Over the border and far away in Guatemala

Hello again, and firstly apologies, Im not very frequent with this blogging, this is in part due to the fact that I am writing from the corner of a small video store that has a handful of computers which are confined to these cupboard like things where fuction triumphs over comfort.

So, last week I moved out of Amber´s and am now staying in her hubby´s(!) old family place which is very nice. Amber and Balta´s dog, Capitan, lives there. He is very friendly and bouncy and not bitey so I am happy. Balta´s family are also lovely- 4 generations in the same group of houses. After this I made a short trip to Guatemala, involving a 6am TICA bus from SS to Guatemala City or Guate to those in the know just so you can sound like a local. Easy peasy. A slow affair, I kept on looking out for when the busdriver might have been dropping off extortion money, although apparently Amber told me later this doesnt happen on TICA buses. The slow part was mainly the border crossing when the border officials get on to check everyones passports and then 5 mins later you all get off and go through this again, just to make sure. I managed to change money very badly at the border, although this was mainly due to my checking of the exchange rate after i´d changed the money. There were a group of Mexicans that the border police were interested in and so they had to get off the bus with all their stuff for inspection and be questioned for a hour and a half whilst we waited and sweated, discussed él grupo´and their origins and looked at the border selling activity outside, mainly money changer man wandering around with huge wads of cash and women and children selling drinks and pupusas, corn pancake things.

We arrived around midday in massive Guate. It is known for being the most dangerous city in CA, and it is huge. The bus drew into the abandoned ´Fun Plaza´shopping centre and from there, I went looking for some other travelling people to go on to Antigua. Not many on the bus it turned out. These included, a couple, probably Dutch I decided, where the girlfriend was a nervy type in black lycra, presumably to streamline travel. There were 2 Texan youths, topless and whiter than even me, with one walking around with a camera slung around his bare torso, drinking a beer. I hoped for him that wasnt going to be his look for exploring Guatemala city. "Are you going to Antigua?" I asked them, "Isn´t that a country?" one of them replied. A few minutes later I found a nice Italian couple who were indeed going there. I bossily organised some taxis and we were off with the Texans safely in tow.

Arriving in Antigua is funny, suddenly there´s a cobbled entrance off the normal road and there you are in a cobbled colonial town. It felt strange being there with lots of tourists after being used to not many in ES. I stayed in a lonely planet reco, a hostel called The Black Cat which it assured me was in the heart of the action. Staying in dormitories is cheap and a more sociable option to hanging out with myself. I also find it a bit fascinating seeing all the travelling people. The first night´s occupants of the room were Ray, a handsome Canadian paramedic who liked salsa dancing and thought it was beautiful to watch. He had diamante studs and was friendly. There was an older Swiss man, also friendly and possibly a bit mad, who spoke in a soft voice and showed me some of his photos. He was planning to help a local family near Lake Aititlan open a B&B. "Great!" I said, "How?", "I think I will take them 2 tubs of Nesquik" he replied. The business plan was basic but sound. He also then said "And I bought some chicks!" I was expecting the birds to pop out from under the bed, although he said hed already given them to the family which was a disappointment. Night one room vibe was chilled and respectful.

My first afternoon I spent wandering around, I bought an overpriced hiddeous towel with a scary parrot on it as i´d left mine behind and chatted to some people in the market. I wasn´t very good at the haggling so i didn´t buy much, although there are many beautifully coloured things like covers and slippers which I bought for me and Amber. (Any requests Emsy?) I walked to the edge of the town and an old lady in green neon flares spat on me so decided to go back. It was fun talking to people, one asked me when I said I was from England, "how do you protect your skin there in the cold? I heard it burns people´s skin in Canada" I said yes, dry skin was a problem at home. The next day, I enjoyed a delicious and massive breakfast tipico of plantain, avocado, tomato, frijoles and eggs and had an outdoors shower, not so fun as i stood there shivering trying to balance my clothes and cash in a not wet place. More walking about and a salsa class in the avo that Ray had told me about. And why not? There were 3 of us gringos shuffling amusingly to the instructions of Gloria (think Dirty Dancing, holiday camp scenes), who looked a bit tired from her full schedule of slasa classes and maybe bad salsa men. It was an iritatingly sexist dance, where we were constantly remided that the man had to lead and have control. How amusing I thought, as I shuffled with my 19 year old Dutch boy partner. I met a nice Norweigen girl there however. Back at the hostel I was engaged in conversation by an Aussie guy who looked like he´d been travelling a long time and clearly had the opportunist´s knack as within 3 mins of meeting me he was asking me to show him around San Salvador whilst negotiating a cheap flight with the girl on his other side who worked for an an airline. I spent the evning having drinks with the Italian girl I went to Antigua with and a French girl who was teaching in San Pedro Sula in Honduras. 3 introverts having a chat, which was nice, but we do find it hard at first sometimes us introverts. I went to bed for sleep which was fairly pointless given that the world´s noisiest hostel occupant was staying in the room, which mainly involved drunken shouting and repeated falling off her bed.

Whew, still writing. Don´t worry onto the last day- more wandering, and standing about to take pictures, I chatted to an artist painting on the side of the road and told him my dad painted too. It was nice just standing about quietly, not buying just looking at people and being peaceful. More chats with people in the market. One couple told me they´d worked there for 25 years. The woman, Angelica, told me her husband helped her sew blankets but that the other men teased him because it wasnt men´s work. Talking to other people, they said it was normal for the men to do this kind of work, including one man who said that men worked much harder than women and raising children didn´t count as work. I disagreed. After more salsa (now not in my top 5 exercises) I went for a drink with the Norweigen girl Ann-Elin. her life sounded pretty cool in Norway, working as a hiking and climbing tour guide around the world and also when at home, with a social project for young people with drug and alcohol problems. I could quite fancy becoming a Norweigen tour guide.

It´s clearly a lot easier as a tourist in A ntigua than in ES where the tourist infrastructure and comforts aren´t really there. There are also many cool things nearby I shall have to return to see like Lake Aitlan and Semuc Champey. After a third night of no sleep and more drunken roomates, I made my way back to Guate on the chicken bus with the Australian guy who seemed to be leaving at the same time. The road out of Antigua was steep and swerving. It´s about an hour back to the city, where I had to wait for some hours for the bus back to ES in the ´Fun Plaza´ whilst my travelling companion regaled me with horrendous tales of things that had happened to hapless touirsts in CA, whilst he reassured me how much more dangerous the bus we were taking back to ES was than a chicken bus. Relaxing. Another long bus ride back, with another ear blastingly violent rubbish film on the TV (Transporter 2), during which travelling companion was taken off the bus and searched by the border guards which made me a little nervous, who asked if we were travelling together. All turned out ok, but the guards are quite scarey. 5 hours later it was back to SS in time for the weddings..more soon with pictures!
love xxxx