The road from hell!

 

We left our AirBnB in Copas Ruinas early to travel the 10km or so to the border expecting another long and tortuous process to close out our Temporary Import Permit in Honduras and to receive our new one for Guatemala. When the time came, apart from the numerous photo copies which we needed to be purchased from the convenience store possibly owned by a member of the senior customs officers family, went incredibly smoothly. We whistled through the Honduran side of things and were through Guatemalan customs with a smart windscreen sticker by 09:00am.

 

A Guatemalan car enthusiast had got in touch and invited us to pop into Chiquimula for coffee which we did but unfortunately never found him. Our breakfast was very unsatisfactory with undrinkable coffee. How is that possible in a country which grows the most wonderful coffee? Nigel and Tobs departed early and Chris and Ham intended to catch up.

 

There are two routes to Antigua from Chiquimula the southerly route takes one through the countryside and misses the whole of Guatemala City, the northerly route is the main road full of lorries, speed bumps and road works and takes one through the centre of an exceptionally busy city. Nigel and Tobs chose the correct southerly route, Chris and Ham were misdirected by Waze (that’s their excuse) and found themselves on the road from Hell.

 

For Nigel and Tobs, they enjoyed a beautiful drive through the Guatemalan countryside whilst for Chris and Ham every village and town was full of vicious speed bumps, every mile covered in slow moving trucks. That was the last the team saw of each other until we all arrived in Antigua.

 

Chris and Ham arrived at the back of an enormous traffic jam which they applied their usual technique to and sped past the traffic to the front which had just started moving through the contraflow up a steep hill. The trucks ground up the hill and the Lagonda and Trolls had no choice but to follow, getting very hot and very fed up along the way. Finally they were through and then hit a long stretch of 6 lane highway up and down the hills towards Guatemala City. The heat was blistering and the two cars stopped a number of times to fill the Lagonda’s radiator, fill up with fuel and let cars and drivers cool down. The highway was only blocked in one place where a huge Freightliner lorry had gone through the barrier of a bridge, luckily not having gone through. Finally Chris and Ham realised that they were on the wrong road and about to enter Guatemala City during afternoon rush hour, not really a prospect anyone would relish.

 

I haven’t ever come across a city which seems to only go upwards, but that certainly seems to be my recollection of transitioning across the city. Not only were we moving at about 1mph, but we also always seemed to be climbing. The two car stuck together for most of the journey but then Chris missed a crucial left hand turn and dropped into the centre of the city, a very serious error.

 

Nigel and Tobs arrived at Las Carmen suites hotel, Antigua at about 17:00, Ham about 17:30 and Chris 15 minutes later. It had been a very long, very hot and very testing days driving but we had arrived without any noticeable problems.

 

We had a really good dinner at Tartin and were joined by Rosie and Ellie, Rosie being my Godson’s younger sister travelling through South America after finishing at Leeds University. It was lovely to see her in such a strange place.