Leaving Lake Atitlan, I doubled back to meet some other overlanders stopped for lunch. I really wanted some riding partners in Guatemala and they let me tag along with them. The two had met up in Dawson City and had been riding together since. One was a Canadian riding a KLR and the other was a German riding a R100 GS Dakar. We headed for Antigua where we spent the night after driving around for several hours trying to find a hotel.



I had been to Antigua before so I didn’t do much except hang out at motorcycle touring company and talk to the owner for some time. The next day me and my new friends drove down the coastal highway for El Salvador. I convinced them to take a detour to Monterrico which my guidebook said had the best beaches in Guatemala.

At this gas stop, as we were getting ready to leave, a pickup pulls in blasting some well known 70′s disco song. It was so strange I couldn’t stop laughing and then Tom and I started dancing with all our riding gear on and the guys in the gas station were cracking up.


I didn’t notice it when I read the guidebook, but there is a river crossing to get to Monterrico. At first I was reluctant to load the bikes on the boats but it turned out to be a lot of fun.










It took a lot of manpower to get the bikes loaded, but the ride to Monterrico was very nice.



One problem with the coast is the heat. Once we found a hotel and unloaded it was straight for the pool. You couldn’t really swim in the ocean because of a severe undertow.















But great sunsets…

The border crossing into Guatemala at La Mesilla was relatively easy once I found the right building. The border town is chaotic but I didn’t have any problems with the border officials on either side.



I spent the first night in Huehuetengo, but there wasn’t much there and the next morning I left for Lake Atitlan. There was road construction almost everywhere but I usually was able to drive through whereas the rest of the traffic had to wait.

Eventually, I made it to Lake Atitlan and the town of San Marcos de la Laguna. It wasn’t easy to find but I made it worse by listening to a taxi driver who told me drive down this walkway to the hotel. I got stuck halfway in where the walkway narrowed and had several sharp turns.

It was a steep curvy road down, but it was worth it.


I ended up in a hotel right where by where I was stuck in the walkway. It was called the Quetzal and the owner was a Swiss man who married a Guatemalan Indian woman and also had his chlldren from a prior marriage to a Swiss woman. At first he offered to just store my bike for free because his hotel was full, but as I was eating lunch there he came over and said one room became available.



The lake is served by many “launchas” or little boats that depart roughly every 30 minutes. I spent some time in the town of Panachel, although it is probably the most gringo infested town whereas San Marcos was known for its hippies and new age gurus. This little girl was very persistent in trying to get me to buy something but I just didn’t want to carry any more stuff. I eventually bought her a coke and gave her some money for a photo. I told her to sit down and take a load off- literally, she was standing there for a long time balancing the stuff on her head. It was a weird but nice experience as we talked a lot about her life in Guatemala.