Getting High

Today I got high. Really high. Up into the clouds. I climbed from 200m to over 3000m today (656 to 9,842.5 feet). No joke. I was only a few kilometers from the Volcan Tajumulco, 4220m high up above sea level, the hightest peak in Central America. It must have been the most difficult day of riding yet. Guatemala gets HIGH! And it's green. Very Green. Lots and lots of jungle - beautiful landscapes to admire as you painfully crank up an enormous mountain with a grade unacceptable in even Mexico. This road was steep. Now I'm up on some kind of high plateau, but I will be getting even higher in the next day or so, crossing the highest peak on the trans-American freeway before getting to Lake Atitlán.

High up on the mountain I encountered some U.S. military soldiers, constructing schools and clinics in the mountains of Guatemala. I told them that was better than killing innocent Iraquis, but they remained friendly and even gave me a vegetarian MRE, chock full of hydrogenated oils, artificial ingredients and lots of plastic trash (hopefully it didn’t contain any MKULTRA type ingredients as well). I don’t think their mission was thought up by Mr. Paul Brenner or Wolfowitz or Cheney – they seem to be preoccupied on wars of aggression to fatten the pockets of the oil and weapons industries. Rather, it seemed like they were doing genuinely good work and they were all quite friendly, so I don’t want to dis the mission, but it seems like an attempt to improve the image the world has of our military. Hmm... what could give them such a bad name? Anyway, the press showed up while I was there and did a quick propaganda piece. Then they interviewed me and did an extensive photo shoot of me pedalling up that freaking mountain. I talked about the end of oil, human powered transportation, bikes that can carry big loads, solar power, and climate change, as well as the usual statistics and information about the trip (avg. km per day = between 45 and 120, time spent travelling = 5 months, flats =5) The article should hit the press tomorrow.

Anyway, after cresting the mountain at about 5pm, the soldiers showed up behind me and followed me down a quick decent. Then they gave me the thumbs up.

It was a full day (8am to 6pm) to go about 45 klicks. Nothing but constant climbing to get from Malacatán to San Marcos, an interesting town with a beautiful, decidedly Guatemalan central plaza, bustling markets and a dude guarding the ice cream shop with a shotgun. There are some hot springs around so I think I’ll go exploring tomorrow.