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
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Then it starts to look a bit like, er,  Kelowna
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Then we take the chosen alternate route to the Lake about 50 miles away. As the town thins out it becomes more typical
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A nice view across town
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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
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She was impressed with what she saw and said that she’d love to farm here
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Then through a pueblo called Patzun. When they finish buildings here they don’t clip the rebar off
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Washing
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Then into the hills. The road was old but mostly paved and cut into the soft rock
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Towards the bottom was a narrow gorge. Very pretty driving
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At one point the road’s washed out
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Townsend watches locals clear rock out of the main channel. I’m  a bit mystified as to why they’re doing this
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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
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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
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They’re taking some risks judging from the occasional slides across the road
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Some of the holes went back twenty feet or more and had chambers along the way
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A nice road shot
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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
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Further along more farming. Very beautiful
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Then as we approached the lake the hills started clouding over
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So the view of the volcanoes around the lake wasn’t the best
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Then the descent into the town of Panajachel
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Where it was market day
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Comments

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  1. alex,

    Your photographs of Guatemala are lovely. I am happy to hear you are recovering and feeling better. This break in Antigua is proving to be very rich.

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