September 30th Tapachula to Quezaltenancha (Guatemala)
I left Tapachula with a degree of optimism and was at the border by 10am. I won't go into the ins and outs, twist and turns but I eventually made it into Guatemala. The process took 5 hours and criss crossing the border with my Guatemalan minders/helpers? At one point they suggested putting the bike (these seemed to be the biggest difficulty) on a man made raft (a lorry inner tube with a few planks strapped on) and paddling across the 100m river. You have to laugh don't you. Even if I was mad enough to do that I would still have the problem at the El Salvador border - no transit paperwork. My mistake in not getting the paperwork when I entered Mexico was an expensive one. I had to bribe the Mexican and Guatemalan border folk. I now have an entry stamp for Mexico which is the same as the day I flew from Heathrow! I eventually got the all clear to leave at around 3pm and guess what, what had been a high 30's day, with clear blue skies (I got a little burnt where bare flesh was exposed) suddenly started to cloud over and turn black.

I wonder why they look so happy?

At the moment though, the threat of rain was not my main concern, it was the roads. They are positively dangerous, with enormous potholes, ruts and of course speed humps -Argh! After about10 minutes it started to rain and this added to my misery. The road was tortuous, busy with lorries, buses and taxis (the three worse kind of drivers in Latin America) The positive thing is the bike is built tough and seems to cope with rough roads and it has the power to pull away from larger vehicles. I hit one pothole today that was so huge that it couldn't be called a pothole, it was just a hole. It was this one, but it could have been one of many that set off my GPS Tracker panic alarm (sorry Bruce and Jen). It will surely go off again over the coming weeks, so my advice to them is 'If the map shows me still moving I'm ok.' 
As I turned off the main highway and headed for the rooftop city of Quezaltenancha the weather and the road got worse and I was constantly climbing. At one point the road had been washed away, but fortunately I arrived there when a digger had cleared the worse of the mess. The bike went through mud and sludge reasonably well, but a bit unnerving as I grappled with the weight of the machine fully laden. By this time I was getting cold and it was dark and the journey upwards seemed endless, it just kept climbing further and further into the rain clouds. I caught the odd glimpse of amazing features such as waterfalls and rock formations, but really my eyes were transfixed on the road. Another problem I had was the GPS only had a base map (lets you know where you are on the road - but nothing else) and my paper map I couldn't see as it was dark. I went through settlements that I kept hoping was Quez but they weren't. 
I reached the summit of the climb and started to gently decline into a very busy and loud city, with the amplified noise of a Friday evening rush hour. This was more scary than the mountain road and the pothole were still as numerous and large. Of course with no GPS I couldn't self direct myself to the accommodation I'd booked the night before and the city too large to randomly search for the hotel. I'f I'd have asked for directions I'd been unable to understand their explanation and honestly I was such a mess, they'd have thought I was trying to rob them! Never before have I been so pleased to see a McDonalds, I remember being told by my friend Audrey that, they always have Wifi. I parked the bike and went inside (Couldn't buy anything as I had no Quetzals) and with my phone got Google Maps on my phone. The hotel was 4.5km away and the route I tried to visualise as once I left the sanctuary of MaccyDees there'd be no Wifi.
Back into the rain (still very cold) I braved the night traffic. To my astonishment the Google maps tracked my progress and gave me directions (Can someone explain how that works, I had no data on my phone). Without good old Google I surely would have got lost as it took me up a network of twists and turns before arriving at the hotel. The Hotel was like something out of a Hollywood drama, standing boldly on the top of the hill. lights a blazing and looking extremely inviting. After 3 hours I had covered approximately 50 miles, was soaked, cold and battered from the road. At one point on the journey a Lorry went passed and sprayed the contents of a huge pool of water all over me. One of the first things I did when I got into my room was have a hot shower, which turned into a hot bath as the tub slower filled and I slowly lower my chilled body. 
Apparently most of the Border crossings in Central America are difficult and will involve some lining of pockets. With that in mind and the state of the Guatemalan roads I'm going to stay in Quezaltenancha another night before attempting the El Salvador border. I will leave at dawn on Sunday and try to cover the 200 miles to the border as quickly as possible. With the right pieces of paper it should be a little easier. Tomorrows job will be to get some Guatemalan Quetzals, get my paperwork in order and prepare for my Sunday morning excursion.
*Footnote
Guatamala is definitely poorer than Mexico - but not really reflected in petrol or hotel prices. Similar to the UK.
It's more chaotic and I sense that corruption is rife
It's a shame as it looks a beautiful country