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Published: February 1st 2011
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Antigua Valley
View back into Antigua from Volcan Agua The mountains and volcano's surrounding Antigua are riddled with tracks and farmers footpaths that cry out to be ridden by the intrepid mountain biker. About 15 years ago a traveller from Colorado came to the same conclusion and has spent his life developing an adventure company which specialises in advance level Mountain Biking, so as a release from my daily Spanish lessons I have been on two epic rides around Antigua.
Volcan Agua
My first trip was to the vast conical Volcano due south of Antigua, Volcan Agua. We drove out of town in the back of a pickup (all packed in with the bikes) and steadily climbed through the coffee plantations, small towns and villages surrounding Antigua. It was extraordinary how quickly upon leaving the clean streets and colonial architecture of Antigua the buildings revert to simple concrete constructions with tin roofs, probably this is more typical of the real Guatemala. The last twenty minutes of the drive climbed the volcano up steep hairpins bends, this made keeping my balance standing in the back of the truck quite tricky, still, it afforded us amazing views down into the Antigua Valley.
The slopes of Volcan Agua are covered
in a thick layer of volcanic soil and as such are a patchwork of small farms; where the mountain side becomes too steep, about 2/3 of the way up, the land reverts to thick forest. As we were reliant on the farm trails for our singletrack decent we started our ride a few hundred metres below the treeline. The ride was fantastic, we weaved through trail after trail, bombing down the side of the volcano with the guide keeping an excellent pace, the soil was so dry the bike in front threw up clouds of dust obscuring obstacles and features alike. Every few hundred yards we came round a corner to meet the back end of a donkey heavily laden with crops or firewood lead by a farmer carrying massive machetes and usually similarly encumbered, heavy breaking, long skids and near misses made for a very interesting ride. I´m not sure what the locals thought of us, a bunch of gringos whizzing past on high spec mountain bikes, probably just thought we were loco.
Whenever we stopped for a breather our guide would point out what was being grown locally and we sampled fresh green beans, Avocados straight from
Obsticles
Sometimes the farmers disappeared entirely under their loads. the tree and a local fruit called Mispero which was delicious and unlike anything I´ve had before. The surrounding fields were covered in flowering crops making the landscape very colourful. The ride lasted around 3 hours and the 45min technical decent was challenging and very exhilarating, by the end of the day I was tired, filthy and very happy.
Cielo Grande
After the success of my first ride I had to do another excursion before leaving Antigua, this time I opted for the most advanced trip available, advertised only for "expert riders in excellent shape" it sounded great. There was no uplift for this one, it was pedal power all the way. I asked a friendly Aussie called Nick along for the ride, he had not done much biking before and turned up in board shorts with a due sense of trepidation.
For three hours we climbed into the mountains away from Antigua, we shared the main road out of town with Chicken Buses and passed through the slum districts (where the shacks are precariously perched on steep hillsides). After a few miles we turned onto dirt tracks which wove up the valleys through avocado plantations, forests of
Obsticles
As you can see there is not much room for manover odd looking trees and eventually dense jungle. We started in Antigua at 1598m and nearing the top of the advertised ascent at 2324m the guide suggested we go a bit further to where there had been a downhill race the previous week, we were all competent riders (apart from Nick) and despite the 3km of extra uphill were very keen to give it a go. We must have climbed over 1000m in one go and by the end of it I was absolutely exhausted - I blame the altitude obviously - but my word was it worth it.
The downhill was called "Matute" and was probable one of the most extraordinary docents i´ve ever done. First some background, Guatemala basically has two seasons, wet & dry, and from what i understand when its wet its really really wet, the jungle clad slopes of the mountains receive huge volumes of water and have had deep flood channels carved out of them which snaked their way down like meandering rivers, luckily in the summer months they are completely dry... it was through these channels that we made our decent. The channels are roughly U shaped, very steep in places and around
8-10 feet deep, the jungle forms a green canopy overhead and frequent fallen trees forced us to duck on the way down. The ride was very fast and flowing, the flow of the floodwater forms ideal natural berms and a hard surface on which to ride. It was hard going and there was many a tumble on the first few sections. Everyone was caked in dust within minutes. As the decent continued we rode perched along the valley side but frequently dropped down into the channels again, at one point it got so narrow that my pedals got stuck either side & I had to jump off. I think Nick had a fantastic time, he fell off seven times, burst a tyre, and proclaimed Mountain Biking an "extreme and mental sport" but I think there´s another convert. In total we cycled 38km in 4.5 hours in what must be on of the best rides of my life.
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Suzanna
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Wow!
Rereading backwards, Will, to keep the context of your exploits. Your blogs are SO interesting to read - great undertaking, your trip, & Thank you for sharing it, in fascinating word & image. Go on, please! Love, Suzanna