385 Miles, 16 Days total, 7 Days off, Total Accumulative Ascent 9,500m

The red line is our cycle route and the dotted blue line is a side-trip we took by bus (5 hours each way) to the Mayan ruins of Tikal.  We entered Guatemala from the Pacific coast lowlands from where we took an alternative route which looked good on the map but climbed very steeply from sea level up to 3000 meters into the highlands of Guatemala.  Once in the highlands we travelled generally eastward through the mountains, stopping at Lago Atitlan and Antigua, to Guatemala City where we turned more northwards for a descent into the Motagua Valley.  From here we continued along the Rio Dulce and out towards the Caribbean coast and the port of Puerto Barrios winding our way south through banana plantations to the border with Honduras.   Our decision to head north east to the Caribbean coast was based principally on a desire to traverse a greater proportion of Honduras as opposed to heading directly across El Salvador together with an interest to see some of the Caribbean side of Central America and the different cultural influences existing here.