We Ride Through a FIRE Out of Control – [Central America E16] Moto Travel Diaries

Hey everyone! Welcome back to Notiers  Frontiers Diaries. In the last episode,   we were having a great time over on  Lake Atitlán, Guatemala. Hippies.   It was wonderful. We had a great stay. It was real  nice. And we met up with two friends, motorcycle   travelers, Greg and Jess Stone. And they have  founded GoRuffly, which is their company.   It's ethical stuff that's for dogs, outdoor gear  for dogs that is made by local Guatemalan women.   And we met up with them, they were living  in Panajachel, which is the main city by   Lake Atitlán. And as one last hurrah in that  area, they invited us to go to the highlands  

of Guatemala. The alitplano. Yes, in an area around the  town of Huehuetenango, which is just a cool name to say. And for me, I don't even attempt to say any of  these names. But they're like, "Come with us to   ra-ra-ra." And I'm like, "Let's do it!" So we had  a great time just following them around. They'd   been there before, and we all booked a night  at a place called Unicornio Azul, which is in   the mountains even higher than Huehuetenango. And  Unicornio Azul means "Blue Unicorn." Yeah, great   name. Yeah, awesome. Who's not a fan of unicorns,  let alone blue ones? Right. And they have horses  

there. It's kind of a countryside setting, but  we had really no idea what we were getting into.   And they told us it's going to be cold, because  these are the highlands of Guatemala. But we've   been traveling in Guatemala now for quite a  while. And everything I had seen was quite hot.  

Hot and humid. That's right. Oh, I can't  wait for it to be a little bit colder.   Yeah, I was excited. I was like, "Oh, a  fresh, crisp breeze! This will be great!"   There were no lessons learned having lived in  Chicago our entire lives. And when it's hot,  

be like, "Oh, I can't wait till it's colder." Now  it's March, and it's like, "Oh, I can't wait for   spring. Why did I ever wish this upon us?" But we  were in Guatemala. It wasn't like the seasons   were going to change like that. I mean, I  just had hot, and this will be a cold area  

for Guatemalans, right? We're from chicago  though. We were going to be fine. But it   turned out to be a lot colder than I expected.  Well, I mean it was a beautiful ride there. It was! But the very last portion of it, right outside... you  pass through "wait, wait, don't tell me," and then  

you just cruise up this mountainside. It's not  even insanely sharp switchbacks or anything.   But you majestically go up this long road.  Then it turns, and you go up and up and up, and  you can just... It takes your breath away for multiple  reasons. Because the air just gets thin,  

and it's like, "Wow, how far up  are we going? This is crazy!" So it goes up to... Where Unicorno Azul  is, it goes up to 9,800 feet.   Almost 10,000 feet. I'm a big fan of rounding up. Well it's cold up there. It was windy,  and it was cold. By the time we got to the   mirador, it was a lookout area with a statue and  a monument built for... Juan Diéguez... No. Juan Diéguez de Olaverri.

You're messing it up! Whatever. I was helping you. Juan Diéguez Olaverri. And he is a famous poet from Guatemala. And so  this lookout was dedicated to him, and it was   beautiful, but it was windy. Yes. But a gorgeous view.  It's hard to write poetry at that altitude  

with that much wind. That's what poetry is all about. It was "windswept." But on the way there, there were  a lot of fires. So, they have   this tradition of "slash and burn" there  in Guatemala where they'll clear a field for   agriculture by burning it. And I mean, not only  that though. But when we're on Lake Atitlán,   Volcán Fuego... forest fires on top of the  mountains at the tree line level happen when  

the lava flow hits them. And we would see  that in the distance, and we're like, "Wow."   We would see people burning things all the time.  And a lot of times those fires got out of control.   So I understand the practice of burning things  can be really good for the environment. And we   do that in the States too, just to try to control  if anything gets crazy. But agriculturally they do   it, they try to make firewalls and stuff.  But when in the States... and we're from Chicago,   so that doesn't happen all that often, but when  we see pictures in Cali when they're trying to   make bald spots on the earth so the fire can't  get through, it's very well controlled. There's  

firemen... We have the manpower, and the technology  to do that. Yeah. And when we went through this   small town, we had to stop at first because  the fire was just consuming the street. It was.   It was bad. It was badly out of control. And it was like  an hour we had to wait. And it was just smoke,   right? So I wasn't all too excited just to  ride into whatever hell's wrath this was. But  

after an hour went by, they're like, "Well, it's  technically safe to go through." And we're like,   "Okay. Here we go." And as we're going through,  it was just like a fallout from a movie. There's these people on the side of the road  with just bandanas, and all they were doing,   they were just trying to pat it out. All they  had were shovels. It was crazy. Just patting the fire out.   Or digging. They didn't have hoses. They really were not  well-equipped to deal with this fire. They didn't have   masks or anything. Just those bandanas. I felt  really bad for them. Speaking of controlled fire though,  

when we were in the Wild Coast of South  Africa, they do it too. And it's small shrubbery,   but it just burns in these progressing  lines. To an extent, it's kind of cool   looking, right? And we had just gone and seen  the condors. Yeah, on the Wild Coast. Yeah.   Beautiful birds on this cliffed area. And we were  riding back, and here's one of those fire lines,   and it's hard to judge what's on the other side,  right? But I was figuring we're going, we got some   speed. It's like a wall of smoke. It's  a wall of smoke, and you're on just a two-tracked...  

