To Frontera Corozal

This was our final day in phase one of the trip in Guatemala. And certainly my favorite travel day since departure.

This is remote tropical Guatemala. The route is flat in the beginning and eventually muddy. There are scattered small places. People use this dirt highway as their principal access to the whole western Peten lowlands.

Though flat and straight for much I was never bored. It was fun to see all the vehicles and other modes of transportation people were using to get from place to place. As you can see from the pictures a lot of bicycles were used.

When we had come in the night before this hotel was the first we checked. A guy was there and chatting with him he told me he was a commercial traveler in the region and he thought this hotel was the best of the bunch in town. And not only reasonable they also offered breakfasts in the morning. Being my tocayo since it was called Hotel Dany cinched it. Wandering later we decided he was right. So this morning we did the breakfast and it was a fine start to the day.

Later in the morning we had a longish watermelon break. We talked not only with the kids managing the stand but also talked with others doing the same as us. It seemed quite popular in the heat. I later stopped to visit with a family along the way when the excited kids all came running out to greet me. I played with the girls hanging out at the migration station while their grandfather worked the counter and did my exit stamp. All in all it was a great time interacting with the local population.

As I mentioned in the last post the final bit was difficult. I took a spill in one spot and lost the Ortlieb insert that held the bag to the rack. I simply duct taped the rack to the same diameter as the Ortlieb hanger and have never bothered changing it since. Not least of which because Ortlieb would never respond to my queries about replacement. But it works fine with my makeshift patch.

The final crossing the Usumacinta between La Técnica to Frontera Corozal with our bikes was fun. They didn’t even charge extra. Check out the video.

At the other side we got our first hint of potential problems when we stopped in at immigration. Then said they didn’t have the form for the full 180 day entry. And could only give Patrick and Ratna a temporary 7 day entry pass. I, as a
Mexican, was a non issue. We postponed it for when we actually were leaving Frontera Corozal. Tomorrow would be a visit of Yaxchilán for Ratna and Patrick while I hung out. Having seen it more times than I could count.

*This is a reminder from reading the first must read this page. The picture placements are not accurate. I shifted it around so it matched the Guatemalan immigration checkpoint. It’s the only accurate point.