spend Xmas and New Year's.

We've spent most of the following day at the fabrication shop, where Mihai and I helped Andy in designing a new rear rack for his BMW.

Out with the old...

Andy and Mihai undressing the BMW

Fabrication begins... Plasma cutter in action.

Tube bending for the new rack. 

New design slowly taking shape.

Nicest rack I've seen so far on this trip  ;) 

Carlos, our fabricator. Very meticulous guy; he did a great job.

Andy also needed a new license plate, since the original broke a while ago. Conveniently, the same shop that did the welding also has an industrial vinyl printing machine... and a car wash..lol.

Printing the new number plate on vinyl, prior to laminating on a piece of plastic.

New vs.old.

For a few bucks, I got a plate welded to my side stand, for better stability on soft terrain.

Random Stuff:

Andy has been travelling and living in Central America for the past 2 years, but he's been wandering on his bike across the world for a few years altogether. He is still not done, and his estimate is that, by the time he finishes his trip, he would have been on the road for nearly 8 years! His BMW F650 Dakar presently has 135 000 miles on the odometer.

It is a small world. It turns out that Andy also had previously stayed with John and Lisa in San Diego (Facebook connection). John has described this encounter as a ''freeloader convention''..lol.

I will have to return to Guatemala, as once again I feel like I will miss out on a lot of interesting places. For anyone planning a similar trip: allow a full year to do the Americas. It is definitely the right way to do it. I can already see that we could have easily spent another 2 months in Central America alone.