There are new pictures posted and the route information is up-to-date so you can see our route through Guatemala.

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We finally entered the 5th country on our trip, and once again we're sad to leave a delightful place. Guatemala was great to us, if we don't blame it for the whooping cough :-)

We had to pay $1.30 to leave Guatemala and $3 to enter Honduras, but there were no problems of any kind. We even got the exchange rate we asked for when changing our Guatemalan Quetzales into Honduran Lempiras. Lots of friendly talk with everyone around. The border post where we crossed is a bit of a backwater, which helps, I'm sure, but the people sure were good to us.

Just to remember, here are some of the prices we paid in Guatemala:

• Hotel with private bath and hot water: $13
• Street meal of steak in a tortilla (churrasquito) with potatoes and onion: $1.80
• Guatemalan beer (Gallo) in a restaurant: $1.30-2.00
• Internet: $.80/hour
• Standard guatemalan sit-down lunch: $1.30-2.00
• Gallon of purified water: $.80
• Liter of cheap red wine in a box (pretty good - from Chile): $3
• Hire a pickup to take 3 bikes people down a dangerous road 13 kilometers: $30
• Haircut: $1.30
• Medical consultation at a pharmacy: $2.60
• Aralen antimalarial pills: $.15 each (we take 2 per week)

Despite the rather rough things we'd heard about Guatemala, our experience was just meeting lots of nice people who were surprised we were riding our bikes through their territory. I don't think we met a mean person in the country. We did read the newspapers, and like the newspapers in all countries, they reported some ugly things. I can't figure out whether there are more ugly things here than home in Denver, because all the newpapers sell themselves by reporting as much bad stuff as they can. I do think that people here perceive themselves as less secure than people in suburban Denver. In some areas they lock up pretty tight at night. Anyway, we had a delightful time with lots of wonderful people in Guatemala.

But wow, those mountains are big. We climbed far more every day than we would have in the Colorado Rockies, and it was much steeper. This week we climbed from 4500 feet to 8200 feet one day, and then were down at 1500 feet the next. It adds up to pretty steep stuff.

Update: We got over our colds pretty quickly, and Nancy seems to have gotten past her intestinal distress, so we're ready to ride more in Honduras after enjoying a 3-day stay in Copan Ruinas.