Black Friday in Guatemala City

Antigua – Guatemala City, Guatemala

While our friends in the U.S. were out shopping for Christmas deals, we had our own version of Black Friday right here in Guatemala. 

Oh, for sure our version had some Christmas spirit, but it was one of those days that help you remember the true definition of “adventure.” That is, adventures are not just about those days where the clouds part, the sun shines, and you see the volcano exploding. No, it’s only really adventure if you have to overcome some obstacles once in a while . . .

Okay, so let’s get down to it. 

We made it about 500 meters before we encountered our first issue. We are biking along on the horrible cobblestones that they call roads in Antigua. (To be fair, I’m sure Antigua installed them intentionally because they are great for imparting that sense of the historic past that tourists are always relishing.)

So we’re biking along – clank, clunk, clank – bones jarring the whole time . . . And I feel/hear/sense that my tire has just bottomed out on one of the stones. 

“That’s odd,” I think, “because I just checked the air pressure and it was good.” 

Didn’t think much more of it. Just pedaled on – because pretty much immediately after that we were done with the cobblestones and heading up the big climb over the pass to Guatemala City. 

We make it about 500 meters up this climb before I realize that my tire is going flat. 

No big deal. We have a patch kit and tubes. We decide to use the patch kit because, unlike in the U.S., there are not bike shops around every corner – and even if you find a shop, many of them don’t have the right size tubes anyway.  Better to patch the tube and save the spares.

We blow up the tire, find the hole, and then go back to the tire to see if there’s any problem there. Sure enough, there’s a tiny little shard of metal right where we expected it to be based upon where the flat was. We remove the shard, patch the tire, put the wheel back in place . . . and we’re off . . . 

Nope. 

Still leaking. 

Take two. Remove the wheel, inspect the tube, find that there was actually a matching hole in the tube – pretty much exactly where it should be if it was a pinch flat. Which makes sense – that’s what I must have felt on the cobblestones. 

Remove the old patch, put on a new, bigger patch, put the wheel back in place, and we’re off . . .

Nope. 

Still leaking. 

I give up at this point. Remove the wheel, take the old tube out, replace it, put the wheel back in place, and we’re really off this time . . .

I tell you all this because I guess I’m still a little confused. I don’t think I would have got a pinch flat unless I lost air beforehand. Because, like I said, I literally just checked the tire and there was plenty of pressure. 

So my current theory is that the shard of metal lodged in the tire and started the leaking process almost immediately upon leaving the hotel. Once enough air had leaked out of the tire I got the pinch flat that I felt. That all seems to make sense. 

But here’s what I don’t understand . . . Why did I find the metal shard exactly where the pinch flat was? I haven’t re-examined the leaky tube yet, but my bike mechanic forensics are not good enough to solve this mystery . . . Any reader input?

We go on . . . All good with the tires – finally . . .

Okay – so three flats in one short interval. Annoying, but hardly worthy of calling this Black Friday. 

Yes. True. But have some patience . . . 

We’re just getting going . . .

We eventually finish our 10 miles or so of ascent and start heading down into Guatemala City. We’re on big highways. It just feels like a giant traffic jam so the cars aren’t moving too fast. We pull over occasionally to go pee or drink water or whatever, but we’re trying to get some miles under our belts – and maybe get out of the Guatemala City craziness – before we have lunch. 

At one point as we’re going down I end up a little ways ahead of Diana. Not that rare, especially when there’s tons of traffic. You can end up with a bus or a semi or something in the way – so while one person is zipping ahead the other is more or less stuck.

The highway gets a little confusing – with roads seemingly going everywhere, so I pull over to make sure Diana goes the right way. 

I wait for a minute. Then two. Then three.

Hmm. This is not right. 

I start to get worried. 

I try to call – but realize that my Guatemala eSIM card must have run out. Upshot – I have no data and no ability to make a call . . . And I can only renew the eSIM with a signal or with wifi. 

I have neither. 

But we haven’t completely shut down my Verizon account yet – so I can turn that on I guess. Will mean a big fee – they ding you pretty good if you even make one little call from outside the U.S., Mexico, or Canada . . . But I’m getting worried now – and there are no other options. Can’t bike back toward Diana because we’re on a divided highway and there are cars everywhere. 

So I turn Verizon on and call. 

Sure enough, just as the phone is starting to ring I see Diana weaving through traffic. 

She is not happy.

”I lost my phone and there was no way to call you. I looked everywhere. It must have fallen out of my pack after we stopped back there.”

Time to back up for a moment. A few days ago Diana’s phone holder broke. It’s basically a big rubber band thing and one corner broke. She can still use it, but with the broken rubber band there is a lot better chance that the phone will fly off the bike. 

I didn’t mention it in the blog because it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. But the end result was that she was using her front pack to hold her phone rather than the phone holder. Diana’s front pack is like a woman’s purse. Lots of things in it. Napkins – lots of napkins, snacks, her passport and credit card waste pack thing, and other various sundry items. She usually manages to squeeze it all in there. But I guess this time she didn’t quite get it closed and the phone must have fallen out . . .

