Bike Touring Latin America

Listed below is what I had on my 5-month tour of Mexico and Central America. This is hardly a minimalist kit, but it carried me through some cold nights in the high altitudes of Mexico and Guatemala as well as some ridiculously hot days in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

As I was patting myself on the back for making it across the canal and to my destination, I wasn’t really expecting much from Panama City itself. But while rolling through and catching a glimpse, I knew that it required further exploring… plus trip stats.

After our Nicoya bike adventure we tore through the remainder of Costa Rica and most of Panama in 13 days with merely 2 rest days in between…

A 208 mile (335 km) off-pavement adventure over some of the most challenging and rewarding terrain of our trip…

We recently heard rumblings about a must-ride ‘extra’ to the typical southward bound pan-american cycling route: an eighty-some-odd mile figure-eight around the double-volcano island of Ometepe in the southern freshwater sea of Lago de Nicaragua.

A short post about our rides through Nicaragua… so far. Now, we’re off to Isla de Omotepe… more to come.

After a pretty physically disgusting (referring to my own personal health issues, not the environmental landscape of the outside world) and very difficult 5 days (4 of which involved traveling somewhere other than the bathroom), Logan and I made it to Antigua, Mike having forged ahead a day before us…

It’s not the destination… it’s the journey. Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate that aspect of travel, but I have made a point to try and keep that in mind on my first bike tour. And that ideal kind of manifested itself on the last leg of our trip…

Out of Petén and into Alta Verepaz. Have I already mentioned the Guatemalan roads? We heard there were big climbs, complete with smog-belching, fast-rolling chicken buses (like Fernandita, pictured here). The buses aren’t bad at all, but the roads are definitely steep…

Bike Touring Nerdery

From Dangriga, Belize to Flores, Guatemala… the hills begin!

Some final thoughts on Mexico and a respite from pedaling on Caye Caulker for a few days… y muchas fotos.