Guatemala/Honduras Biking Challenge - March 2011

Okay, so we're at it again, this time swapping volcanos for bikes with Old Town Outfitters, and riding from Guatemala to Honduras to raise funds for the projects, especially our new school in Santa María and our secondary school in Honduras. From 6th March we'll don the hats and mount the steeds for five days. ..a la gran!

Day 1 - After breakfast we’ll load up the vehicle with our gear and bikes and transport to the eastern side of Guatemala City. There, along the road to the Atlantic Ocean, we will stop at the town of El Chato where the old Guatemalan railway line crosses. The majority of our ride will be following this old railway bed that used to be the only train line in the country. It is now defunct, but the tracks still remain, so we’ll ride the railway to a town called La Cumbre all the while following the Platanos River as we go. We’ll camp just outside town.

Day 2 - We change our river vista to the Sanarate River, which we’ll follow for most of the day. Here we’ll begin to appreciate the nature of the terrain we will be riding for the rest of the trip along stretches of beautiful warm Guatemalan desert lands. We’ll camp just outside of El Rancho, the highway crossroad to the central highlands of the country and the Caribbean.

Day 3 - Now that we’ve dropped down out of the Western Highlands it’s time to cruise along the valley that leads to the Atlantic. We’ll follow the Motagua River for most of this, our longest day in distance. Our day ends up at the pools of Santa Maria, where we can take the opportunity to clean off the last couple of days of hard earned sweat.

Day 4 - Today is going to be our big climb day. We need to get ourselves out of the valley and up onto the ridges that head East toward the Honduran border. We’ll start out on the railway for about an hour and then branch off to a dirt road that cuts us up the ridge to the town of Jocotan.


Day 5 - The last big push into Honduras along Central America Highway 11. This ride brings us across the border and into the Sierra de Gallinero mountains.

All the best to everyone taking part, and those not, if you could sponsor us, especially Doreen, it would be fantastic and every penny goes a long way! Cheers

Guatemala/Honduras Biking Challenge - March 2011