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Published: November 2nd 2012
Last Wish-Cancun, MEXICO
HAT hasn't got many more miles to go. He wants to visit his homeland.It's the end of the summer and HAT thinks this is his last season. He wants to visit his homeland.
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NOTE: TWO PAGES OF PHOTOS
MEXICO: We (HAT and I) flew to Cancun, a city which quickly proved to be a disappointment in having developed into a tourist destination. Accommodation here wasn't cheap but by booking online you could save 25%! (MISSING)To be fair, for the same price I paid in Toronto for a rough dormitory bed I managed to get a top notch hotel room in Cancun. There was an overnight bus south along the Yucatan coast into Belize. This seemed to be a good entry to Central America. An exit fee of $25 is charged to leave Mexico. This is not to be paid if you've been in the country for less than 7 days but the two immigration Mexicans won't let you get back on the bus unless you pay, irregardless. At 4am in the dark you don't have much leverage.
BELIZE: The bus arrived in Belize City at about 6am Belize time. I had no intention to revisit the Cayes off the coast so I
Cancun,MEXICO- Hotel Zone
HAT "I'm not good with water." caught the next bus south to Dangriga, a small town inundated with the Garifuna culture. Belize is more Caribbean than Latino America. They speak English and the US dollar is interchangeable every where with the Belize dollar at two to one. A couple of peace corps volunteers had interesting stories of the small Mayan village in the jungle where they were stationed. The Mayan dialect in Mel Gibson's movie, "Apocalypto" was that of their village and to hear the reaction of the village in watching the movie was interesting. And, although the language is now taught, the churches have discouraged learning the traditional mythology/religion.
After a couple of days I went further down the coast to Punta Gorda and caught a boat (generously referred to as a ferry) to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. The exit fee amounts to $19US to leave the country.
GUATEMALA: Puerto Barrios is a regular port-town. It even has a touirist info booth at the port anxious to supply information: Info:"It will cost 70 Quetzales to go up the Rio Dulce and another 70 to return. False! It's 125 to go one way or 200 for a return ticket. Info: "You must retuirn to
Cancun Today
HAT: "This is making me dizzy. Let's move on." Puerto Barrios to continue onto Honduras" False. The most convenient way to Honduras is up the Rio Dulce. Info: "There will be 'a hundred' money changers at the border so competition insures a good rate" False. There was one money changer on the Guatemalan side and one on the Honduran side.
From there it's only a short boat ride to Livingston at the mouth of the Rio Dulce and this is a small town worth a visit. In particular, the Casa de la Iguana guest house, kind of a budget resort for backpackers, was an interesting place to hang out. The boat trip up the Rio Dulce is desribed as "awesome" describing steep cliffs, jungles. Maybe it is if you've never been in a boat before.
We went onto Honduras through a lonely border crossing, Corinto, and then a long, slow bus ride to Puerto Cortes and on to San Pedro Sula in a fast minibus.
HONDURAS:
"The Honduran city of San Pedro Sula holds the grim record of having the highest per-capita homicide rate in the world." I wasn't anxious to wander about here. But the gods of fate are a mischievous group.
HAT Busin' It in Belize
From Dangriga to Punt Gorda, BELIZE The Ampala Bus Company Terminal is close to where I wanted to go. How was I to know that now all buses went about 5km south of the city to a common terminal which was the size of an airport terminal. When I noticed few people on the bus after it had passed the city centre, I got anxious and jumped off the bus god-knows-where. After getting lots of conflicting information on the street ("No, not the Intercontinental San Real Hotel, just the regular San Real Hotel...El Cheapo San Real!!") I finally got a bus to within walking distance of where I wanted to go. Fortunately it was before sunset because that's when most places lock their doors.
Buses to Tegucigalpa all arrive at Comayaguela district. I've always stayed here even though the area has the worst reputatilon like most bus station areas do. My friend Alex,
see his blog , chuckles being in these areas because he rides a collapsable bicycle and if there are any predators around he rides past them leaving them bewildered (how many small bicycles have they prepared to mug) or they get a chuckle out of it and we all know chuckles sooth the savage
beast.
I took a bus to the Nicaraguan border and bumped into my first traveller since Livingston. He likewise. He was the first diehard Republican I ever met: "that Batman cinema shooting would never had happened if everyone was allowed to carry their guns into that theatre". Kinda like seeing my first quetzal bird. We paid the fee to enter Nicaragua ($12) and arrived at Estelí near sunset.
NICARAGUA: The next morning we took a bus to Managua. He had phone with a GPS locator on it which is so convenient. When you're in the city looking for where to get off the bus, it indicates exactly where you are. He went on to look for an apartment to spend the month and I went got off at a bus terminal to travel on to Granada.
