By last Thursday afternoon we still hadn't decided were to go next. I really wanted Linda to see the Mayan ruins of Tikal. So after checking out all of the other alternatives we decided on Tikal. We were going to leave early Sunday morning and try to get to the ruins in one day. Now a couple years ago if I were to say that we could get from Antigua Guatemala to Tikal in one day we would be a shoe-in for the "Motorcycle Uber Couple of the Year" award. But I had heard that the Guatemalen government had initiated a comprehensive paving project a couple years ago and the infamous road to Tikal was on the list. Now 3 years ago I rode from Tikal to Rio Dulce in about 8 hours and that was risking life and limb. The road, if you wanted to call it that, conditions were insane. The memory of that ride is still etched in my memory. I was curious to see if the hand of Man could tame such a monstrosity. I was willing to bet good money that the road would win. We left at 7 a.m. and by 2 p.m. we reached Rio Dulce. This is the scene of the crime from my last trip through here. I was surprised to find a wonderfully paved road up until about 10 miles to Poptun. It was the last 3 mile section left to be paved but it was quite difficult. Thick mud mixed with steep grades and numerous rock outcroppings. I had a difficult time keeping the bike upright so I know that Linda must have been struggling back there. But every time I anxiously waited after a particularly tough spot, there she would come steady as she goes. Really a great accomplishment for a rider with her experience. After clearing the last hurdle we arrived in Tikal around 5 p.m. We made the Antigua to Tikal connection in 10 hours and 358 miles. At least 7 of the 10 hours were in raining conditions ranging from intense to annoying drizzle. Very difficult riding conditions. It was after the difficult muddy section that the KLR's dirty little secret popped up again. I've owned two KLR's and now both experience engine trouble in heavy rain. The BMW guy that we met in Fort Bragg said that it was due to a poorly designed engine shutoff switch located in the kickstand. His advice to me was to cut the wires, sodder them together, remove the cable and "Throw it into the ocean so that it can't hurt anyone else." As soon as I get into dry weather I'm going to take his advice and neuter TGH (shhh, don't let him hear, he's very sensitive). There's absolutely nothing worse than a sputtering engine in the already miserable wet riding conditions. Meanwhile Suzi keeps chugging along as if it were a perfectly sunny day. Every day I become more impressed with the DR650.

After checking out the hotel situation in the park, entrance fee 50Q or $6.50 per person, we settled on the pricey Tikal Hotel. At $35 per night it was one of the spendier places that we've stayed in yet. But since the park produces its own electricity it had lights out at 10 p.m. while the other places were lights out at 9 p.m. Just as we finished our dinner the lights went out in the entire compound. But with the help of a couple of Californians (they had a flashlight) we stumbled our way back to the hotel. We made plans to get into the park as early as possible the next morning. This meant another 5 a.m. wakeup call. Yuk.

We woke at 5 a.m. as planned, scrambled around a bit and made our way to the park entrance by 6:00. Tikal is considered by many to be the New York City of Mayan ruins. It is thought by many to have been home to as many as 100,000 inhabitants in its heydey. The shear size of this place is intense. There are six pyramids scattered throughout the dense jungle raning in height from the 105 ft Great Pyramid to one of the crowning jewels of the Mayan world, the 210 ft high Temple IV. It is Temple IV that provides the most lasting image as it rises above the jungle canopy below. When sitting atop Temple IV surveying the other pyramids enveloped by the dense jungle foiliage it's hard not to feel like you're the king of the world. We toured the park for over 3 hours, climbing the steep pyramids, walking through the acropolis and viewing all sorts of wildlife. By 9:30 we were totally exhausted. After breakfast we went back to the Hotel, packed the bikes and returned to museums to get a glimpse of what the original archeologists saw when they first found this place. Must have been a pretty exciting discovery. If you're going to do the Maya tour you have to check this place out. It is truly something very special.

