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Published: February 9th 2008
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The flight to Guatemala City was an uneventful one. I arrived in Guatemala City without having printed off the instructions on how to get to the orphanage, like the eejit that I am. But I remembered that there were 2 bus companies that could get me where I needed to go. So I found a taxi and asked the driver which bus company still ran to Rio Dulce after 5pm, and of course he brought me to the wrong bus station. So I had to get another taxi to the next station where I got my ticket to Rio Dulce, a town named after the river that it spans, meaning the sweet river.
At first, driving out of the airport, Guatemala City looked a lot like Mexico City, except maybe a little bit cleaner. But as we got into the city I noticed that most of the buildings were delapidated and everything started to look very 3rd world. In the city, unlike in Mexico city, I felt really out of place. Everyone was staring at me like I had two heads, unlike in Mexico where no one looked twice at me. I was asked for change a couple of times
in the 10 minutes I had to wait for the bus, and was approached by at least 5 people selling everything from gold to fruit. My bus pulled into the station and I jumped on board. It looked like it was at least 50 years old and I was worrying that it wouldn´t even make the journey.
We set off and before long the bus was full up to the point that people were hanging off the railing of the door like something you would see in India. I understood from Casa Guatemala´s website that this journey would take 5 hours to arrive in Rio Dulce. What they didn´t say is that its only 5 hours if its an express, of course this wasn´t the express and 7 hours later the bus pulled into a garage to refuel. I got off for a smoke and asked the driver how long it was before we reached Rio Dulce, he told me another hour and a half and I asked him to give me a shout when we got there. We got back on the bus and I fell asleep again, as is only natural on a rickety old bouncing bus.
Theres something about the lack of suspension that just makes you fall asleep, probably goes back to being in a cradle as a baby. Anyway, I woke up as we were coming out of a small town and I caught a glimpse of a very large river. I went up and asked the driver if we had just passed through Rio Dulce and he said yes we had, he said he called the stop but as I was still asleep I didn´t hear him, muchas gracias! So he told me I could get off at the next town, Cadenas, and get a bus back to Rio Dulce. So 40k down the road, at about 2 in the morning in pitch black, he stopped and told me where to wait for the bus.
I sat waiting for about 10 minutes before a cop car passed by and beeped the horn at me, strange I thought. Five minutes later they came back and told me that there were no more buses until 7am and they offered to take me down to their post 1k down the road where at least I would be safe. So I jumped on board and they
brought me to their station, which was basically a shack at the side of the road where we sat chatting for about an hour without a single vehicle passing. They told me that the first car or truck that came past they would stop for me and ask them to bring me back to Rio Dulce. Eventually a truck did pass and as promised they stopped it and asked him to drop me back into Rio Dulce, which he kindly did. So at about 3am I finally arrived at my destination and managed to find the Hotel Backpackers in the dark. The only person working was a security guard who was sat at the river fishing with a friend of his. He showed me to my room, a large dormitory with about 10 bunkbeds totally open to the elements apart from the roof. I asked him if I could get a beer after such a long journey and he served me a Gallo, the local Guatemalan beer, I honestly dont think any beer has ever tasted so good. We then went down to where they were fishing and he showed me 2 fish which they had just caught, almost half
a metre long each. I sat and drank my beer with them and had a little chat, before heading for my room and jumping into bed.
The next morning, this morning, I was awakened at about 7am by the staff setting up for breakfast. Not being able to sleep with the noise I got up and had an American breakfast served at a table sitting facing the river with the sun already beating down. This is the life I thought, this is why I came to Central America. After breakfast I was told that I couldn´t speak to the lady in charge as she had left to take care of an emergency at the orphanage village. So with nothing else to do I took a trip into the town where not a single person looked at me funny. I got some things I needed and dandered back to the hotel. I stayed at the hotel for the rest of the day talking to the staff and some of the guests. I have to say, the Guatemalans have to be some of the nicest people I have ever met. Everyone seems so content and more than happy to chat away
to me. They might be poor here but they have riches here that we couldn´t dream of back home. The river is full of fish and in one spot I saw about 50 turtles crowding around a small rock sticking out of the river. Not to mention las chicas!
It´s now almost 9pm and I finally got speaking to Angie, the head of Casa Guatemala, and she told me that I could have an administration job in the orphanage as the volunteer coordinator had just left a couple of days ago in search of broader horizons. So tomorrow morning I get a boat down stream to the orphanage where I´ll start my new job. I´m kind of sad to be leaving the hotel already since I´ve met so many nice people, but I´m told that all the volunteers come back to the hotel every saturday for a bit of a disco under the stars at the bar on the river bank, so I´ll see them all again very soon. As for all you good people reading this, I´ll make another blog entry once I´m settled into my new life at the orphanage, so until then, buenas noches!
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Betty redmond
non-member comment
WOW!!
What a great idea! Great for all of us. Waiting patiently for next instalment.