In Granada, I hoped to see an old acquaintance wandering around the central park area like he has for years but it wasn't to be. Another friend
from previous years did arrive and it was great to get together. Granada is popular with tourists but its small. I went on to Managua. Again the adage, "You can never go home again", proved
true. Off to Léon which is a comfortable university town with lots of backpackers meaning good accommodation and food.
After a few days and an early lunch I left Léon. The taxi cost $1 to the bus station (2km); the bus cost $2 to the Honduran frontier (2 hours), by which time it was pouring rain. I asked someone in the bus if the bicycle was necessary to the immigration post. "Yes!", $1. And since I had a vague recollection of some border crossing where this was a definite necessity, I paid $1 for as it turned out about a 300 metre trip to immigratrion with an offer of a another ride (another 200 m) to the Honduran immigration. I walked.
HONDURAS:
I paid $2 to exit Nicaragua and $3 to enter Honduras.. again. The border bus went to Choluteca and I stayed at Hotel Santa Rosa not far from the market. I wasn't sure but upon entering I realized that I stayed there before. No single rooms available but as I'm walking out into the night dreading to look for another hotel I notice the hotel rates. For $1 more there was a single room
Lying Low in Livingston, Guatemala
HAT: "Had I found this place years ago I wouldn't have spent 2 years on the Hat Rack back home." with TV. "Yes, that is available." Like she couldn't have suggested that initially.
EL SALVADOR: Next morning the bus to the border left from in front of the hotel. About $1.75. On the other side of the road was an air con express bus to San Salvador for $7. I arrived at the Terminal Oriente in the capital city, San Salvador. Then I took a city bus to the other side of the city for 20 cents to Terminal Occidente . Before boarding the bus I took a pee for 25 cents. Then complacency showed its ugly head. I was getting a bus to Santa Ana and the fellow directed me to his bus. Well I remember the large terminal at Santa Ana and was waiting for it but after awhile I asked and we had passed it long ago. At "Texi", Texestepeque, I stood waiting for the last bus of the day back to Santa Ana. In the dark I found a hostel which was new and catered to backpackers. Interesting to use the ATM in Central America and Mexico. ScotiaBank is prominent and you can use their ATM card from Canada without paying the $5 foreign
country fee...in most countries but not El Salvador.
GUATEMALA: Guatemala is infamous for its violence. Even in Thailand the Bangkok Post had an article of bus drivers being executed by gunmen jumping on the bus because there was no extortion fee being paid for travelling through their district. I arrived a couple of hours after dark. The old guide book I had told of walking one block and travelling down Calle 6 to the Centre. Well, Calle 6 goes south. The Centre is north. After asking for directions I realized I had to go to Calle 7 to go north to the Centre. Even though there still are the old chicken buses which are prone to extortion, there also is a modern rail system with armed guards which I opted for. I went to the last stop then walked further north into no-man's land for my hotel which I used before. After walking back and forth among the streets with all my baggage, dodging the groups of youths and hookers I finally realized my hotel had closed. It was the hotel I had spent a number of nights in on previous trips, initially, because of its
HAT
Hanging around guest house in Livingston, Guatemala. reputation as the place where Ché Guevera had stayed before invading Cuba. I ended up in a dumpy room on Purgatorio Street, appropriately named judging from the low life hanging about.
After a few days I headed north to Quetzaltenango commonly referred to as Xela. Because of its altitude it's comfortably cool. I had been here
years before and it was on my route back to Mexico. On the bus was an editorial cartoonist (see photo) from the Guatemalan city newspaper. He was going to a seminar sponsored by the Swiss government to support Central American cartoonists. Also, it is interesting to see young single women travelling independently like the Greek student at the dorm I stayed in.
I took the local bus from the bus station to La Mesila, the border town for Mexico. If you're going this way, take the shuttle, not the local bus like I did.
Mexico: I arrived at San Cristóbal de las Casas after dark but it is such a tourist city that everything is well lit and crowded that it's not a problem.
The bus from San Cristóbal de las Casas to Mérida was an overnight 13
hour ride. That's the first class bus. If I didn't have to catch my plane from Cancun in two days, I would have broken up the trip. Mérida is a comfortable city. The hostel had a swimming pool, free breakfast, wifi, salsa lessons at night. Mérida has a WalMart in the north part of the city and typical crowded confusion south of the Central Park.
When I arrived in Cancun there was torrential rain and the streets were like rivers. I had reserved a hotel and the next day caught my flight back to Toronto.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE ALL 34 PHOTOS
Ultimately, HAT rejected his birthplace and opted for his adopted country as a place to enter eternity. His shell is overlooking the woods of Haliburton and his spirit is seeking rebirth throughout the world. To see where it happened, you'll have to see Face Book.
BUT you can scan photos below and on the following page.
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