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Published: February 7th 2012
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Day 9
Despite my initial concern over the bus as it had to be jump started, it managed to get to Guatemala City on schedule at 06:30 and thankfully I managed to sleep all the way there. On arriving I then had to get a taxi to the other bus station from where I got a chicken bus to Antigua. On both of these journeys I was the only gringo on the bus – nothing changes:-)). If you don’t already know a chicken bus is so named as its normally full of chickens!! These buses were bought second hand from the US and it is their old yellow school buses, like the one Otto drives in the Simpsons. After 1 ½ hours I turned up in Antigua and stumbled across a great hotel – Hotel El Jardin de Lolita and know I wasn’t drawn to it because of its name:-) I got a single room, shared bath, nice garden and lost of clothe lines to dry my gear, it even has a kitchen for guests to use – all for £6 a night! It’s opposite the yellow hostel on 1ra Calle poniente #29. Most of my clothes have been
damp since I was in the jungle and were starting to pong – nothing gets dry in that place, so it was relief to hang them out to dry. It even has hot showers this was the first hot shower I've had for 4 days - woohoo, I was starting to smell like a wino's mattress!.
Antigua is an old colonial time and is a lovely place in itself very much geared for tourists, but for me it was a great base for seeing Lake Atitlan and climbing the Pacaya volcano. You can also get direct shuttles from any travel agents to most tourist destinations. I’m going to get straight from there to one of the best surf spots in the world in El Salvador – I might even have a lesson although I have as much balance as a drunken 3 legged elephant!
The town is ringed by several volcanoes which make for an impressive sight and it has numerous ruined old colonial churches and cobbled streets. As in the rest of Guatemala there are security guards with guns everywhere mostly shotguns, but they are even posted outside fast food restaurants not to mention banks! When I
was on the internet in a coffe shop there was a guard with a bandolier, wearing a sombrero and chewing a cigar, slight exaggeration there but he was packing heat:-)
I’m covered in mosquito bites at the moment but from now on I’m hoping there won’t be as many so I’m back to as normal as I ever can be on return to work. Much to my surprise I had also picked up an unwelcome hitch-hiker – a tick from the jungle but I had to say goodbye to him very quickly.
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