Bike Trip to Guatemala

We took a boys trip down to Guatemala to ride some bikes. A crew of eight of us made up the party. We started by flying in to Guatemala City and hitching a ride up to Antigua. That's where the MTB Guatemala crew picked us up the following day for some bike park

Antigua

Our first night accomdations
View from the top of the hotel
Bird!
The roads were closed for an Easter procession
The 70
Heading to the bike park
Afternoon light
Antigua
Looking for a rooftop bar
Beer finding mission
Everything is so vibrant in Antigua
Roof top view
Matt and Graham
Volcán de Agua

Tecpan

After our bike park day, we made the move towards Tecpan. We started with some rides around Antigua that took us closer to MTB Guatemala's home base. After lunch, we finally rolled into Tecpan and got a shuttle up to the top of some local trails. We rode in the back of a pickup up another 2.5k for a ride that started in the high alpine rainforest and dropped back into town.

We got put up in a cabin in the woods and MTB Guatemala crew brought us dinner from town. After beating the bitter cold and surviving the night, we got ready for some riding out near Zacualpa.

The cabin
Crops
Unloading the bikes
Bottom of the fault
The river
The hill of death
Mayan Snake

Chiche

We stopped for some freeriding and scoping out some potential lines. This area was sick and gave Moab vibes.

The van
Iron rich dirt

Zacualpa

We stopped for Chinese food, corn tortillas, and espresso before getting hauled up into the mountains for some sick riding. This region was much dryer than what we saw in Tecpan and was similar to the riding we do along the Front Range. All the trails were steep and you squandered the shuttle ride quite quickly.

I also didn't get many pictures of this region either. We were having too much fun riding bikes

Downtown

Lunch on the way to Lake Atitlan

After a long drive back to Tecpan from Zacualpa we had some amazing dinner home cooked for us thanks to MTB Guatemala. We had a point-to-point ride the next morning that started with a shuttle that dropped off right where our evening ride from a few days early dropped off. We got some insane views from the top of that climb then descended towards Lake Atitlan.

The top of the route was loamy and fast that eventually gave way to dusty and dry conditions. We had a pedal over to where Erik and Milton had setup some lunch.

Lunch
Dirt Church
Cruiser
Lunch with a view
We had company
The whole setup
Another friend
Post-lunch
Inside the church

Lake Atitlan

After lunch, we had another pedal and descent with another shuttle to the top of the crater that forms Lake Atitlan. We had a final ride that brought us down to the lake. This descent was the chunkiest and gnarliest yet. Pretty much ancient stairs down to the lake. I didn't get any photos but it was super cool, trust me bro.

Low light
Loading the boats
San Antonio Palopo
Volcán Atitlán
The mountains surrounding the lake
On the boat to our house
Boating
Flowers on the lawn
The digs
The dock
Flower uno
Flower dos
Sunset

On the way to San Juan

On our day off, we got a boat over to San Juan. This was a turist town clear on the other side of the lake, the boat trip was about 12 miles across the lake. We got lunch over there and did some shopping.

Town
More town

San Juan

We did turist stuff.

Erik
Coffee roasting
Umbrellas
Another church
Dudes being bros
Mural
More murals
Kids playing basketball
Doing more turist stuff
Heading home
Volcans
This ridge is what we biked down the previous day
The house from sea
Golden hour
One of the many sports we played that day
Paddling
Now in landscape
Sun going down with the flowers
The sunset kept going
The whole property

The Tropical Zone

After leaving Lake Atitlan and on the way to riding the volcano, we dropped down 5k feet and found ourselves in the tropical zone. We stopped for some breakfast and it was very hot hot and humid.

River shot from a foot bridge

Volcan de Pecaya

The last day of riding we headed out onto Volcán de Pecaya. This was mostly a freeride zone with lots of hike-a-biking. This kind of riding was more like skiing than it was trail riding, you can ride everywhere and everything is loose with weird traction.

From a distance
From the "trailhead"

I have far more pictures on my phone from this trip, most of the riding shots were taken by the phones we had on us.