After a good nights sleep I could still feel all my muscles in my body. We got up early again, because today we were going mountain biking in the surroundings of Antigua. I told the guide I wasn’t experienced, so he would see how things would go.
The mountain biking turned out harder than I thought. It was definitely not meant for beginners. Going down hill on small mountain paths, having to avoid trees, doing sharp curves and jumping gaps. I took it slow, but it took quite some effort and concentration. We first did two loops though the national park.
Afterwards we went over to a town. From there we drove down back to Antigua. Most of the trails were steep and dirt roads. I used the brakes a lot and took it slow. That went fairly well. One of the last downhill parts was going down a wide dirt road. The guide warned us that even though the road was wide, it still required skill due to gaps that were covered by leaves.
I decided to take it slow again, but this time that wasn’t possible. Braking was not an option, as the road was far too steep for that. Then all of a sudden big cracks in the road turned up. I tried steering away from them, but they were everywhere. Soon enough I drove into one of them, that were about half a meter deep. I was launched off my bike and fell on my helmet.
I suffered some scratches and got back up on the bike. A few hundred meters down, the same thing happened again, thankfully this time I didn’t fall too hard. After that I was in doubt whether I wanted to continue, but there was little choice. The road was long and walking would take forever. I stepped back up on the bike, avoided several cracks only to crash into an even deeper one not soon thereafter. This time I fell hard again and I suffered more wounds on my arms and legs.
Thankfully after that the road became better and I was able to drive down. Jannik and the guide were waiting for me, but weren’t surprised I fell. Jannik said even for him this was a difficult road, even though he’s a lot more experienced. From there we drove a smaller dirt road, without cracks, down back to Antigua.
Oncce we were back at the hostel I was glad I had done it, but I was also glad it was over. Especially after falling three times in a row made me realise this was too much. Thankfully the injuries were scratches and no broken bones. On top of that I was also still sore from the hiking trip. We decided to relax the rest of the day and drink some beer to relieve the pain.
We booked ourselves a minishuttle to the next town for the next day over to San Pedro. A town at Lago Atitlan.
Jan 20th 2015 – Jan 21st 2015
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