(Daniel) Given that I don’t have a watch, I struggle now to wake up at a particular time.  I have my phone, but with the various country changes recently, I can’t remember of it’s reading one or two hours ahead of time.  or if I had the foresight to change it to the correct time zone.  It was essential to wake up on time this morning, because together with the staff at Super Lavados Y Mas, we had organised an offroading rally, starting at 8am.

The way I usually time my morning, is by getting up when I see the sun rise, usually around 6am.  This is pretty much a constant as I am now so close to the Equator.  I woke up this morning, to see the light outside the door and window, and lay in bed for a while mustering the strength to rise.  When I did eventually get up, walking to the door to check on how much activity was going on.  I found that it was still 4am and that someone had simply left the outside light on all night!

Several hours later, I left the room, heading first to the petrol station, then to MacDonalds for a McRancho breakfast.  When it comes to MacDonalds, I would never eat it at home, scoffing and laughing at others who do, but somehow it is the only food that you can guarantee will taste exactly how you expect and remember it to taste, with a dodgy stomach that fact alone is worth an awful lot!

With my breakfast hopefully inside me to stay, and after a trip to their nice clean toilets, I was ready for the day.  I headed over to the shop, where I waited for the others to arrive.  Soon vehicles of every shape and size began pulling into the carpark, their occupants all toting guns and in high spirits for the day.  Yerko was there too, his truck now 100% again, after fitting the new pulley which he had made locally.  Among the vehicles taking part were a couple of Jeep Wranglers, a Mitsubishi L200, Toyota Hi-Lux, Landcruisers and my personal favourite, a Suzuki Samurai.  This last vehicle although short on comforts, is one of the most capable offroaders around, partly due to it’s size and weight, but also it’s short wheelbase and extremely low gearing.  Osman, one of the other guys from Super Lavados, showed off in the Suzuki by driving it up a wall.  This was going to be a different kind of off roading day, I could see that already!

With everyone now arrived, we jumped into our various vehicles, I had developed a new co-pilot, one of Axles young sons, also called Daniel.  In convoy, the 10 or so vehicles headed out into the town of Coban, attracting more than just a little attention as we drove beeping and waving through the streets.  Soon we left the crowded town centre, driving along quiet roads for a few kms before turning onto a farm track which we followed through coffee plantations past bemused workers and tribal people walking in the forests.  After a short while we arriving at a bridge.  On the other side was a hill which at first glance didn’t look too bad, but the steepness of it combined with the slippery claylike mud should have told me not to underestimate.  I told Axle that I would need to deflate my tyres, but he laughed and said it wasn’t necessary.  Of course, I was right, and got stuck near the top.  I had to reverse back down and drop pressures to 20PSI.  With more tyre rubber and tread exposed to the track, I climbed up more easily. However the reversal had left now me at the back of the group.

From here the track got worse, but not amazingly so, hardly a patch on what Yerko and I had tackled a couple of weeks ago in the jungles around Tikal.  I found myself thinking that these boys were all show, and that their offroading was confined to these dirt and farm tracks, rather than the huge muddy rutted holes that we had dragged ourselves through for three days before.  After a couple of hours of light off roading, we pulled back onto a main road, and drove further away from Coban to a new track where we stopped at the entrance to wait for another driver to join.

While we waited in the road, the boys picked fruit from the nearby farms and began to horse around.  One man got out a rope from his Wrangler and began doing lasso rope tricks.  Others swapped guns for inspection.  It occurred to me just how much these boys were like cowboys.  I made a joke about John Wayne, and noticed that everyone knew exactly who he was.

Soon our last entrant arrived, this was the signal for everyone to return to their vehicles.  As we drove further into this new set of plantations, I found myself telling my young co-pilot that these tracks were too easy.  He warned me that they would get harder, and just as I was about to make a similarly mocking video, the tracks did get harder, much harder.  Water filled the tracks, sometimes for huge sections, with the boys playing silly buggers, by the time I had made it to the track it had been churned up to nothing, leaving me to pick and bump my way through huge holes and ruts.

The Jeep managed to get stuck in a deep hole at the side of the track, Yerko winched him backwards free from the hole, and then again as he drove straight back in!  Having learnt, the powerful jeep blasted off along the track, spraying mud everywhere.  Axle in his Toyota shot past next, with a rally speed turn at the end of the rutted section, showing off the capabilities of his highly modified Toyota Landcruiser 70 series.

Yerko, drove through next, in a far more sensible fashion, then I drove through, possibly a little on the fast side, I would have to work not to get carried away with these guys, especially as I have just finished repairing all the ball joints on the Wolf, and having rotated to my new tyres.

Just around the corner, and having driven up and down hills of muddy tracks, the convoy had ground to a halt.  The Mitsubishi was struggling with a slippery hill, I deflated my tyres a little further, afraid that I may get stuck and make a fool of myself.  I could feel a niggling thought in the back of my mind, that my first failure to complete the hill at the beginning of the day, was making me paranoid about the hill climbing abilities of the Wolf.

