Updated on January 6, 2021

Guatemala is a special country, full of beautiful places and colorful people. While it is worth the visit, it’s a tough country for bicycle touring. There are many poorly maintained roads and the gradients are from another world. Sometimes we couldn’t even push our bikes uphill and we were about to quit! Fortunately we didn’t but we spent more time off of the bike than actually cycling.  You can check the route we followed here. The costs are PER PERSON.

Guatemala was the least expensive country we have visited to date, our daily 10 dollars could go a long way.  Rather than spending less, we decided to enjoy some pleasures that we normally don’t have, we checked into a room almost every night and we ate out once a day.

We entered the country though the Belizean border at Melchor Mencos, in the Peten región. After a few days of rest in Flores we headed south taking some small unpaved roads. After a few hard days on the saddle we reached the town of Lanquin where we spent Christmas Eve. We didn’t learn from our mistakes and we decided to go to Semuc Champey on our bikes to experience the worst road in the whole trip. Once we got to Cobán, we decided to put the bikes on a bus and go to Antigua to spend New Years and enjoy some days of rest. Leaving our scuba gear in Antigua, we explored the surrounding with less weight on our bikes and we enjoyed climbing Acatenango Volcano and exploring Lake Atitlán

Once we were back in Antigua, Amanda took a bus to La Ceiba (Honduras) and Antonio cycled south to the border town of La Hachadura to cross into El Salvador. We met up in Roatan a few days later.

* Costs in american dollars (USD)

 

 

ON THE BIKE

Total: 43 Days

Cycling days: 14 Days

Rest days: 29 Days

Total pedalled: 805 Kms (500 mi)

Kms/day: 18.72 Kms (11.62mi)

Kms/cycling days: 57.5 Kms (35.7mi)

 

Total Spent: 433.35 USD

Average spent per day: 10.08 USD

LODGING

Total Spent: 159.50 USD

Average spent per day: 3.71 USD

FOOD

Total Spent: 227.35 USD

Average spent per day: 5.29 USD

OTHERS

Total Spent: 45.50 USD

Average spent per day: 1.02 USD

A double room with the bathroom inside goes for about 6-7 dollars in Guatemala. So we hardly camped during the month and a half we spent in the country. With the food, we became big fans of the Guatemalan fried chicken (a compulsory meal for everyone coming to Guate). A piece with french fries costs 0.60 USD. When we didn’t cycle, we tried to eat a bit healthier. With avocados for 10 cents, guacamole was always in the menu! 

 

LODGING

Total : 43 Days

Days paid to sleep: 38 Days

Days not paid to sleep 5 Days

Showers: 40 (We are way too clean!)

Hostel-hotel : 37 Days

Host – Friends: 2 Days

Place : 2 Days

Camping: 2 Days

  • Paid: 1 Day
  • Unpaid: 1 Day

Only when we crossed el Petén on dirt roads we didn’t take a room (there wasn’t any!). René and his family invited us to spend the night at their place in San Luis. Luis opened a dorm for us at the church in Dolores, and Philipe let us sleep at his “boat” on the way to Panajachel. Even though we didn’t camp much, one of the best camping spots of the trip was in Guatemala: in the ancient mayan city of Tikal. 

 

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