TIG: This is Guatemala

Traveling in Guatemala is hectic. Brooks invented a new phrase for our time here in Guatemala: TIG, This is Guatemala. It was said anytime something happened that would not take place in the States... And TIG was said a lot this weekend. We started our adventure by taking Los Halcones Bus with Laura to Guatemala City, which is one of the only direct and nicer buses we have encountered in Guatemala. I feel so fortunate that it is the bus that goes between Huehue and The City; it made at least that leg of the journey less of a difficulty. We arrived in Guatemala City in the afternoon on Saturday, and took a taxi to our beautiful hotel, the Barceló. It was a large and luxurious hotel Laura treated us to for her last night in Guatemala, and it was a totally pampered experience. Brooks and I spent part of the afternoon in the grand pool and hot tub, had dinner that night at “Strikers”, an American style restaurant, took hot showers with real water pressure, and slept in soft beds with luxurious duvets. I felt like we were a world away from Guatemala at that point, and to be honest it made me miss comfort and luxury from the States. Our next day of travel, though, reminded us that we were indeed in Guatemala, and nothing comes easily here. We had a delicious continental breakfast at our hotel, and took the shuttle with Laura to the airport. After saying goodbye to her, we went over to the bank of taxis to get a ride to our bus station, one of the only safe bus stations for Americans to hang out in Guatemala City and the only one with direct buses to Panajachel, a town on Lake Atitlán. The taxi driver, who had already been giving us bad vibes, pulled up to what was supposed to be the bus station, only to find it was closed and on a deserted street in the city. Laura once told me Guatemala City is the third most dangerous city in the world, so we were not interested in hanging out much longer. Brooks went over, knocked on the bus station door, someone came out and told us it was closed on Sundays, which was obviously not stated anywhere on the websites we had been checking. TIG. What you read on the Internet rarely lines up with what actually happens in Guatemala. We panicked for a bit, trying to decide if we should risk going to another bus station or go back to the airport to get a shuttle to Antigua. We finally decided to pay the taxi driver to drive us to Antigua, which is about a 30-minute drive from the city, but is a much safer and heavily touristed town in Guatemala. After asking around and most likely overcharging us, the driver dropped us off at a travel agency that arranges shuttles to Panajachel. They were very friendly, and it eased our concern from the morning. We signed up for the shuttle, and killed a couple of hours walking around Antigua. Antigua is a beautiful and tranquil city, quite different from anywhere else we have been in Guatemala. And the shuttle ride to Pana was great. We were in a clean and safe van for about 3 hours, chatting with other Americans and a British man. Because we have not really been tourists yet in Guatemala, it was so strange to see Guatemala from the tourist side, and to be lumped in with all other gringos, a.k.a. those to be harassed to buy things or take over-priced transportation. I didn’t much care for being lumped into this tourist group, and I’m glad to be back in Huehue now where I feel I am a part of this family and the community at the orphanage. Once in Pana, we organized a boat ride over to San Pedro La Laguna, where we were planning to spend our time at Lake Atitlán. TIG. The locals are all just trying to make money off tourists, and they are all competing against each other for your business. Ergo, they will tell you pretty much anything to get you on their side, fibbing mostly about how long you will have to wait for something, how long a ride will take, and how much it will cost. After being confused and bouncing between two boat drivers, we ended up on a boat to San Pedro for the agreed upon price. San Pedro was a quant pueblo, seemingly populated by more young, American tourists than natives. It is considered the hippie destination of Lake Atitlán, and the food choices and local color available to us did not disappoint. Our boat ended up taking us to the wrong dock, and as a result we wandered around a bit, trying to find our hotel and finally asking at a little tienda if they knew where the hotel was. A man rode up on his bike, and when he heard what we were looking for, he began walking us there. Brooks and I were at first not happy about this, because we assumed he was just trying to make some money off of us by leading us to our hotel. But after talking with him for a bit, we found out he was a hiking guide who also owned kayaks and horses. Salvador became our new friend in San Pedro, and ended up renting us kayaks and being the guide for our hikes. TIG. After finding our hotel and realizing it was more expensive than a lot of the other hotels in San Pedro, we bargained down the price with