A Long Day Travelling!!

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13th MAY 2009 - CROSSING THE BORDERS TO GET TO GUATEMALA!!!
The bus to take us to Guatemala was not a luxury 1st class like we had become accustomed to in Mexico. There were no reclining seats, no air conditioning and no films dubbed in Spanish!! We were all crammed onto a small minibus with bolt upright seats and so little leg room that my knees were crushed again the seat in front. I can safely say that it is the first time ever I have wished that I was a dwarf!! I can’t say I was thrilled at the prospect of spending 10 hours plus on that bus!! I did manage to doze on and off throughout the journey though which was good as I needed sleep and it meant that we didn’t have to chat to Phil for too long who was sat in front of us.

The bus only made one brief toilet stop (which I slept through) and the next stop was at the border to enter Belize. We exited Mexico no problem and got our departure stamp in the passport to add to the collection. We then passed through the Belize border without problem too. Some people who were staying in Belize had to pay an entry fee but as we were passing straight through we didn’t get charged. Good job too as we had spent all of our Mexican money and didn’t have a penny until we reached an ATM in Guatemala. I felt sorry for one lady who got random searched. He suitcase was shrink wrapped and everything. I could not believe the size difference in the case when the wrapping was off! I wandered if it worked on Humans?!! I would definitely invest for those special occasions!!

Back on the bus we drove through Belize. It seemed very different to Mexico. Quite poverty stricken and certainly not as touristy as where we had just come from in Mexico. The people were all very dark skined and almost had an African look about them. I didn't see too many of the sights as I fell asleep again not long after passing through the border. Once we had driven a fair few miles into Belize, the bus stopped and dropped many of the passengers off including Phil. Loads of the locals swarmed the bus to help and many spoke English. On first impressions it did seem like a pretty cool place and had we had time it would have been nice to have been able to stay there for a few days. As it was, we stayed on the bus and continued on our way to Guatemala.

There were only 3 of us on the bus now...us 2 and a Mexican man. Nat and I snoozed on and off again until we arrived at the next border. Out of the bus we went to pass through immigration to exit Belize. This time it wasn't so simple. We had to pay an exit fee and we didn't have any money. There were loads of money men about to exchange currencies for you but it didn't help us as we had none to change. Cards weren't accepted either!! It wasn't cheap and we weren't really sure what to do. No one had told us we would need to pay an exit fee else we would have saved some Mexican money to change. One of the guys who worked at immigration tried to help us. He advised that we should try and get our driver to either take us to a cash point or to ask him to lend us the money until we got through and then take us to a cash point. Unfortunatley our driver was the kind of man that would sell his own grandma for a wham bar and instead of trying to help he just pointed at his watch as if to say if we didn't sort things out soon he would leave us!! It wasn't looking good!! Luckily, Nat had some English money in her purse and the money men said they would change that. Totally ripped us off in doing so...should have been around 20 quid in total but would only give us what we needed if we payed them 30. We really didn't have a choice in the matter if we wanted to pass through and so we had to pay it!! Really annoying as we had not even stopped in that country!! We definitely did not see that one coming!!

Next up was the border to enter Guatemala. There was a bit of a queue and we got chatting to 2 Aussie guys. Turned out that they were cycling the whole continent of America. So far they had cycled from Alaska to Guatemala and had been on the bikes for 9 months. They expected to reach the bottom of South America within a further 9 months. Wow!! One month in New Zealand had killed me let alone 18 months cycling...and they weren't even wearing padded pants! Had I been wearing a hat I would have taken it off to them!! We chatted for a bit and aired our frustration about the Belize exit fee before reaching the front of the queue. Yet again there was another fee to pay only this time it was much more reasonable and Nat luckily had been given some Guatemalan money by a random guy in Australia. She paid us both through and we added another stamp to our passports. Not a good day so far...I hadn't even bought anything or been anywhere yet I was in debt to Nat by about 20 quid!! Just pleased she had money though else we would have both been stuck in Belize for the night!! We wished the Aussie guys good luck with the cycling and went to find the bus.

