May 10, 2017: Antigua Guatemala

I have been Chillin’ Hard’ for the past few days in Antigua, Guatemala. If you’ve been here, you’d know how good the coffee and the food is 😉 For the past few months, I have been chatting with another BMW rider through Instagram called Allen Sparks. Our paths finally crossed in Antigua and we have been staying at the Moto Camp (Moto Tours) Hostel. This place has been an oasis for me to get ready for the Central American leg. Jose, the owner, has a really cool vision of what a motorcycle business should look like. Seeing as how I’ve been with Harley-Davidson for the past 8.5 years, I know a thing or two about what goes on in a dealership. Moto Camp Hostel has: Hostel, dorm beds and single rooms, hot water, kitchen, living room, rental motorcycles, dual sport tours, beer, the best of all, it’s right downtown and it’s a meeting place for overlanders. Currently we have 4 round the world overlanders staying at the hostel right now, 3 motorcyclists and one Land Rover dude. If you’re reading this, and plan to rock Central America, don’t miss this place…

Above the clouds at approx 9,500 ft.

Meet Jose, owner of the Hostel.

View from the Earth Lodge Hostel.

If you look really close, you can see the volcano puffing smoke…

Allen Sparks, from Alaska, with his F800GSA.

A few days ago I turned the bar into my ad hoc work bench to change the engine oil, swap out new spark plugs, and clean the K&N air filter. Donkey should be good for a few more km’s…

A few nights ago Allen and I met up with Lea Rieck. We had a great discussion about the future of motorcycling overlanding… 😉 I kid, we just tried to one up each other with travel stories, I’m pretty sure Lea won hands down… She is passing through Antigua as well on her solo round the world trip on a Triumph 800 Tiger. Check her out at http://got2go.de 

This is actually the reason I’ve been in Antigua for a few days now, besides the awesome coffee. You want to know how to make an overlander happy? Ship him a new camping mattress from Switzerland to Guatemala ! My previous Exped Synmat Hyperlite Duo blew a baffle on the inside and the guys at Exped in Switzerland warrantied it from the other side of the planet… Yes this mattress is huge, yes I sleep like a baby on it, and yes it packs the size of a 1 litre nalgene bottle. Check these awesome mats out at http://www.exped.com/international/en/product-category/mats/synmat-hl-duo-lw#prettyPhoto