the hotel manager. Only in Guatemala can you bargain the price of a well-established hotel. We ended up moving down the price from 75Q a night (around $10) to 55Q a night (around $7). Score. The food in San Pedro was also incredibly cheap, most of our meals costing around $3. And the flavors available were amazing. We had crepes, falafel pita, tofu wraps, and pesto sandwiches, ingredients we didn’t even know were available in Guatemala at super cheap prices. We were in food heaven. The next day, Monday, we rented kayaks from Salvador and kayaked over to San Marcos, where Salvador had told us there was cliff jumping available. We randomly spotted the place, and paddled over to a 10-meter high platform that hung out over the water. It was so fun to jump from, and we met gobs of other Americans and Brits jumping as well. In this group of Americans were two girls named Rachel and Heidi, who were believers and prayed with us before we left. What a cool experience. The next day, our adventure consisted of hiking up “Indian Nose”, a viewpoint around 2,000 meters tall. It was a tough hike for me, but so rewarding to complete. Unfortunately it is the rainy season in Guatemala right now, so the view from the top was fogged in. But the hike was still worth it, including the coffee bean plants our guide showed us, and the Tarzan vine he cut for us to swing on (which Brooks ended up breaking). That night we went back to one of our favorite restaurants (we only went to about three restaurants the whole time), and found out they were showing a movie that night, which was so exciting because Brooks and I had been missing American movies. They ended up playing “Horrible Bosses”, a poorly pirated copy of the movie, but funny and entertaining nonetheless. The next morning Brooks hiked up Volcán Sad Pedro starting at 4am, but because I wasn’t feeling well and am not in as good of shape, I voted to stay in, watch the sunrise, and sleep a little more. Brooks ended up running the last couple of miles at the end of his hike so he could make it back in time, shower, and trek up the hill to the “bus station” for our “11:30 bus”. TIG. Bus stations don’t really seem to exist, as well as bus schedules and set bus prices. After rushing out the door and making it to the “bus station” (a corner where some guys were sitting), we found out that the 11:30 bus, which Brooks had asked about the day before, was not happening anymore. TIG. If a bus chooses not to show up, it doesn’t have to. After a frustrating conversation with the man that had told Brooks yesterday that yes, there would be an 11:30 bus to Xela today, we were talked into getting in the back of his friend’s pick-up that would take us up “rapido” to the International Highway, where we could catch a bus to Xela and then connect onto Huehue. Bad, bad plan. After sitting in the back of the pick-up for 15 minutes, asking multiple times when the pick-up was leaving, how much it would cost, and if it would indeed take us where we wanted to go, we realized we were getting a convoluted story. The driver kept raising the price, from 15Q to 25Q to 50Q, and told us it was a 5 minute ride when in actuality it was an hour plus. We made a quick decision, jumped out of a pretty much moving truck, and decided to start again. Back at the “bus station”, we were met by a storekeeper who told us those guys were crazy, that a bus was coming in 15 minutes that could take us up to the highway for 20Q. We were still wary about what going to the highway would be like – everyone told us there was a bus station there, but given our previous experience with Guatemalan bus stations we were not convinced – but at noon the bus arrived, a real bus with other passengers, and it looked like we were going to make it home after all. After getting on the bus we thought there was plenty of space for us to spread out, sit with our backpacks on the seats and be comfortable, but TIG. It’s not two to a seat in Guatemala, seats of old school buses, but three to a seat. Guatemalans know how to pack their buses. We were three to a seat as well as a full isle, and the bus attendant actually walked on the top of the seats to get payment from everyone. After a long and curvy ride, we arrived at the International Highway. We met another man up there, bus angel #2, who told us direct buses to Huehue would come by soon, and told us what side of the road we needed to wait on. And every time a bus to Xela stopped and tried to convince us to get on, he would wag his finger from across the street to tell us this was not the bus we wanted. After waiting 45 minutes, a Huehue bus ended up zipping by, missing us at our “bus stop”, pulling over further down the highway and making us run to catch the bus. It was all worth it though; when we sat down we knew in 2 ½ hours we would be back home. Huehue has already become a home away from home for me, and I was so excited to see familiar sites, unpack my bag, talk with my host family, and know that I could relax here until our next Guatemalan adventure. TIG.