La Ruta Maya – Costa Rica to Belize – Nov.17, 20112 to Dec. 21, 2012 Cycling along old, remote Maya trails until the World comes to her End on December 21, 2012
Now that we have finished more than half of the cycling days it is about time to give a big Thank You to the whole Tour d’Afrique and local support team staff team that does everything to make our days harder and harder, but keep our mood at 110%, make sure we are back on the bikes every morning and have a place to eat and sleep in the evening …
You are doing a fantastic job!!
Running into you, always with a more than encouraging smile, is a treat that carries me on through the whole day, no matter how steep, rocky, dirty, windy, hot, wet or whatsoever he had arranged for us.
I am looking forward to the second part of the trip and the arrival in Belize!
Associated with the Copan Ruins National Park is a feeding station and release aviary to reintroduce the scarlet macaw (Ara macao) into the Copan Valley.
Copan, once called “the Athens of the New World” for its 400-year reign as the Maya world’s undisrupted cultural, artistic and architectural center, was the starting point to explore more of the new city and the nearby ruins.
After a walk through the village and a stop by the post office to mail the key of my hotel in Gracias, which I accidentally carried through the last stage I walked the few kilometers to the ruins.
Every day the riders are being sent out for long cycling hours and the staff team is left on their own. One can usually expect a few events or incidents during the day, like mechanical problems or minor injuries, which causes the staff and support team to come into action. However, there are days, when the riders do not ‘play’ after the tour ‘rules’.
This is when the staff team starts getting bored and invent ‘self entertainment’ games. One form of the games ‘invented’ is known as “Sarah is not working Hard enough, Let us Call the Doctor”, a useful thing to keep Sarah alerted and in training. On one day it was Cristiano, who ‘volunteered’ to be the victim and cut his toe, when he was trying the attach a flagging tape to a bush.
Yesterday, Astrid was ‘selected’ to give Sarah a more challenging task. As a brave South African she decided to top Cristiano’s courage and somersaulted over a speed bump, to land flat on the tarmac, conscienceless. However she did not time her action properly, so it wasn’t Sarah who was first in side, but me to give first aid and leave the ‘paper work’ for Sarah.
All staff members and riders are healthy and in good condition. Besides the normal cuts and bruises, which are hardly to avoid on such a tour, everyone is recovering from her or his accident.
X-fingers that this remains for the rest of the tour.
4 days into this section, the wind stopper looks already kind of stained from the battles of the past stages. However the mood is still ok and I leave Gracias with a smile in our faces, indicating, that Cristiano cannot scare us with his route changes.
Today we received riding instruction that only lead us to lunch. Thereafter was the ‘unknown’, as a new track needed to be found.
One of the earliest starts into the day: 6:20h left camp with a quick and easy rolling downhill for the first 30km. Thereafter the climbs started and continued for the next 50km – 35km thereof on dirt and gravel. The 15km on tar were easier as expected and at 9:30, after a first coke and cookie stop at a gas station we turned into the torture section. The scenery was stunning and the weather fairly hot on the first part into the climb. But this changed after every corner.
We had already climbed 1500m until lunch at km 69. However to get there was a pain on never ending short climbs. A group with David, Jos, David, Michiel and I – Jessica ignored us at the gas station, thinking ‘local’ guys are shouting after her – made it there by noon.
The continuation directions read like this: ‘brutal ups & downs – push bike’ from km 75 to 80. Fortunately the total distance was corrected to only 117km as opposed to the predicted 130km. Pavement to be hit at km 87. The 18km to get there were the described brutal. After every corner and short downhill you expected another punishment, which did not wait for long. You could always see what is next and others, who were a bit ahead waking their bikes uphill. With grades of 18% – 21% the climbs were breath taking and some too steep to stay on the bike, without fear to fall of the bike with exhaustion.
The final 37km to town were a gift with a 1000m elevation drop and lots of stops to finally take some photos.
