I had to head over to the Mexico/Guatemala boarder on the weekend to renew my visa and to renew the permission for the temporary import of my motorbike. Its a fairly typical bureaucracy down here with the immigration and customs divisions of the government not being coordinated. My personal visa lasts for 90 days but that includes Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua (all acting together as a little block), but my bike permit only lasts for 40 days and is only valid for Guatemala. Its just the sort of thing you get used to while traveling on the bike.
My problem is that I´ll be here doing the meditation thing for a total of four months not three. Now it is possible to get a one time extension for the visa but only in the city (not at the boarder) - but doing that will not cover the bike as well, so I may as well just go to the boarder and get a new visa instead....
The only trouble here is that once you check out on the old visa, they are not allowed to issue you a new one for 72 hours!... That would mean missing classes for half a week which I don't want to do, and its hard to get things done in the real world when you are in silence too!
So, I headed to the boarder and I checked out of Guatemala and then set about checking straight back in... As with many of the "rules" down here, this one seems to be a bit flexible if you just provide the right incentive/lubrication.
OK, so for the price of $30 I have a new 90 day visa for myself - Now for the bike. So, I try to get an extension to the old bike permit but it turns out they cant do that anymore because the visa under which it was issued has been canceled! - Doh!!!
OK so we cancel the old bike permit and then for some reason I have to just wait around for a couple of hours before the guy will issue me a new one but at least I didn't have to buy him off :)
OK, got that all sorted out without too much trouble, but I admit that my silence didn't manage to survive the day - just not possible with the circumstances - I´ll just have to be "extra quiet for a few days - I´ll sneak around on tiptoe :)
Riding back to Lake Atitlan was no problem. It takes about three hours on good but quite windy roads. On the way back, the bike trip meter rolled over again. That makes 30 000Km of riding on this trip so far. I figure I have about one more lap of the clock to do (10 000Km) before I get home. That's a lot of Km with only minimal servicing to the bike. I'm on my third rear tyre, second front tyre, second (and nearly third) chain and about 5 oil changes. I really should do some top end adjustments on the bike engine but I don't have the shimms and I figure its made it this far, it´ll make it home.
The bike its self however is looking considerably the worse for wear compared to the near pristine condition it was in when I left home about a year ago.
Oh well, what can ya do...
Guess I wont get that much money for it when I get back. Probably wont sell it quickly anyway since I don't have any money left to buy a car and the bike will have to be my transport for a while... Could be a bit tricky getting dressed up for job interviews and staying neat after riding the bike.
I'm sure it´ll all work out OK.
