San Andres Iztapa - Mayapedal

The bici-licuadora - great way to make a smoothie for breakfast.

And a bici-taxi. Carlos's June's assignment. It took him 1 month to make.

This is the view from the rooftop at Mayapedal.

This is the stash of fixed up bikes....although some still had dodgy brakes!

Cass and Jules fixing some bikes up.

I arrived in San Andres Iztapa about 6pm last Sunday just before a storm hit. Chacon (Spanish, and vegan - so obviously unusual), Nina and Iliah (Swiss couple - very nice) and Juliette (English, young, incredibly intelligent and very sweet) and Cass (36, English cycled here from Alaska) were all there volunteering too.

It was a really nice week. Carlos and his son Carlitos who run the place were very kind too. They were working on the bici-taxi above while we fixed up bikes which are sold to cover the costs of making the bici-maquinas which help indigenous people stay in their small towns rather than having to head to the tourist cities to make money.

Above is a picture of the bici-licuadora. It shows our breakfast smoothie before and after.

On Monday Mayapedal held it's monthly meeting. A few woman from far away villages who use the machines made - eg to make aloe vera natural shampoo (I bought a bottle) came and to be honest I didn't really have a clue what was going on but we had a nice meal. We appeared to be eating it in the living room of the family who owned the restaurant as the restaurant was too small. So I was poked with straws by two small children throughout.

Wednesday we were invited to a birthday party of a man who had something to do with bikes, but never really quite got to the bottom of what. Again nice food and interesting to be with a Guatemalan family. They seemed quite wealthy.

The town has 36k inhabitants. It's on a hill - great for testing out the bikes we fixed. Everywhere in Guatemala is hilly. For some silly reason I thought it a good idea to go for a bike ride with Cass on Friday morning at 6am. I really should have known that when a guy who cycled from Alaska told me it was a fairly easy ride, it was going to be relative!

Friday pm I caught a bus to Antigua.

Carlos told us that most buses don't have brakes that work, that a lot of bus drivers don't have licenses and that they go so quickly as they have to pick up enough fares so as not to be in debit to the bus driver owner at the end of the day. Safety is not a concern.

He also told us that Guatemalan's believe that obese Americans are that fat because they eat small children. Discuss....