You can be anywhere when life begins....

For me, I was sitting/sleeping (I am still not quite sure) on a 42 seater overnight bus from Puerto Escondido to Tapachula, Mexico. A twelve and a half hour journey from where we had been for the last couple of days and the border of Mexico - Guatemala. The bus was freezing cold; packed full of Mexicans and smelt a bit dodge from the toilet up the back. The song “Vision” by The Music had been blaring from my iPod. It was about 03.26 am, Saturday 14 March.

Right there and then in seat number 28, I finally felt completely free. (Kind of ironic don’t you think, this all happened whilst I was stuck in the most uncomfortable seat and still had another 5 hours before I could move around).

It must have been an emotional 60-90 seconds of my life, because according to Mick, I slept for a solid 25 hours afterwards. Only awakening when we had to change buses, cross the Mexican - Guatemalan border, to eat a Burger King Muffin, jump on a chicken bus to the beach, and check into our apartment in Champerico, Guatemala.

I now feel like I can share my adventure with you in the most honest way possible, because I really do feel like I am living my dream. Everything, from now on, is straight from my journal.

15 March
Guatemala. Wow, what a charming little country. From what I have seen everything is about colour. The sunset, the sunrise, the beaches, the jungles, the buildings, the buses, everything has its own vibrant colour.

We got to Champerico (small coastal fishing town) on a chicken bus (about AUD$1.20), some tout taxi offered to take us here for the small fee of 150 Quetzals (about AUD$30) but the chicken bus seemed much more fun. These chicken buses are fantastic, they are pimped out old school buses from the USA. They have the bomb dartiest stereo systems, with reggaeton screaming from the speakers - much to my amusement (Mick brought me back these reggaeton cd´s a couple of years ago, that had me in hysterics cos its pretty cheesy), and have the coolest body sprays I have ever seen. And yep, they are called chicken buses because you will find chickens on them. Nevertheless, back in the third world, and people seem to always be in a hurry... and this bus took off with Mick still on the top of the bus trying to tie our luggage to the roof. 500m down the road did the driver realise and stop for him to get into the bus via the swinging back door. The journey took about an hour, and the vibrations from the seat sent my bum numb.

The town itself is pretty run down, and pretty dirty. There is stray dogs, and rubbish all over the beach, and the streets. The sand is volcanic and black. The smell of freshly caught fish mixed with grilled chicken lingers in the air. The touts come in the form of very very cute kids. There is one guy that walks around in shorts and a balaclava. The cops walk around with the biggest machine guns that I have ever seen. The sun is hot and stings, and all 49 channels on the cable TV are in Spanish. Everyone greets you with a smile, the local women are dressed up in traditional clothing. The seabreeze is amazingly soothing, the water is warm, the buildings are every colour in the rainbow and I couldn’t have picked a better place to chill out after sitting on 3 different buses for the 19 hours it took for us to get here.

Across the road I see a restaurant, its called ¨RANCHO NEW YORK¨, with a freshly painted picture of the World Trade Centre or Twin Towers.... I wonder if they know about 9-11... Hmmm...

16 March
I woke up from my 25 hour slumber, and went for a walk on the beach. Mick went out for a “surf”, I say this because he is yet to catch anything as the beach is lined with an endless string of closeouts. I watched 2 or 3 fishing boats go out to sea, and the locals set up their fresh fruit stalls on the beach and the sidewalks. The restaurants all start opening up as they first boat comes back in with the first catch of the day. The locals seem to wake up at about this time too as I am suddenly surrounded by 10 children and their mothers, swimming and laughing. The waves come in hard and fast and knock them down, but it doesnt deter them, and they still have the biggest grins on their face. My favourite is this kid wearing orange that is missing a couple of teeth. So cute. Mick has finally caught a wave, and has also accumulated a stalker. This kid copies everything that Mick does, following Mick´s shadow. Pretty rippy out there. Mick is working hard. He catches one more, and comes in.

Walking through the town, everyone stares at you, well they stare at Mick because he is westerner, and they stare at me because they are a little bit confused. Most of the places that I have been, all the locals think I am local, and this hasnt worked in my favour. I am starting to think though that Mondays are a special day too, and all the women dress traditionally. I love what their wearing and make a mental note to find out what its all about.

Back in our apartment, I am watching the beach. I start to get a little bit mad because there is a huge crowd on the beach, and a net has gone out... I am starting to think that they are trying to catch a turtle (as this is what they do in Indonesia, and they steal all the eggs as well to sell on the street). As I keep watching though, the women are now invited into the water and start to get a bit confused as they look like they are trying to be drowned. I get out the binoculars, and I realise that I have just witnessed an ocean baptism, and feel pretty stupid for thinking badly.

17 March
Today we travelled to a place called Sipacate. More chicken buses. I had to pull the most gorgeous little girl pickpocket from my bag today. Finally got there, got caught in a 15 minute downpour in rain (which I swear could have filled a swimming pool), and then settled for the most run down bungalow to stay the night in. I was so scared out of my brains. It was made of wood and bamboo and banana palms. Covered in an inch of dust and crawling with things... Everything moves, and everything made a weird noise, and everything has a strange shadow. Also, the massive mango tree in the yard has mangoes dropping off it at killer speeds....

This town is nice, a little bit more run down than Champerico, but the water is nicer to swim in. It actually reminds me a lot of Scarborough, just the sand is black. Love catching the tuk tuks around this joint.

Going to head to Antigua tomorrow or the next day. Gonna go climb Mount Pocaya, live volcano. I wanna see some lava. Maybe gonna check out some Mayan ruins, and a massive marketplace. Then I think we are going to shoot through to San Salvador, in El Salvador... aaargh more chicken buses!!!! Nooooooooooooo!!

Hope you are all well and being happy. xxx

ps, if you are over the travel blog and dont want to receive it, please let me know and I can take you off the mailing list.

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Part of trip: Central America

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