We took off from Tikal around 1:30 in bright sunshine with only a small scattering of grey clouds. We stopped for gas about 40 miles down the road. I should mention now the problems we discovered with our Collet Communicators. After 7 hours in the rain the day before, Jeff's communicator had leaked and become waterlogged (although we didn't know that just yet). When we plugged in at Tikal, his didn't work and we decided to take a closer look when we stopped for gas. No luck at the gas station either. More on that later. Anyway, off we went for our 100 miles to Poptun, where we planned to take a horseback trip to some caves. There were two eco-tourism/accomodations that were listed in our books as good places to work out the details. As we approached Poptun the skies got darker and dumped on us again but not for too long. We rolled in to Poptun and into Finca Ixobel - a hip little commune like farm owned by an American lady. Sadly, her husband was killed there a number of years ago by the military but she kept the farm anyway. Well, happy to have arrived, we both popped open a beer assuming we would be staying put. Finally we got to talk with the busy owner to find that it didn't look good for the home team. She said she was waiting on a reservation though and that she would try to reach them on the CB to see if they were coming. We had about 40 minutes 'til dark and I wanted to get going. She finally said she had a shared bungalow that we could stay in. However, when we went to look at it, it turned out to be about 1/4 mile away in a pasture with no electricity, no bathrooms, bamboo walls that wouldn't keep the mosquitoes out and a messy bike ride. We said thanks, but no and took off for the other eco-tourism place. It started raining as we were leaving and then the skies really let loose. It was also getting pretty dark. We got to the hotel and they had plenty of rooms but the price wasn't right. They wanted $30 for a thatched roof bungalow with electricity and tv, down a slippery rock path. We asked for something cheaper. The guy showed us an identical room right next to the office and parking lot without tv. We talked them down to $24. Ugh. After agreeing to the room, the owner said that the cave tours were not possible now because of the heavy rain. Bummer. This God-forsaken rain was really starting to get on our nerves! For now though, food was the first goal as we hadn't eaten since 9:30 and it was now 6:00. We went into our hotel restaurant for some excellent dinner and a wonderful bottle of Chilean wine (I'm now ashamed to admit it but back home we didn't think much of the Chilean wines. If you get the chance and can find the winery 'Undurraga' the Cabernet and Merlot are awsome). As we were finishing dinner, two guys we had met at Tikal showed up and we wound up talking with them for about an hour and a half. We were all planning to leave the next morning to cross back over the crummy part of the road. Finally, we went back to our room with thoughts of a hot shower running through our minds. Sorry Charlie! Just 'cause they say there's hot water doesn't mean there is. Tepid is what I call it or "menos frio" - less cold. I was feeling pretty depressed by the time I climbed in to our mosquito netted bed as the rain pelted away at the roof.

The next morning we woke to a heavy downpour which had not ceased since the night before. Checkout was at 1:00 and it was only 7:30 so we decided to see if the weather was going to improve before we made a decision about leaving. The thought of riding in the downpour through the crappy mountain pass was enough to make my stomach turn. By 10:00 it was pretty obvious that things were not going to change so we decided to fork out another $24 and stay another day. We hoped that maybe some of our clothes would dry but at 90%+ humidity, there was no chance of that. It was a good opportunity for typing and that we did. Oh, so back to the communicators. Jeff was convinced that his was just plain old dead. While he typed, I wanted to check it out. When I turned over his receiver and squeezed, a bunch of water started dripping out. We tried to find a tool to open it but didn't find one to fit. I shook it out best as I could and then left it upside down to let gravity work on it. After leaving it for awhile, I tried plugging back in to the battery pack. I got a signal. We're still not sure whether it's working. Got to get out of this wet weather first. We'll let you know. Anyway, we ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant again around 9:00. I went to the store down the hill for some cokes at 11:30 and then we peeked our heads out again at 6:00 for dinner (at the hotel restaurant again!). The stupid rain hadn't let up either. We sat down to order and Jeff heard a loud boom. Was that lightening? "No", I innocently replied. About a minute later the electricity went out. Great. And our dinner wasn't ready. Not too worry, they cook with gas so we still got a nice hot meal by candlelight. Kinda romantic I guess. Our waiter went to find out about the power as we ate. He returned to tell us that the light pole down at the street had fallen over because of the water level of the river next to us. Well, that guaranteed that tomorrow we would ride! I silently began praying for a pause in the rain. We went back to our room and at 8:00 my prayers were answered and the rain stopped. Wow! So after a bit more typing, we were off to sleep with slightly raised spirits.

