San Cristobal De Las Casas - Panajachel

Waiting for the bridge to reopen
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Border crossings are always an "interesting" experience, but this one just cracks me up.

I stood in line at the bus terminal in San Cristobal for a whooping 2 hours before being informed that their computer system wasnt clever enough to let me buy a ticket to the border for the next day, and that I would instead have to come back at 5 in the morning and hope for the best.

Guatemala & the joy of travel agents that can barter with themselves

The ice cream seller takes advantage of the delay
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Great I thought, and set off back towards the hostel feeling rather dejected.  But as a I walked I saw a small travel agency with a tiny handwritten sign advertising direct shuttles to Antigua. On a whim I decided to check it out, though I never really considered it an option as surely it would be more expensive than talking the public bus... Ah you see, I just hadnt expected to meet quite possibly the worlds worst bargianer.

"How much is a ticket to Antigua?"

"500 pesos" she says in a rather uninterested manner

"Oh.  Thats rather more than I was hoping to pay"

"450 then... no wait 400.. no what about 350"

"350" I repeat, rather surprised that the price had suddenly just dropped to about what i was expecting to pay for the public bus to Antigua.

"No, 300"

"What... 300"

"No, 290"

"290 then"

"No, 280"

"Oh, 280 pesos"

"No, 270 pesos"

"Sorry what price did you say"

"Ok (by now the lady was visibly sweating) I can give you it for 240, but... (and she whisper this bit) you cant tell anyone, Im not supposed to go below 300"

"Done!  Where should I meet it"

"Umm... (absolute terror in her eyes) how about if we pick you up from your hostel, that will be good for you wont it"

I dont think she ever worked out that I wasnt actually a super shrewd bargainer, but instead a rather tired and bedraggled traveler just trying to work out what the hell was going on.  Nor do I think she really understood that she had just sold me a ticket for half the price of everyone else on the shuttle and considerably cheaper than taking the public bus.  Something I was particularly happy about as the shuttle was supposed to whisk me from my hostel to Antigua in one day, as opposed to the alternative of taking at least three different public busses and probably having to spend the night in an ugly transit town.

Alas cosmic travel karma has a habbit of giving with one hand and taking with the other.

We had only been going about 2 hours when we were forced to stop by a massive traffic jam.  We were about 30km from the border and the road crossed a river via a rather rickety looking bridge, a bridge which the Mexican authorities had decided needed repairing.  Now in the UK infrastructure repairs are usually carried out in a manner that minimises disruption (unless its the M25 or the M1 in which case repairs seem to be designed to frustrate).  Not in Mexico though.  No, the decision had been made to repair the bridge today.  After all who would be using the main feeder road to the country´s major commerical border crossing to Guatemala on market day.  Certainly not the 25 miles of pickup trucks that stood waiting in 30 degree heat with their produce wilting away!

Well it took us 5 hours to move 2km but we eventually got through.  Though it really was a damn hot wait.

Breezed through the Mexican border, which was great as I rather cheekily got away without paying the 20 US dollar exit tax.  On the otherhand I had to pay my first ever bribe to get into Guatemala.  It was only 20 Quetzals, which is about one pound thirty, but it really chafed.

It got dark really quickly and I was soon forced to face the reality that the best way to travel in Guatemala is with your eyes firmly shut.  We were continuously forced to brake sharply or skirt fields as lorries plowed round blind corners at about 90mph, on the wrong side of the road and with out any lights on.  Even our driver seemed terrified, and he stopped every so often to cross himself and say a few hail mary´s.

By 9 his resolve had finally broken, and the decision was made to stop overnight in the beautiful likeside town of Panajachel.  Not a big hardship, had a great night in a bar with the other people from the bus and we even found accomadation for a whopping 17 Quetzals (about 1 pound 20).

The next day I jumped on the bus again and off we went to Antigua.  Even that wasnt easy though.  The stupid travel agent had written my receipt to Panajachel rather than Antigua and I had to spend a good 10 mins fraudelently doctoring it.

All fun!