Not good. 

And now the real adventure begins . . .

First job – get the phone shut down. Because Diana has not wanted to password protect her phone – too much hassle. Meaning that someone with her phone could do some pretty bad things. Like get into our bank account. Charge things. Etc. 

We call our daughter Ellie, who is able to log onto Apple and disable the phone remotely. That’s good!

Just as we’re finishing that discussion I see that Diana’s IPhone called me a few minutes before. We call it back but it goes straight to voicemail. 

What follows is a whole series of calls and translated texts and such. We actually do speak to a person at one point – but the language barrier on a call like this is too much . . . He says something about Santa Rosa and he gave us some numbers – 0-1-2-5. 

We put “0125 Santa Rosa” into Google Maps – but that turns up someplace in Arizona or Texas or something. 

Finally we call Jairo – our new friend from the volcano trip. I just pointed out in yesterday’s blog that Jairo has super powers in that he can switch between English and Spanish without even thinking about it. 

Time to put those super powers to good use!

Jairo calls the guy (I guess you can still receive calls even if you lock up everything else) and he eventually gets through to him. 

The guy’s a street cleaner and found the phone while doing his job. After some back and forth, Jairo – who is also an IT specialist – texts us the guy’s location. 

We bike frantically toward this spot, but on the way Jairo calls to inform us that the guy is just finishing work and may not be there by the time we get there. We bike more frantically and eventually come to some backroads spot in the middle of Guatemala City. 

No guy with Diana’s phone.

But there is another guy who materializes who is nice and helpful – Noah. Noah helps us text back and forth with the street cleaner guy – with Jairo – who is now in Atitlin with our other new friend Chase – also helping with the back and forth. 

It’s all a little stressful. It turns out that the guy went home, got his car, and now he’s going to meet us at a nearby filling station – Una Gas. 

Amazingly, the guy – whose name is, I guess, Lem – eventually drives up, gives us the phone, and basically drives off. (We gave him a little something for his troubles). 

It all seems so easy at this point . . .

All that may have sounded quick – but the drama chewed up a few hours. With the three flats, we had already started late, so now it’s after 3 and we’re clearly not going another 35-40 miles to the hotel we were planning to bike to . . . 

We make a new plan – go about 22 miles further on to a different hotel. 

We start out, but in chasing this guy down we have managed to get pretty far from the main thoroughfare that we had been on. Turns out that Guatemala City is crazy! And it looks rough. All the stores have bars everywhere. I go to a tienda (store) to get some water and you can’t even open the cooler door without the attendant buzzing it open for you. 

But it’s not just the security. The traffic is INSANE. We finally arrive at this one intersection with like seven different roads going all which ways. There’s a stop light – but it doesn’t seem to take our road into account. Just stays red . . . There are some motorcycles that are also going our way – and they seem to just time it with a quick Burt between the other directions’ red/green cycles of the traffic light. Crazy. We eventually try to time it ourselves – and I’ll just say that was not a good idea.

Okay. Now I’m done. No, not with the blog post. No, at this point I’m done biking. It’s getting late, the traffic is horrible, it seems likely to get dark before we make it to the even closer hotel we were thinking of, and it just seems like a good idea to cut our losses for the day. 

We opt to find a more nearby hotel. 

Remarkably, on the way to the closer hotel we manage to stumble on the presidential palace or something. Another chaotic scene. And it’s cool and all – but I can’t say I’m that impressed with the seat of government for all of Guatemala . . . Not after seeing what Mexico had to offer. Or even Missouri . . .

We finally arrive at the hotel. I think we have made about 25 miles of forward progress for the day. Not the day we planned. But we’re still alive, and our bikes, our tires, and our phones are all intact – and still in our possession. 

And we feel grateful for our family and friends – especially our newfound friends like Jairo. The lazy American pronounciation of Jairo’s name is hero. Doesn’t seem that far off to me . . . 

One last thing to cap off our Black Friday. Diana goes to take a shower – only to discover there’s no water. The hotel management explains that they are getting their cistern filled at 8 p.m. – and water will be available after that. They do have a different shower downstairs, but it’s only cold water. Which would be fine if we were in a tropical climate. But it turns out that we’ve actually been pretty cool in Guatemala ever since we reached elevation on our way to Lake Atitlin. Cold showers when you’re already a little cold aren’t really all they’re cracked up to be . ..

(Now I’m left wondering about Guatemala City’s water supply. Is there one? Or is it everyone for themselves? Seems a little crazy to have a million-person city and not have city run water. We’ll have to look into this . . . I guess one of the types of things we, in America, should be thankful for . . .)

Last comment. Super grateful for the wonderful people of Guatemala. Lem did not have to spend his day chasing us around. And he could have robbed us blind. Instead he went out of his way to make our lives – people he didn’t know at all, and who don’t even speak his language – better. Heartwarming!