We planned to get away as early as possible because we had a border crossing ahead of us.  After a quick cup of coffee/tea we headed down to our bicycles to find that the front tyre of Leigh's bike was flat.  The usual culprit - a piece of truck tyre wire.  Not wanting to waste any time repairing the puncture, I fitted our last spare.  Murphy's law kicked in and it wouldn't inflate with the problem being at a previous puncture site.  So I had to patch the one that had been on the bike.

Half an hour later we rolled off, stopping at the first Oxxo to pick up liquids for the day because there would probably not be anything available between Tenosique and the border.  Then we got slightly lost getting out of town but eventually we were on the road in front of a sign pointing the way to El Ceibo.  At this point we realized we had forgotten to buy breakfasts one and two at the Oxxo.  We have a stash of emergency rations so we decided to push on.

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In the end forgetting to buy food worked out OK because at the twenty four kilometer mark we found a comedor where we enjoyed a half an hour break while shoveling down a couple of fried eggs each with the usual pile of tortillas and frijoles.  The re-fried beans were amongst the best we have eaten so far having the unmistakable aroma of bacon fat.

After that it was an easy and enjoyable run to the border.

The conditions today were great.  Very little traffic, a gently undulating road with a good surface and pleasant weather.  The temperature didn't rise about the early thirties and it was practically windless.  The views were good, mostly forest or cattle pastures.  The trees were full of birds and Mexican Howlers could be heard calling from the hills to our right.

Because of the nice cycling conditions we were able to spend a lot of time cycling close to one another and chatting as we rode.  During one of these times Leigh almost cycled over what may have been a Pit Viper (large triangular head, diamond patterned back, thick set body, just short of a meter long) that was lying in the middle of the road.  If things had gone wrong it could have been the end of this tour.

The border crossing was easy but not that quick because the officials on both sides wanted to chat a bit.  Both sets were amongst the friendliest we have ever encountered.  The Guatemalan immigration officers gave us a round of applause when they discovered we were traveling by bicycle!

After changing some Pesos into Quetzals, we naively took the first hotel we found on the main road, the Hotel Allan.  It looks good from the outside but at G$250 it is certainly over priced.  No toilet seat, dodgy shower and the beds are so bad we might sleep on the floor.

The other disaster of the day was that socks I have been using since we descended from the high areas around Mexico City have finally packed up.  Leigh bought them for me when I ran my last Comrades Marathon more than twenty four years ago.  The Comrades is run over approximately eighty nine kilometers (about five kilometers more than two standard marathons back to back) over the hills between Durban and Pietermaritzburg with the direction alternating each year.  It attracts an enormous field which is now capped at twenty five thousand runners.  These socks must have run thousands of kilometers and cycled even more in my shoes over the years.  I can't bring myself to throw them away.

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