RTW North to South: Crossing the border, again

KS-Monday

I guess you could call today another milestone, we crossed into a country neither of us has been in. We woke up this morning in Mexico,  tonight we go to sleep in Guatemala. Everything went pretty smoothly today, nice ride from Comitan to the border, temps were just a bit on the cool side, which feels nice. Arriving at the border, we went first into the customs office, and had our passports stamped out of Mexico, then into the next office to show our motorcycle paperwork to prove we still have the bikes with us, and receive our $200 deposits back. That whole process took a whopping 20 minutes. There was loud music and fireworks going off outside while all this was going on. After that was complete, we rode across the street and parked in front of a restaurant, walked inside and ordered breakfast. Right about that time, a parade broke out and they closed the street. I though it was nice of Mexico to throw a celebration for us leaving their country. After breakfast was finished and the parade was over, we rode about another mile or two up to the Guatemala border. First stop was a fumigation station, where they spray your bike with a mystery   chemical, and have you pay them for it, just so they can give you a receipt that nobody else will ask for. Money changers also came up and willingly exchanged our pesos for quetzals, at a very favorable rate, for them. Next step was into the immigration office to fill out our passport paperwork, and get more papers. After we paid them to enter the country, we went out to the next office, and went through the paperwork to legally bring our bikes into the country (kind of an important part for us). Then you take a piece of paper into the bank office next door, pay the amount, get a stamp, then walk back out to the other office, and give them that piece of paper,   then they give us more paper, and walk out and put a sticker on each bike.   Its an interesting process, and didn't take too long in this situation, but for me it is helped by trying to play a happy tune in your head while you wait, may look strange to some people, but it seems to work better then sitting there looking impatient and angry.
   Guatemala is a beautiful country, despite the trash and filth. The mountains are incredibly steep, and the roads wind and twist up through deep river valleys. Houses are built on impossibly vertical hillsides, with no driveway visible. I did catch a glimpse of a truck crossing a wooden suspension bridge, that I would have been hesitant to ride a motorcycle across. And most every pickup truck is loaded to the hilt with passengers. So far, the record that we have seen is 10 people in the bed of a Toyota pickup. We wound our way through the mountains, topping out at around 8500ft, luckily we had stopped before then and put the liners in our jackets for warmth.  I will admit to expecting a bit more hot and rainy weather by this point, but there are times when I'm glad to be wrong.   I'm sure we will have our experience with tropical heat and rain, but I guess we haven't made it to that point yet.
   Tonight we are in Quezaltenango, at a hotel that allowed us to shove our bikes into the corner of the entryway, one of the many benefits of traveling on small bikes. We walked around the central square and some food and drink, then made our way back to our hotel room. If anyone has traveled to Central America, you may have seen the shower with the electric heated shower head. They are a bit scary if you know anything about electricity. The power connections are in the shower with you, and wrapped in electrical tape just above your head. The ground wire is stripped back and attached to the water pipe by another wrap of electrical tape, in the shower.   We have decided if someone wants to take a shower, the other person will be standing next to the in room breaker panel ready to throw the breaker if screams are heard from the shower.   That's pretty much got if for today, were still route planning for our run towards Panama, hoping to get to Costa Rica and take a couple days off to play tourist.
   Picture time.