BUYER BEWARE: We just finished a motorcycle tour in antigua. The guide was nice, the woman at the front was nice. However, beware - there is NO briefing. There is also no walk around on the bike. There is NO identification of what works or what doesn’t. All the bikes are damaged. My friend’s bike (MTR) had a speedometer that didn’t work, along with a majority of the gauges and neutral was spotty and functioned part of the time. My other friend’s bike had a bad clutch and damage all over the bike (MTR). The bike I was on, the third bike was an old BMW. Neutral worked half the time, the horn didn’t work. We were told we would be back by 3. We just got back at 6. We had to make a river crossing, no real itinerary was given, and there were some crossings that they take you on which should only be done by people with more experience. At the atitlan location where we also stopped one of the employees was engaged in inappropriate and profane conversations (my friends might be white, I am not). One of the stops led to a very sandy patch of road where you could stop as a lookout. My friend was trying to get the bike in neutral (it wasn’t working) to park, and because it was so sandy and she had problems getting it in neutral and this resulted in the bike slipping and making contact with my bike. We finally make it back to the antigua shop and they said they are charging my friend 200 quetzal for the “damage.” The bike was already damaged. My friend was not happy with this and she expressed frustration regarding the bike already being damaged, and not functioning. The man, who was an older balding man, was rude and offensive. She eventually said fine whatever we just want to leave and she held out the money to pay. He says she has to bring it to him because he isn’t coming to her. What? I took the money and tried to approach him to say look, I get you’re frustrated, she is frustrated, and I tried to mediate the situation. He said whatever and walked off saying “I don’t care”. What?! Are you serious? Not only are you trying to extort us for cash here and there, but now you’re going to be rude and offensive even when a neutral party approaches you in a polite and neutral manner? Right. I saw him before we left and I approached him and tried to once again say look, I know you both were frustrated, but I was trying to fix the situation and you walked off. But he once again started going on a tirade about my friend and just kept going making hand motions and swearing under his breath. Never again. Just because if this man. My other friend asked if he was the owner and he says “no”. My female friend said he was rude. He says “I know. I don’t know why he’s like that.” If someone is like that - they don’t need to be in the service industry. Buyer beware. They will try to make you pay for damage already on the bikes.
