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Crossing the border from Mexico to Guatemala was an experience! The plan on arriving in San Cristobal was book a bus to the border and work it out from there. After the ease of traveling around Mexico I guess I didn't figure that the border town in Guatemala wouldn't have a ticket office or information at the bus station, luckily a chicken bus was about to leave when we arrived, without a clear destination or even a clear understanding of the destination of the bus we embarked on a journey that would cover 160km in 6hrs on two buses to arrive at 10pm at a bus 'station' (i.e just a bunch of buses parked just outside town) as we disembarked the bus one of the four schechy men turned the overhead lights off, we asked for a taxi, this fell on deaf ears, not the best way to arrive in a new country, luckily we had bumped into two young English boys on the Mexican bus and continued the journey together, as I had the most travel experience my inner mum kicked in and I reassured all we would be fine, (the boys were sort of freaking out!) walking alone
down the dark street towards town you can imagine our horror when as we passed a crossroads on looking to the left we spotted a old deshelved man crawling on all fours across the road, I quickly turned away spotted an open petrol station and begged the attendant to let us in and call us a cab. The taxi driver was the sweetest he called the hostel to check for space and had really lovely mannerisms. The hostel wasn't as nice the owners actually acted like we were intruding in there house, we went for food it was 10.30pm but we hadn't properly eaten that day, we were told the doors were locked and we need to call when we were on our way home.
The town square in Xela is actually very beautiful and modern with a fancy cafe and a few bars... Beers, burgers, bed.
The following morning another chicken bus followed, up and down the winding hills of Guatemala. I'm not one to be afraid of heights by as we descended the mountain to lake I gasped at the shear steepness of the short sharp decline. We arrived in San Pedro alive most importantly and completely confused!
One of the downsides of taking local buses is that there isin't any hostel touts waiting. We luckily bumped into Juan on the decent down the hill and he sorted us out a room for a pretty decent price! The view from the balcony was stunning, hammocks gently swinging in the afternoon breeze. Then bam.... The storm rolled in... Rain clouds filled the sky, lighting covered the sky, thunder cracked in our ears. The shock of the intensity of that first storm dulled as we experienced the rain everyday, although cold it was a beautiful expression of the sky which I observed for rooftops, behind windows and on terraces with hot tubs. Bliss!
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