I climbed in as my turn came, and choosing third gear in low, powered into the hill.  I climbed easily up with some slipping, but nothing that really slowed down my progress.  AT the top, I could see that the boys were talking in admiration of the Wolfs abilities, Land Rover was making a point amongst all these Japanese and American brands!  

Not long after the hill section, we found ourselves dropping back down into another valley.  Climbing back up the other side, another steep hill, but this time drenched in wet rutted mud.  One of the Jeeps was trying again and again to scale the 100 meter section.  In the end it had to winch, as I took up position to film the others and their attempts.  Next came the Hilux, a highly modified pick-up that we had all helped to fit a rooftent on yesterday.  The Toyota climbed to the same height as the jeep, stopping in the track with its wheels throwing up mud.  After another two tries it too had to winch.

The Mitsubishi came next, and unmodified vehicle save the tyres, which were Cooper Discoverer STT the 15” versions of the tyres fitted to the Wolf.  Before the vehicle came powering around the corner, the boys told me that this guy was known as Richy Rich, or Ricky Rico.  As he powered past at full speed bouncing off the sides in the brand new vehicle, I could see why!   Just as he disappeared over the brow of the hill, the Suzuki roared around the corner, well I say roared, I think that the driver. Osman had chosen the wrong gear, as his speed was way down.  He got to the same point as the other two failed climbs, but then announced that he had just wanted to try in two wheel drive!  He switched to the four wheel setting, and powered off up the hill from halfway.  Spraying all of us with mud as he went.  A nice smelly chunk flew into my mouth much to the amusement of the other drivers watching, I spat it out and called the word Puta at the disappearing car, another burst of laughter and a cheer rose up.

Axle and Yerkos Toyotas climbed up without too much fuss, then came my turn.  I selected third again and powered out of the muddy slick at the bend entering the hill.  The Wolf flew up the hill, eating the various bumps without noise or complaint, My co-pilot Daniel had videoed the climb for me, which I watched over and over before heading on. 

After a few more interesting sections, we arrived at a small village, which I assumed marked the end of the day.  We bought food and drinks at the shop, sharing these around everyone.  After a breather and a time to look at some of the pistures, we headed off down another track.  Apparently we had not finished for the day! 

More mud and ruts, more crazy driving from the boys, as we climbed high up a hill covered in high maize plants and coffee bushes.  As we climbed back down I noticed that the track had become very rocky.  I perhaps should have been more careful to avoid the rocks, as one caught the wheel hard and wrenching the steering around in my hands. Of course I wasn’t holding the wheel with my thumbs inside, but I perhaps gripped the wheel as it had turned a quarter, expecting it to stop then,  but it travelled a further quarter pulling something in my forearm and causing me to cry out in pain. 

Complaining in broken Spanish to my co-pilot, I let myself drift slightly to the central line of rocks, when the front wheel on the Wolf caught against a sharp rock, bursting my tyre and nearly wrenching my arm again.  I stopped to check, the sidewall was split and most of the air had gone.  It was hissing out of the hole spraying mud and looking unrepairable and expensive.  I know I mentioned before, but this is the first day on my new tyres and here I was writing one of them off.  A mood came over me, as we drove out and down a steep hill climb, stopping to inflate a little with the ARB compressor built in to the Wolfs security box floor.

The boys were not done yet, As Osman climbed back up the incredibly steep hill in the equally incredible Suzuki Samurai. The Toyota and Jeep attempted to scale the hill but failed. Osman swapped into the Toyota himself now, driving axles car hard up the hill twice, but again failing to reach the top.  The third time he tried, the car veered to the left, slipping off the edge of the track, and the sliding down further causing everyone to stop and stare as it looked like the vehicle would flip over.

There now followed a long recovery, where everyone had an opinion, but eventually Axle used a pulley block from a tree on the opposite side of the track from the Toyota.  Next to the vehicle was the Mitsubishi winching forward with its winches angle being reverses by the pulley block.  This method seemed sound, but relied solely on the small tree holding out, if it gave way, the Toyota would slip back, the momentum of this surely pushing it over the edge and into a roll.  I went and got my tow rope and tree strops from the Wolf.

Yerko had driven the long way around to the top of the track, from here he tied hi vehicle to another tree, dropping down infront and uphill of the Toyota.  From here he winched the Toyota forwards keeping the line taught, at the same time the Mitsubishis winch pulled the vehicle across and back onto the track.

With the day finished, U inflated my tyre again, and limped back to the Super Lavados Y Mas offices.  Someone ordered fried chicken and beers, we pulled our vehicles up on the front lawn of the local shopping centre, and the boys sat back on the grass, drinking chatting and sharing a good laugh.  Once the fun started to die down, I changed to the spare tyre on the bonnet, leaving the other with Axle, who seemed to think it repairable. 

Yerko and I had agreed to take some pictures in front of one of the boys pizza restaurants, we left the others to do this, from there I went back to the hotel, to sleep and to check out the photos and videos from the day. 

PREVIOUS |  NEXT