It may look innocent from afar but cobblestone will pop your chain off your bike resulting in your hands stained black for the rest of the day. We bumped our way into the city of ruins and stopped to take a picture by one of the old buildings and infamous arch.
As we passed through the arch we agreed, step one find food because shocking Kevin was starving and needed a second breakfast. Step two, find a bike mechanic to see if we could add the typical style bike breaks to Kevin’s bike in order to supplement his foot break. More cobblestone streets combined with more people, more cars and street vendors increased the sweat dripping from my helmet down my neck. After an hour we finally found a mechanic on the street who would attempt to add breaks to Kevin’s bike and we had an hour to spare.
We browsed the food vendors and ordered a quesadilla and a chicken burrito. Kevin had his backpack on his back carrying the quesadilla while I carried the burrito in one hand pushed my bike with the other and had my backpack on my back and our electronic bag in my basket making my bike rather heavy in the front where I was steering the bike over cobblestone and speed bumps trying not to crash into anyone. After finding a place in the shade (heaven forbid we spend more time in the sun and we do most days) we sat on a curb in front of a computer shop which televised the situation of child labor in Guatemala. I took one bite of the burrito when all I could think about was the fact that I ordered the quesadilla and didn’t want the burrito when all of a sudden the plate and second half of the burrito tipped over and landed perfectly on the black ground in front of me with only splatters of sauce on my dirty leg and arm. I picked up the burrito and blew it off. Kevin raised his voice at me as if punishing me although it was simply an accident. It reminded me of when parents lecture their children to pay attention and the child was they just miss judged their ability and then the shame comes when someone gets harsh about such a little mistake and you feel bad even though it really is something minor. I told Kevin I would eat that half but he argued I should protect my stomach and we just go buy another item. I ate the half which fell on the ground and he still managed to go spend more money getting a chicken sandwich and eating 3/4 of my quesadilla. After all was said and done a guy brought me napkins to clean up the spilled burrito on my leg and probably to really clean myself in general. We had a full hour until the bike would be ready so we decided to get a coffee to share and use some internet in order to stay one night in the city at a hostel to shower and make sure the bike gets fixed and explore after pushing our bikes uphill the day before and walking them downhill this morning.
Kevin left to check on the bike and I stayed to find a place to sleep. At one point he was gone for over 35 minutes and I started to wonder if something happened. I decided I would give him another 30 minutes before I started to truly worry and search for him which would include carrying both our backpacks all our extra stuff, one bicycle and the electronic bag. Was not looking forward to such a task and therefore I was relieved when he returned, without his bike…..
He said it would be another 15 minutes as they were not able to mount both brakes but only a front break and they didn’t love the idea. They cut us a deal, obviously I asked if he paid less for one break because I am the budget police and we ended up paying less and getting extra break pads included in the price. At this point we walked our bikes down some cobble stone streets checking out a few hostals I had researched and ended up being able to pay 80qz total to camp and use all the facilities as well as get breakfast the next morning for the price. We dropped our bags and bikes and ended up exploring Antigua by foot.
We went to the market and super market to be able to cook dinner at the hostal that evening and ended up crossing paths with a funeral. The street was flooded with people wearing black and carrying a casket while the priest sang prayers. They took up the entire street and the argument began. Kevin wished to pass them quickly whereas I felt it would be disrespectful and we should just follow behind slowly. So we went our separate ways which wouldn’t have been a poblem in a country we knew well or if we both had working cell phones, we had nothing. I saw him enter the supermarket and eventually I made it into the store and was slightly upset not to find him at the entrance. Now to search the store, after finally bumping into one another we started our search for food deciding on semi healthy fast and easy dinner of yogurt, non dairy milk, natural granola and some fruits. The leftovers would be fore the next day when we tried to make our way to the volcano, finally.
The night was simple we made food, laughed and put our tent up in the middle of the hostal closed our eyes and soon it was morning. I couldn’t sleep past 5 and knew we had a long day so I jumped in the cold shower and let Kevin sleep a little longer. When I came out he had started to get morning going and made the usual coffee. For our low price night camping inside we got breakfast included: delicious egg sandwiches, more coffee, fresh fruit, and some biscuits. Originally we looked at the biscuits/cookies and said nah we don’t need them and eventually after we ate all the other food we started after the cookies dipping them in our coffee. We gathered our items and gear the TV say Chicago we immediately went to see what was happening and that was our first knowledge of the virus hitting the US. I still don’t know the name of it sadly haha. Haven’t been following news or watching TV. The locals here don’t even talk about it. We grabbed our bags carried everything one by one outside because we couldn’t fit our packed bikes through the small door way. On my out at on point I saw a coin collection on the desk by the front door and ran to grab the heavy pesos which were too old to use. I gave the owner one of each size and he was thrilled. We packed our bags and took a cute photo with the family and they were so happy about the coins and our journey and bikes. We are free entertainment on the single speed cruises and it makes for a fun story and an easy introduction to meeting people. We hit the cobble stone one last time for before we started pushing our bikes uphill for 6 hours just to go hike some volcano I saw pictures of.
BrokeonBike 