A drive in the country

We thought we’d take a drive to Lake Atitlan on a smaller road. We rented a car in Antigua. It’s the first time I’ve driven a car on this tour and the driving part’s not much fun. I can’t wait to get going on my bike again.

An interesting day, as always. The drive starts on the Pan American, taking us through the large town of Chimaltenango

Then it starts to look a bit like, er, Kelowna

Then we take the chosen alternate route to the Lake about 50 miles away. As the town thins out it becomes more typical

A nice view across town

Immediately the surroundings become agricultural. Townsend farmed in South Africa for six years and gives me short lessons in irrigation and labor and a general colouring in of the things that we see

She was impressed with what she saw and said that she’d love to farm here

Then through a pueblo called Patzun. When they finish buildings here they don’t clip the rebar off

Washing

Then into the hills. The road was old but mostly paved and cut into the soft rock

Towards the bottom was a narrow gorge. Very pretty driving

At one point the road’s washed out

Townsend watches locals clear rock out of the main channel. I’m a bit mystified as to why they’re doing this

But there’s a nice river/stream crossing. My first thought is to walk it first, bike style, but heck, it’s a rental car

Later, up on the hillside again men are excavating a white sandy material out of tunnels. Not sure what it is but I’ll ask around

They’re taking some risks judging from the occasional slides across the road

Some of the holes went back twenty feet or more and had chambers along the way

A nice road shot

We followed this cool truck for a little while. The guy lying on top looked injured or something until his friend sat on him and we realized he was probably just big time hung over. I was impressed that a truck this big was on this road that was difficult and sometimes dangerous in a silly car. Townsend thought the road was crazy