Unfortunately, the day ended with 2 accidents at a speed bump in a village, just 24km prior to camp. 1 involved Astrid, our tour communicator and writer. She fell badly over the speed bump, just 200m ahead of me. I only recognized it was her, after I came closer to help with first aid. Luckily she regained conscience after a while and did not have major injuries.
This python was on a branch just outside of Copan Ruinas …
114,5km – 2173m up – 2596m down – 4942kcal – 9:20h
Another early start into the day to make sure there is sufficient time to make it to camp.
The stage started with a hard but scenic climb on rough gravel in the morning, with rolling downhill in the second part of the day. I felt like being back home into Black Forest – the water was running down the rivers, birds were singing in the pine woods. Nice farms and plantations were found all along.
Some riders enjoyed the rough terrain more than the others. But it was a sheer pleasure to ride through this fantastic part of the country.
I was going a controlled pace to save energy for the afternoon, which was supposed to be not that easy. After lunch at 67km there was another climb into head wind, which made the situation not even better. Until camp the hills were rolling up and down making progress slow, but steady.
The hotel is a very nice hotel, run by a Dutch lady, with beautiful garden arrangements. Food was excellent and plenty. Too bad, that this is only for a short stop-over.
113,5km – 2072m up – 2179m down – 4440 kcal – 8:11h
The day started well with a nice downhill on the Pan Americana giving our tired legs more time to recover. The view into the valley was stunning, but also gave a glance of the mountain range, that we have to master in the afternoon. No wonder, our next hotel is named ‘Hotel de Montana’
Not everyone stated the day with pleasure. Michiel had his first flat 2km from hotel. After the long downhill on tarmac we turned into a gravel road through a wide valley with a refreshing river crossing. The ride to lunch was ‘slow’. At 50% of the distance we had only 30% of the daily climbs mastered. The sun was burning hot during the climb to lunch, but dropped from 30°C to 12°C in the afternoon. The weather conditions are ever changing. Hot in the sun, chilling, when behind clouds. Our sweaty and wet cloths add a lot to the temperature recognition.
Apropos wet cloths: With only 2 sets of cycling outfits, always late camp arrivals, often rain or drizzle it is hard to get a dry set of 4 to 5 cycling days. This is when you start taking the semi-wet two day old set into bed, to dry it further with your body heat during the night …
The hotel was nice, with half a dozen pools in the garden area. The rooms spacious with queen sized beds. The shower was fantastic. It had hot water and 2 showerheads. A seat at one end allowed for simultaneous back massage, with the wall mounted shower, while using the 2nd showerhead on a hose. Unfortunately the supposed to be ‘in-room internet’ did not work in our room, because the power supply for router missing.
The restaurant service was slow I had to wait for 50mins to get my sandwich and fries. Time that I had wanted to use to prepare my bike for the next hard day. The dinner rich, but almost cold
After 4 days of ‘brutaliful’ cycling we are now at Copan Ruinas, close to the border to Guatemala. Tomorrow we can explore the old pre-Columbian ruins of Copán.
Now it is time to get a bit rest from the 4 battling and energy taking days.
The hotel is ‘grande’. I already had 2 ‘Cerveza Bicicleta’, spring rolls, tomato soup and ravioli.
Stay tuned to read more when I upload photos and update the details of the 4 riding days.
Tomorrows stage was modified from:
2000m climb to ~2600m and from 0% off-road to >30%.
Alternative:
More than 3000m climb, 160km distance, all paved on Pan Americana!
Q: Why is Cristiano making the stages more and more difficult day by day?
Could it be that TdA doesn’t carry enough EFI medals with them, thus need to reduce the number of eligible?
@ Eric: Stay alert, if you become to be the last EFI survivor
cycling days it is about time to give a big Thank You to the whole Tour d’Afrique and local support team staff team that does everything to make our days harder and harder, but keep our mood at 110%, make sure we are back on the bikes every morning and have a place to eat and sleep in the evening …
I had to wait for 50mins to get my sandwich and fries. Time that I had wanted to use to prepare my bike for the next hard day. The dinner rich, but almost cold 