My eyes burned from exhaust and smoke coming off the street vendors grills. We were like elephants trampling through a street market with only enough space to allow small children to walk through comfortably. That morning we had decided to take a chance and reach out by WhatsApp to a warm showers host with great reviews. We entered McDonalds for free wifi and checked our messages….he said yes. I was overcome with relief to have a safe place in the city area to sleep and to meet a local to give us more information and advice. We headed a little ways out of the city to zone 12. The 5 kilometers felt like 20, as we biked in the middle of a highway lane side by side with cars and motorbikes because this city was not meant for bikers of any sort. Eventually the maps.me directions led us to a closed gate where security asked for ID and whom we would be visiting. Needless to say we felt safe and excited for Guatemala after we fumbled for the correct name and address of Sergio our warm showers host.
Upon our arrival we rang the bell a nice lady answered hola, Kevin took over and explained hi we are here to stay with Sergio. She polietly told us he lived a few house down the street. That’s when I realized we got the numbers mixed up and had them backward. Sergio’s family welcomed us with open arms and told us where everything was and gave good directions to the super market to restock our food and buy groceries to finally be able to cook a meal.
We forgot the bike lock so Kevin gestured to the security guard that it would be nice if he would keep an eye on our bikes and we decided if they were gone then we were not meant to carry on biking so we would switch to another method of transport. After dragging Kevin by his ears out of the store we left with oats, chicken, veggies, eggs and quinoa to be able to make dinner and breakfast before a long day biking to Antigua.
As Kevin finished up cooking dinner Sergio finally arrived home and gave us a warm welcome and took us upstairs to his bike hosting Oasis. Kevin and him shared beers, we ate dinner and discussed the previous travelers he had hosted, Guatemala and how crazy we are to have single speed bikes especially in these mountains. He got a lot of good laughs and we didn’t know why until later that is when the mountains appeared and we began walking more often than not.
Sergio is a special type of person who will be in my contact list for years to come. He is the type of guy whom opens his home to all types of bicyclist and gives them a place to call home while they are on the road. I hope one day I could host him on his travels if he ever adventures to where I am living or even where I have family to host him.
In the morning Kevin and I took it slow, slightly felt bad since Sergio wanted to see us off and went to work late that morning since we were taking longer enjoying the park for a work out with the rings and then cooking a nice warm scrambled eggs with veggies breakfast along with coffee. Not to mention we got into a wonderful conversation about health and keto with one of Sergio’s son’s thus we didn’t end up packing our bikes till 8:45 and then left with heart felt goodbyes and many laughs as we hit the road on the single speed beach cruisers. If you are hesitant about trying out bicycle trips this stop made me a big fan of the website warmshowers especially because we got lucky to have such a great host on our first try and that he took a chance on us without reviews since I sent him a WhatsApp message. Thanks Sergio and you were right Guatemala is interesting when biking with crappy bikes in the mountain region.
BrokeonBike 