Rebel Road: Riding Lake Atitlán's Wild Side - EP.334

The world, the light. I'm in my room for two days. Yesterday I just literally haven't even opened the door and my room it feels a little bit like a jail cell because like that's bad, right? And here I only have this small window, you know, near the ceiling so I couldn't see the wall. I could see the sky but that's about it. But I needed it. I was actually quite tired and that's the way I roll. I just sometimes shut the door and don't leave the hotel for two days and just work on my content and rest and watch documentaries about serial murderers and UFOs, that sort of stuff. Okay, we're leaving Guatemala City now and I'll be going north now to check out this legendary lake that you cannot miss when you're in Guatemala. So let's hope we'll be camping. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Hectic traffic. Yeah, I need to get out of here as soon as possible. Oh no, we're gonna enter? This is a disaster. This is crazy. I'm jealous. Hola! They could do that. They are narrow enough to do that. Surely we're stuck. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? What about now? No? No? No, still nothing. Okay, I'm leaving this road. We're turning right here. There's no way. Oh my god, look at this. This is bad. Well, what we could do is go here and this way. We're out of here. I don't know which way we're gonna get out of the city now. Take the next right onto 17 calle. Definitely not that way. It's not better here. Jesus, no matter where you go, which road you take, traffic is horrendous. I was not expecting that at all. That's a completely different experience than I had two days ago. Ay, ay, ay, chili, chili. Lucky it's not too hot. It's like, what is it, 22 degrees. I'm happy about that. I don't know how people drive cars around the city. It's such a waste of time, isn't it? Small bike, I get it. It's the way to go. Oh my god, I'm so over this madness. This is just so hectic. I think it's because it's Friday. I don't know. When I was here two days ago, it wasn't as bad. I do not recommend you coming to this city on Friday. Oh, we're out of the traffic. It took me an hour and a half to get out of the city, but I am not complaining. Until now, the worst city to ride around in the world is Cairo in Egypt. After that, everything is easy. There was a lot of traffic, but I find in Latin countries, there's no aggression on the road. There's so many motorcycles, the little ones mainly, that cars are very much aware of the motorcycles and they look in the mirrors and they let you in and somehow it flows. Unless you get stuck and everyone stays, that's fine. Actually, yes, it was tiring to be in a traffic, but it wasn't stressful, if you know what I mean. On the other hand, if you take Cairo in Egypt, it's extremely intense and fast. It's like you're on a racetrack. I'm going to buy my veggies now. Okay. It's a perfect moment where we're going to buy veggies. Hopefully, no one's going to run us over. Buenos tardes. Tomatoes. Yes. Radish, my favorite vegetable. One carrot. Let's take maybe two apples. Zucchini. Absolutely, yes. Avocado. See? So round. Wow. Okay. Let's see. I've never had such a round avocado in my life. Okay. Gracias. Little tiny mini zucchini. Why not? We never tried it. Esta. Okay. Finito. Gracias. Okay. I'm happy now. We can camp and eat nice food. Gracias. Adios. Well, it turned out I was on the wrong highway. I'm doing a shortcut now. Continue for one and a half kilometer. This is a pleasant ride, actually. Looks like a veggie-growing region. We are now on the right road, which is okay. I must say, here in the middle of Guatemala, I mean, we have elevated. We're in the mountains. Guatemalan city was on 1500. As I was following this road, we're going through elevation of 2000. That's why the temperature was so pleasant. It was 22 degrees and no humidity. So nice. I had weeks and weeks and weeks of humidity, so it's so nice to be in the mountains. Those buses remind me a little bit of Indian buses. You know, our buses in India, they're very colorful and they make a lot of noise when they honk. Oh, this road is much more pleasant. I like it here. Finally, we're off the main road. Oh, and a little bridge. Yay. Well, the road is no longer paved. I had no idea we're going to do an adventure ride and we're going through the river. All right, this is interesting. Gracias. Okay, that was easy. Here we go. Gravel, yay. For about 20 kilometers. I think this is the main road to the lake. Oh, no. Oh, no. I'm sorry, guys. What a disappointment. We're back on a pavement. The lake is very close by. It's just like, oh my God, I'm so excited. Oh my God, you have to see this. Take the next right. Is this how I ride? Like this one? Yep. It's like this one? Is it? I think so. Continue for four kilometers. So the lake is just on the left. Oh my God, it's going to be epic. This looks like it's a major road. We have trucks. We have everyone here. Interesting. It would be nice if this car wasn't ahead of me. So we're going down. Because you know what? Like we were like on 2000 a long time ago. Oh, so much dust. All right. Well, soon we're going to see the lake. Hold on. Oh, why am I following him? I think I have to stop for a moment. It's just, it's too dusty. Look. Wait, maybe. Wait, wait, wait, wait. We'll get I'm trying to make it sound very special. Oh, it's going to be okay. This is the most spectacular thing I've seen so far. Oh, this is going to be very tight. As I was saying, this is the most spectacular thing I've seen so far in Guatemala for sure. The size of this lake and the mountains around it. It's just so magnificent. Right? Let's