great photo's ,always enjoy.

Thanks for following Noel, nice to know it is appreciated.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Xela to Antigua, The Weekend No Four

Sabado (Saturday)....a cruzy start and pack up Maya for a trip to Antigua.

Juan took us out of town to make sure we didn’t nic anything on the way out, we rode together until his turning point that waved goodbyes from there.





Stopping along the way we took in the sights, this was one stop on a tall bridge, looking straight down at the river.





We continued on our merry way and turned off to the road that Julio (Guaterider) had recommended, it started off loaded with potholes and washouts, the road then improved very quickly into world class motogp circuit roading then just as quick dropped off onto shingle with rolly rocks.





Road race quality road



Then straight onto rocky stuff



We continued along the road through a few villages getting up to great heights within fog, it was a beautiful road and so much better than the main road fitting chicken buses and trucks for space.

A few wee interesting features carved into the lime walls



Banos (toilet) stop and drink of water at the top



We eventually made our way down a small rutted shingle road/track toward Antigua making good time, so good we arrived nearly two hours earlier in fact.



We waited for Julio and Luisa to arrive back from Guatemala City and we had made plans to meet outside the cathedral ..... well with celebrations on we could not get near it so plan B was hatched.

Maya was creating a bit of interest with some locals



After some toing and froing (and Julio having a comfort stop) we all met up and followed Julio and Luisa back to Guatecasa where Maya was allowed to sleep under cover with a BMW R1200GSA.

Julio is a cook and a half so treated us to some home cooking, this was very very nice indeed.

The is Julios "I hate frijoles" (black beans) look



The following morning Julio and I went for a local hoon taking in views around Antigua before meeting the girls for breakfast. (no frijoles :wink

The two other girls playing well together.





On returning from breakfast we stripped down Maya and started replacing all the bits and pieces that had failed, Julio had kindly taken delivery of a large box of stuff for us which was simply outstanding and a huge help.



On completion of the repairs we had another Julio home-cooked tea, this time we were armed with two bottles of Chilean red wine we bought earlier in the day to complement the chefs cooking.



Larfs and chats were had .... good times.

Next morning Julio took us to the Macadamia farm for breakfast for panqueque (pancakes), this was also outstanding and extremely nice.

The macadamia desheller



Macadamias in shell



The result :clap



Ellen and I then spent the afternoon in town getting stuff sorted and enjoyed a superb Antiguan sunny day with the Volcano not only peeking from behind the cloud but preforming a full frontal !!!!



Next day was organised with Richard Chang picking us up from Julios and leading us astray to Guatemala City, I really wanted to see the Guatemalan sinkhole but they had filled it in.:huh

With our final night we yet again had red wine, chats and Julios famous home cooking, A very nice way to finish.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Due to peer pressure ... here it is

Well it started off as a normal day with Richard coming to pick us up at Julios to take the scenic way to Guatemala City rather than the main drag.

Right on time for a 9.00 am start Richard arrived at 9.45 am ...thats cool it set the mood for the day which was cruzy.

Setting off we climbed straight out of Antigua through Santa Maria de Jesus on a nice road, the road turned to gravel on the other side of the town, we did catch some roadworks for a short while which made for interesting riding but other than that was plain sailing with great views.

Following Richard



Locals busy at work



Small patch of roadworks which made things interesting



Getting into Palin Richard took us into a restaurant in centro, we had pork with tortillas which was very nice indeed and Maya was creating a bit of interest on the street.





Leaving Palin we headed toward Pacaya Volcan taking in spectacular views with a perfect weather day and the mountain top in full glory.



Not long into the trip we found a patch of volcanic sand/dust on a tight corner, with gravity against us and the front tyre loosing traction Maya started to go down.

We were just about to a stand still when I could not hold her up any longer and off we went, Ellen and Maya were fine but I landed just a bit wrong on the road and managed to clean break two ribs and fracture two others which turned out to be less than ideal.

I could not ride Maya now so I had a ride in an ambo to Guatemala city, Maya had to be put onto a deck truck and bought to the city.

Arriving at hospital I was not a happy camper as any of you who have broken ribs will know about.

This is my happy hospital look :eek1



They took the X rays which confirmed the breaks/fractures however medically they can’t do anything more than give me some hard drugs and tell me to take a cement pill and harden the fook up...easier said than done on the HTFU front.



So I was all taped up for support and drugged up to take away the pain and start the slow recovery.

I did have a few sneezes in the first days which bought tears to my eyes and some blood curdling screams of pain so it certainly was not a highlight of my life, not sure I will list this as one of life accomplishments on my resume.

Fast forward two weeks now things are starting to improve but I still have one really bad spot and on rechecking the X rays it appears I have one rib that has completely come apart and gone down a notch so I will be back in tomorrow for hopefully a better X ray to see what is happening, we are now back in Antigua and I am recovering slowly still strapped up and on drugs...

Maya is still in Guatemala City and will return on a fine day when Julio or Gene can bring her back .

So being here in Antigua things are easier to get too being a smaller town, also Gene and Neda (Lightcycle on ADV) rocked into town and are doing Spanish for a month so last night we were all invited to Casa Guaterider (Julios) for TEA ... dinner for you foreign fellas, we also met Richard Harwood who hit a cow in El Salvador, unfortunately his good lady took the hit and needed surgery, best to her to come right too.

So we had a gathering, Julio cooked a fine lot of Thai curry which we scoffed with Red wine and s ... good times all round.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

I had a car pull out in front of me ,ran up it's arse,broke 4 ribs punctured a lung,all round not fun.every visitor wants to tell you a joke,one that comes to mind,why do scuba divers always go into the water backwards?,well if they went forwards they'd be in the boat!Any how i remember just how uncomfortable it was ,so i hope you recover well from it.Great bunch of photo's once more.Noel

Heya Noel, cheers for you words and the joke ... yeah it is like that eh ... you get punished for being cheerful

Mate you had it far worse than me as my lungs lucky got away unscathed so for that I am very grateful.

It appears I do have one misplaced rib but I am not sure if they can even do anything for that.

Off for another X ray today to see

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Get well soon. There are worse places to be... like at work. Say hi to Gene and Neda and of course Julio.