going through. It's not like a major road of  asphalt or anything. And I just gunned it through. And that was pretty lucky. I mean in general, it's  not recommended to ride through fire. We don't ride into   a lot of fires. We've done it twice, and we've just  mentioned them both. Those are the two times,   so far. Hopefully we don't have to ride through  too many more fires. But it is a scary experience.   Just all that smoke, and then when you see the flames...  You can't breathe. And people in cars, they  

have windows, and I can still only imagine they  get all choked up. But we have our helmets on,   and there's no airlock. And so it's just  your eyes are watering, and it's just like...   I played a lot of video games as a kid... and  into my adulthood. But when they show all   these aftermath of fallout, and they have these  little particles floating in the air. And that's  

just what this was. It was just like we entered the  first layer of Dante's Inferno. Right. There were   all these pieces of ash and soot just floating  through the air. Like it was snowing soot.   Pretty freaky in a lot of ways. But we survived.  We passed through and headed on up the mountainside.

The alitplano. Yes. So the highlands of Guatemala are quite cold and  very different from other parts of Guatemala.   And we stayed at this place, Unicornio  Azul. And by the time we got up there,   there was a little bit of off-road section,  which at the time I was quite nervous about. But   you were a pro, and it was beautiful. Heck yeah, I'm  a pro. But by the time I got there, I was cold. I   was like, "Wow, this is a lot colder than I had  expected." And then we dropped the... because  

Greg and Jess, and then it was me and Marisa, and  then the girls wanted to shower and do stuff. And   I wanted to just unload the bike. And there  was some of that off-road that we had done   two up and overloaded, and then I wanted to  mess around with Greg just on a lighter bike   without my wife. And so we were just zipping  and zanging around. And it was real fun. Then we went on some pretty nasty stuff. And  we came back, and I was really, really excited.  

And I was glad I wasn't there. And she was  glad she wasn't there. But we went to sleep.   And it was really, really cold. So there's just  layers upon layers of wool blankets. I mean,   it was heavy how many blankets they had on that  bed. They are well equipped for the cold there.  

You can tell that they deal with it every single  day. And they even gave us a really warm...   Yeah, like a water bottle. A water  bladder. A "hottie" that you can sleep with.   I sleep with a hottie every night. I think  they're called "hotties" in Australia.   It's just a water bottle filled up with very  hot water that you can have with you as you   sleep. And they have wood stoves, they have really  nice meals there. It's one of those places where   they prepare food for you when you get there. And  just those hearty soups that really warmed me up.  

So we had a fantastic time. Yeah, it was great.  And it was a definite change from the Guatemala   that we had seen previously. From there, we headed  back down the mountain, back to Lake Atitlán. The   the next morning we woke up, and we pack all the  gear on the bike. And it's cold. And we can't wait   to get down in altitude. But in  my little primitive brain, the last time I was on   my motorcycle, I was in zoom zoom mode. And so  Marisa jumps on, and I just gun it. And she  

slaps me on the helmet like, "What  the hell are you doing?!" And I was like,   "Oh yeah. I can't ride like that while you're  on. I totally forgot." It is interesting   the difference in how you ride when I'm on,  versus when I'm off. And I appreciate that.   I appreciate the care you take to know that  you have this precious cargo, as you say,   on the back of the bike. Our computers. But  that one moment... I keep on cracking jokes,  

and you don't even get them. I said I sleep  with a hottie every night, and you're just like,   "Blah blah blah, in Australia they call them hotties."  Oh! You're my hottie. Aw... I didn't get it. I hope some of the people out  there get my jokes.   But so yes. We rode back towards Lake Atitlán.

And that was going to be the end of our time at  Lake Atitlán. And we said our goodbyes to Greg and   Jess. We would see them in the future. We headed  back to Antigua, which is where Phil and Sapna,   our other traveling motorcycle friends, they  had an Airbnb and they invited us to stay with   them. And I was like, "Uh, yeah!" But as we headed to  Antigua, this is one of the most unforgettable   rides that we had in Central America. Because  the sun was setting... In general we try to   ride only during the day, because it takes  a while to find accommodations that night,   and you don't want to be driving at night,  or riding at night I should say. But we knew   where we were going to stay that night, and so  we cut it kind of short. The sun was setting,  

but it was a beautiful sunset. Purple  skies, and then you had those volcanoes   right around Antigua, just like  huge cones right in front of us. It was beautiful. And we were meeting up with  Phil and Sapna, A) because they're awesome buddies,   and we love them to death. But B) we were heading  into El Salvador in Honduras, and we knew   it would be a good time to regroup, strength  in numbers. They're just awesome people.  

And they invited us into their little Airbnb. And  I think we stayed a couple nights. I think so too.   It was kind of like a last hurrah for Guatemala.  They had a rooftop viewing that you can see   that volcano. Beautiful view of Antigua. It has  all those terracotta tile roofs from the Spanish   colonial buildings. And it is very quaint, and  very beautiful. And that ride to Huehuetenango,   then the ride to the volcanoes in Antigua,  and that stay in Antigua was kind of like a   final goodbye to Guatemala for us, right before  we headed to El Salvador and Honduras. Indeed.  

And that's going to be what our next episode is  about. So thank you so much for watching this.   I hope you liked it. If you did, please give us a  big thumbs up, and hit the subscribe button below.   And we will be seeing you next time.  Peace, everybody. Bye. Stay safe.

2022-03-16 03:31

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