just focus on the road. Maybe now. This is steep. That's crazy. Our trucks go here. Just look. Whoa. So we'll be taking that road later on, but I think we're going to be staying tonight there. Tomorrow we're going to go around the lake. Okay, and now we have uphill. This is a cool road. I was not expecting it. I thought it's going to be all paved. Seriously. I love it. Oh, there's some nice houses there. Okay. No, we need to stop here, Chillie. This is just too epic. Truly, this is the most spectacular place I've seen so far in Guatemala. And I am so surprised the road is like this because I thought that's like one of the main attractions here in the country. But yeah, it's an adventurous ride, I must say. How was the view from the drone? Wasn't that epic? We are close now to a village where I'm hoping I'll be able to find some accommodation because on this side, I didn't see any campground. Tomorrow we'll be camping, but it's already getting late. So let's just take a cheap room now. And tomorrow we're going to go around the lake, I guess. They're widening the road. We'll do it on them. All right. Muchas gracias. Someone is carrying sticks with the fire. And we are in the village. This is very beautiful. I think no matter where we stay at the lake, it's going to be spectacular. The weather is perfect. It's not raining. I think the problem here is, I'll show you on this camera. This is San Antonio. The battery level is low. Oh, no. Well, yeah, the streets are very narrow and on a steep hill. So even if you have a hotel, normally there's no parking, I think. Actually, so far, I haven't seen any hotel. So let's just keep going and see what's here. Oh, this is like a big city village. People really, I think people who live here are very fit because they're just going up and down the hill. And I bet some of the houses, you can only walk there like you can't get there with a. Oh, this is nice. I think we won't be staying in San Antonio. And there's like no, I don't know, are they hotels or are they not? Oh, that's a hotel. Oh, someone from the UK is here. Well, if they're here, two helmets, overlanders. Maybe we're going to make some friends, Chillie. We've been watching you on YouTube and we've been going down to get tips. Honestly. Oh, did you write to me? No, no, no. Okay, cool. Glad because I was worried maybe I didn't reply. No, I would know about you if you actually. I don't believe it. Oh, thank you. So guys, you're traveling from, you're from the UK, so you're by? UK, yeah, yeah. Nice. So we air freighted it from UK to Calgary. Uh-huh. And then. How much was shipping these days? That was 2,700 pounds. Pounds. We air freighted. Back in the days, it was $1,000. Wow. Like back in the days from Toronto to London or whatever, it was like 1,000 bucks and now it's double. Oh my, more? Yeah. It's triple. Yeah. A lot of money. So you're seven months on the road? Eight and a half months. Eight and a half months. Eight and a half, okay. We went home for Christmas. Oh, cool. And then we flew back. Left the bike here. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And now you guys are broke. And now you guys, you started where in Canada? Calgary. Calgary. Okay. Alberta. So you enjoyed, did you go to the Amsterdam highway? Did you go up north? No, we didn't because the time of year, it was too cold. So we went over to Vancouver Island. Okay. Came back. You went to the California of Canada? We went into Yellowstone while it was still all right and then came back up and then across the whole east coast up to Newfoundland. You did? Yeah. Oh, you went to Newfoundland. Yeah. In Labrador? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. And then down through Maine and down the east coast. Okay. That road. Okay. Yeah. Did you do Utah? Yeah, I loved Utah. Yeah. Awesome. And now here. Yeah. So how long is your trip? How long do you think you've got? How long is it going to take you to get to Argentina? Well, we were going to go to Argentina. Yeah. But our plans have changed, haven't they? So we're only going as far as Panama now. Oh, no. So that will be another trip. Okay. You're right. It's better to go slowly and take your time. We need a lot of time. We need a lot of time in South America. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. You need years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't know. I haven't got there. Look at me. I'm like, I'm in Central. Just between Mexico and here, I'm already six months on the road. Yeah. Only down three countries. Wow. Wow. I cannot believe you're here. I cannot believe it. I'm glad your bike was there because I couldn't find the hotel. I'm like, where am I going to park my bike? And I saw your bike is parked. Yep, I'm parking here. Which way did you come in? Did you come in from that way? That way. Did you come down that way? Oh, well done. Oh, well done. I was thinking if you guys came too up on that road, right? Yeah, that was. Good skills. Yeah. Because it's so steep and sharp. We need a beer to see what we got here. You're going to have a beer with us, aren't you? Of course. Of course. I'm staying. Good. Of course I'm staying. That's brilliant. So this room is $70. I haven't paid so much for a long time, but hey, sometimes we need to splash out. And today is the day. Let's see. I have the one with the view. This one with the view. Oh, dear. Oh, that's a bit of a surprise. Look at this. Looks like Polish menu to me. No pierogies. What a sunset, hey? Beautiful. Stunning. So they said three volcanoes, so I'm guessing it's that one. I see more. One, two, three, four, five. They all look like volcanoes, right? Good riding skills on this road.