Central America Maya Route

[TICO650]

Hello all! I am planning a ride on March 2009 starting in Costa Rica and going all the way to Quintana Roo in Mexico, passing through the most important Mayan ruins in Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. Does someone have any sugestions or tips on this route (maps, places, border crossing, routes, etc.).
Thank you in advance for any information.

[Sjoerd Bakker]

You have by now no doubt done this but I mention it anyway; google La Ruta Maya and you will get lots of information.
As for your route selection I assume you want to visit Copan ZA , then enter via their easy border crossing into Guatemala to visit Qurigua and then doTikal before going into Belize.
In Belize there are three big ZA sites ; Xunantunich, just into the country from Melchor de Mencos crossing., Caracol a full days round trip of easy sightseeing if you get a room at Max's Place hotel/guesthouse in Cayo, and Altun Ha access from the deteriorating old route of the Northern Highway , could be done in the day you travel from Cayo to the Mexico border.
As for Mexico you sound as if you are planning on only visiting Quintana Roo state ZA s ? They do certainly have plenty of them to see e.g Kohunlich, Tulum,Coba etc. Are you then planning on retracing your route back to CR?
You might consider doing a loop of the entire Yucatan peninsula.
For instance from Coba it is not very far to Chichen Itza, from there you could carry on west to do Uxmal, and Edzna, ( there are more in the same area!)
and then go on to Palenque in Chiapas. From there either south to Ocosingo and ZA Tonina before going to the Pan-Am highway and Guatemala OR from Palenque south east along the Rio Usumacinta to visit Bonampak ZA ,and maybe Yaxchilan ZA by boat, then the border road Mex 307 to the same Pan Am route to GT. These are all along good quality paved highways and should not add excessively to your trip km , you have to go south anyway to get home.
In Guatemala then you could visit Zaculeu ZA near Huehuetenango, and maybe even drop further south to the CA 2 route where there are more sites.
The question remains for you how many ruins do you want to visit, how much time do you have.

[TICO650]

Sjoerd,
First of all thank you for all your comments, advice and suggestions. First one to reply on days, but with any doubt more than enough information for me to think about and decide. The original idea is to go only to the Quintana Roo area and go back to Costa Rica on the bike. What we are trying to decide first is the amount of days we want to take off work and at this moment we are counting on 14 days, so we need to start planning from that time frame. From CR to Copan there is really no ZA to look at, so we can cruise fast through Nicaragua and the Southern part of Honduras until arriving at Copan.
The amount of ruins is still under discussion, but with no doubt we need to see Copan, Tikal, Xunantunich, Lamanai, Tulum and Xcaret. Your idea on doing the loop on the entire Yucatan Peninsula sounds great, but then again we need to check out schedule. One idea came out yesterday as we where planning, and is of flying the bikes all the way to Yucatán and do the entire Maya Route coming down and save several days....I´m not that convinced on this alternative, but it is an idea to think over about.
I just saw the link on advrider and really appreciate it, very helpful. Let me know when ever you need some advice on Costa Rica, it will be a pleasure to help out.
I will let you know about our final route if that is no problem with you, so you can give it a look..!! Thanks again.

[Sjoerd Bakker]

As you are still in planning stage it seems a good time to take pencil and calculator and do some figures.
You say you are planning on taking 14 days off work and in order to save a few days of travel you might fly the bikes up to Mexico, Cancun no doubt. This will run into considerable plata! Time to calculate : how much time will that save against your daily income rate. It may be less expensive-- and more fun- to take more days off work and ride. I think that from San Jose you should be able to in one day make it all the way to western Nicaragua.
Truth is nobody is indispensable in their job, much as it may pain one's vanity.If you were to permanently leave they would have a fill -in soon enough. However your job commitment may not allow you the flexibility to take off more time, sadly.
Another consideration is the extra expense of storage for the bikes as they await your arrival in Mexico and then the possible glitches which might keep them impounded for a day or two until you get them cleared out- wasted riding time.

[TICO650]

We decided to ride all the way on our bikes and not to put them on any thing that flys, they belong on the gorund and riding!!! We will continue to trace the route and let you know our thought so you can comment.

Thanks a lot we will be in touch!!