Back on the bus with the idiot driver and the Mexican man, we set off on our way. 30 minutes later we stopped again. A bus from the same company but travelling in the opposite direction had broken down and the front wheel was off. We were told to get off our bus and the people from the broken bus got on. Hold on a minute...what were we supposed to do?!! Guys from the other bus said it had been broken for hours and they had been ´pretanding to fix´ it for ages!! Great!! Looked like we were stuck in the middle of no where in the blazing sun without a functional bus!! Nat got really angry as she needed the toilet too and we hadn't stopped for a toilet break since getting on the bus at 6am. We had been in the same clothes for hours, we were tired, hungry and just wanted to get to the hostel!! The driver couldn't give us any answers either and just ignored us when we tried to ask him what was happening! I thought Nat was going to punch him she was that angry!! I had to see the funny side!! Eventually after around 15 minutes, a replacement bus turned up. It was a banger to say the least...worse that the one we had just been on!! It was packed too but we squashed in and set off on our way!! At that moment I knew exectly how sardines felt!!

The ride was awful. I felt disgustingly dirty and my legs were in pain from being so cramped up. I could not wait to get off and reach the hostel!! Eventually we pulled up and the driver told us we had arrived in Flores (our destination). Thankfull the Mexican guy on the bus had a sat nav and spoke Spanish. He said we weren't in Flores and had a bit of an argument with the driver. We had paid to go to Flores and he was demanding that we be taken there. So glad that guy was there as Nat and I would not have had a clue!! The driver relented and drove us another 15 minutes to where we were supposed to be. He even dropped us off at the hostel (Los Amigos) which was a bonus!! It had been an awful journey and never had I been so glad to arrive somewhere!!

The hostel was really nice. Not the cleanest or the most modern but it had a really nice feel to it. Our first job, after claiming our beds was to get showered. They were cold and a bit grubby but never have I enjoyed one so much. Feeling clean again was amazing!! Never underestimate the power of soap and shampoo!! Once clean and refreshed we went and wandered into town for a bit. Flores seemed nice...small quiet town set on a lake. All the roads were being dug up though and it was a bit of an obstacle course to walk around. We found an internet shop and checked our emails before doing a spot of blogging. I had some good news....I had a job to go back to when I got home!! Very pleased it was like an early birthday present!! After blogging, we headed back to the hostel for the evening.

Really cool communal/eating area where most guests sat and chilled out. Big benches, dim lighting, candles, a good vibe!! The food was all vegetarian but I didn't really care; I was so hungry!! I ordered a big plate of pesto pasta and tucked in. It was good!! Following our food we got chatting to Brazillian guy who had lived in Chicago for most of his life. He was a lovely guy and again proved that not all Americans fit the stereotype. He had some cool stories about his travels and how he was not at one with Cancun. He had hired a car for the day there with his friend. The tourist cops had pulled them over for speeding and threatened them with a fine for more than the car was worth. The cop then said "I'm not sure how you do things back in Brazil but if you give me 600 we'll forget all about it"!! He ended up strking a deal and paying 400!! Geez...I wish cops would let you off that easily in England!! He had not been travelling long and was really excited yet chilled about everything. He said he often pretended he was Indiana Jones when going on some excursions!! Brilliant!!

Got chatting to a girl too (either from Germany or Czech Republic...I couldn't tell). She had been travelling for 2 years mainly in India and was on her final week before going home to San Fran. She had some amazing stories too and told them in such a way that I was literally on the edge of my seat all the time. India sounded amazing though after hearing some of her stories I would never be brave enough to travel there myself. It was really cool to meet her in her final week after 2 years travelling. It made Nat and I think about going home too and how we didn't have that long left either. All 4 of us chatted for ages and ages until we got asked to keep it down by some of the staff. It's weird...I thought we had done some pretty cool stuff on our travels and then hearing other peoples stories sometimes puts ours to shame! It's amazing!! Another guy called Jon from Devon joined us later too. He seemed cool as well. The hostel just semed to encourage mixing with new people and chatting. I sat there for ages despite being really tired from the long journey. We eventually made a move to bed at around 10.30pm after being told to quieten down for a 4th time. The lights were turned off around us too which gave us a none too subtle hint to go to move it!!

We had a snorer in our room. I would have happily rolled over and ignored it I was that tired but after about 3 snores Nat's head came over the bed. "Take one for the team Debs and sort it out" she said. She is terrible with snorers...really keep her awake. As I was on the bottom bunk I gave his matress a kick. On the second kick, he shifted and stopped. I knew it wouldn't be long before he started again but we saw our opportunity to get to sleep and took it. It had been a long long day!!

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