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Published: November 21st 2008
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We're in Guatemala!! I was pretty excited about going into a new country I've never been to before. I say "we're" because my friend Homer from San Antonio decided to join me in my travels. I've been on my own since June, so having company was a good change up for me. It makes some things more fun when you have company.
Our experience crossing the border from Mexico to Guatemala wasn't great. We crossed in a town called La Mesilla. It sucks. First we got shitty exchange rates for our Mexican peso, then we found out there was only one bus leaving town and going to Guatemala City (way off our course). The bus left at 9:30 pm. We got to town around 4:00 pm. We didn't want to go all the way to Guatemala City, so we had to wait and see if the bus didn't sell out so we could buy our tickets to Huehuetanango. That town was on the way to Quetzaltenango, so we had to spend the night there. Got there around 11:00 pm and most hotels were closed. What da fuck?!! The taxi cab driver took us to a hotel he knew was open
and pretty much overcharged us for the ride. Bastard. My Guatemalan experience wasn't off to a good start. I was getting frustrated with these people.
The hotel was decent and it had a hot shower. We asked the front desk guy if there was a good restaurant close to the hotel. He said it was best we didn't eat around there. Most restaurants have rats. Uhmm....I can wait. Yeah, when we woke up in the morning to leave, we skipped breakfast and got on our "chicken bus" to Quetzaltenango. It's really easy to find a bus to your destination. They got guys that yell out the town names about 80 times a minute. No joke. Foreigners call them chicken buses for some reason I don't know. There were no chickens riding on the bus. The buses are old school buses from the States that they use here for mass transportation between towns. Some of them are tight. They got chrome all over and really cool paint jobs.
We made it to Quetzaltenango successfully. Thank God! This town turned out to be really cool. The town is hip. It has quite a few things going on here. There are
several language schools, so the town is full of foreigners. We met some cool people at our hostel and when we went out to local bars for some brews. We dug this town and its people. There is still tons of culture here. The next day Homer and I decided to mountain bike to some hot springs called "Fuentes Georginas". The ride to the springs was amazing. We passed beautiful valleys and several farms. We saw indigenous people working on their farms. Even kids were working. Crazy. The springs turned out to be about 25 kilometers from town. The ride wasn't easy. We're in the mountains here, so there were several killer climbs and awesome downhills. I took my mountain bike to about 50-60 mph downhill on a two way highway. I was flying! I even zoomed by some vehicles. Dangerous? Crazy? Of course! I couldn't have it any other way. It was awesome! My friend Homer thought I was crazy. Oh yeah, I just realized that my family reads this blog. (To my family: Venancios! No se preocupen de mi. Me estoy divertiendo. Diosito me esta cuidando.)
The springs were amazingly HOT! They felt really good after our
tough ride though. The reward was worth the challenge. We were dying on our ride back though. We had to catch a chicken bus for the last 5 kilometers. This was an unforgettable experience.
Had a good time in Quetzaltenango. Definitely coming back to this town.
lates,
alex
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