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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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The journey to Antigua has got to be the worst so far. Yet again we were lulled into a false sense of security when we arrived at the bus terminal expecting to join the wacky races only to find we had the luxury of a numbered seat and air conditioning. It didn´t take too long for the journey to take a turn for the worse when we found ourselves in one of Guatemalas so called rare traffic jams on a rocky mountain pass which lasted a good 2 hours. With a woman being violently sick at the back. We arrived in Guatemala City at 2.30ish and couldn´t wait to get out. It´s got guns, dirt, slums, smog, hustlers, gangsters and more guns. This time we saw an armed guard outside an underwear shop.
Luckily the bus terminal indicated in the rough guide has moved so after standing around like lost tourists in one of the world´s most dangerous cities we grabbed a taxi to the right location. Then jumped straight onto another mental chicken bus ride. The buses in Guatemala are all old yellow American School buses which have been repainted by acid heads. Who end up driving them. It´s great. The driver has a partner who hangs off the bus shouting the destination repeatedly at everybody. We´re not sure what the arrive life expectancy is for these guys, but it can´t be high. During this short journey we wittnessed road rage between bus drivers, but luckily our driver is Guatemala´s King Kong and the other guy shat himself.
Arriving in Antigua was a bit of a shocker - stressful bus terminal, lots of drunk hustlers, mad market and then it pissed it down whilst we were trying to find a closed hotel. Luckily the crazy bus terminal is nothing like the town, we´re loving it here. It´s a beautiful colonial town beneath 3 volcanoes, so needless to say the place is full of ruins.
So far we´ve had the best evening meal at a tiny place called Bonanza and met Ignarcio (Chef) and Arcienio who fed us the most amazing Guatemalan food with proper Chesta sized portions, entertained us and showed us bar tricks. Excellent. We´ve always avoided eating at the same place twice but came back to Bonanza and wish we´d spent more time there. The restaurant only had three tables but it was spot-on (and they´re hoping to expand soon - good luck). We even watched the Chelsea win the Premiership on a perfect Saturday afternoon. They made us feel really welcome the whole time and when we left Antigua we felt we were leaving two friends.
We did the whole tourist thing, visiting the ruined Cathedral, churches and stuff, had a look round the museums and drank some lovely coffee and beer. It was all very lovely in cobbley street kind of way.
On Sunday we vamosed to San Pedro.
previous travel blog entry
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