During the night we woke a few times to hear the beautiful music of crickets (which meant we couldn't hear the rain). At 3:00 am the rain started again. Bummer. By 7:00 we were awake and started packing up. It was fairly light rain so it didn't look too bad. We headed off by 9:00 and stopped on the other side of Poptun for some bread and bananas. Now it was off to tackle the "bad" section. There's actually two - the first is 1 mile long, the second - 3 miles. After a few more tips from Jeff, I was feeling a little better about riding through the mud-slop and gracefully made my way through the first section. Just a bit further, I confidently entered the long stretch. This is where I'd had trouble two days before. The mud was about a half foot thick with some sneaky little stones in there to catch your tire every now and then and send you fishtailing. Throw in a couple of rolling hills and you've got the picture. We got through about 2.7 miles and the pavement was in site. Feeling almost giddy to be out of the slop, I followed Jeff down our last little decline. Somehow I was right behind him and all the sudden I was in the mud. I fell over to the right. I really don't know what happened. I cut Suzi's engine as I was still straddled over her. Gas flowed from her tank and I jumped off and tried to yank the bike up. No can do. I ran to the other side and heaved and heaved but I could only hoist her high enough to keep the gas from coming out the hole in the cap. Jeff spied me in his rear view and found a place to park. Which is a small miracle in and of itself in that swamp we were in. Next thing I knew, Jeff was running through the thick mud towards me with these crazy rain booties on that were flopping all over the place. Together, we righted the bike and he road it over to TGH. We decided that our worthless rain booties belonged in the mud so we pitched them, mounted the bikes and rode another 30 feet to pavement. Almost made it, Linda girl! I'm still bummin' that we didn't get a photo.

Down the road we went with plans to stop in Rio Dulce for lunch. From there we would decide our destination. The trip there was fairly uneventful with fairly constant rain, but not too heavy. The roads were really wet though. On our day to Tikal (during the dry part), I was finally really getting "the lean" going and was able to stay really close to Jeff. But I didn't feel comfortable leaning on the wet roads. As the rain got lighter Jeff started leaning again and I started to drop behind. Oh well. We got to Rio Dulce and had some excellent sandwiches at the riverside Backpacker's Hotel restaurant. We chatted with the Kiwi girl working there about taking a boat trip to the nearby town of Livingston. Meanwhile, the rain stopped. She didn't think Livingston was all that interesting and the hotel was pricey so we decided to try and cross the Honduran border to the ruins of Copan over 100 miles away. We sped off down the road and found increasingly sunny skies and warmer temperatures. We stopped for gas about 55 miles from the border where we inquired how long to the border. We got two very different replies: 6 hours and 2 hours. It was already 2:45 and we were a little worried about darkness. We also weren't sure whether the road was paved and Jeff was beginning to have problems with his front forks/shocks. Only one way to find out though. We cruised on down the road for 31 km where we would take a turn for the road to the border. It was paved! Yea. Onward we went to our last bailout town. We decided to keep going. We crossed through the town square to find a hard packed clay road. We still had 26km to the border. The road was dry and hard packed and was pretty easy going if not a bit hard on the shocks, both the bikes' and the bodies'. This was my first real time "off-road" expierence complete with a couple river crossings. Although I suspect that any dirt rider wouldn't call this road a real off road experience. Well, it wasn't particularly hard or scary, just a lot of clutch work. I have found that my hands are too small for the clutch and I am really having trouble with tendon strains in my left hand when we go through the twisties because I have to change gears so often. Nevertheless, I picked my way through the rutted road feeling just fine. Apparently, my pace didn't suit Jeff because he kept stopping to give me tips on how to ride faster. By 3:45 we were at the tiny little border town of El Florida. I was pooped and we had already agreed that Jeff would handle this border so he went to the Guatemalan office, paid an exit fee of 10Q ($1.30) each and within 20 minutes we were officially non-Guatemalans. Over to the Honduran side. Jeff went in to handle the paperwork and change money while I talked with the tipsy English speaking border guard and the rest of the Spanish speaking fellas that were hanging around. Very uneventful border and for me, just what the doctor ordered. I was too tired to put up with the mess we had seen at the Guatemalan border. Jeff paid the $32/each entry fee, changed a little money and we were off for the last 7 miles of dirt road to see the ruins of Copan. Hola Honduras!

A few random thoughts on Guatemala: 3 years ago Guatemala was my favorite country of the trip and our experience