Guatemala/Antiqua

Day 1 – 4 countries in one day, beat that!

Our next destination, Guatemala, was decided on a spin of a coin between that and Nicaragua. Well actually, based on the cheapest air ticket price we had to hurriedly purchase at the airport in order to enter Columbia and show we had an exit plan.

I was glad, not only was it on my original list when we were both planning which countries we wanted to explore together way back in England, but because I like saying the name. GUATEMALA, you need to employ a lot of mouth stretching to say it, makes you smile and sounds a bit exotic; GUAT EM ALA. What the country had to offer, I had no idea!

The cheapest way to get there was to take an epic 4 flights, with very VERY short transfer times between each. However as they were all with the same carrier, we thought we would be safe enough as they have to accept responsibility for getting you there, unlike when you use a number of different carriers.

We were to catch our first flight from Pereira, which didn’t have a lot to offer. We decided to stay an extra night in Salento, do the nightmare 2^nd horse ride and take a taxi directly to the airport early on the following day, the day of the flight.

After our b/f, which the staff got up out of hours to serve us rather than reducing the rate of the room, we jumped in the taxi for the 45 minute journey to the airport. This allowed us a chance to get a last look at the stunning landscape, passing coffee plantations and pretty little villages.

The flight itself was no more than 45 minutes where we were served a hot drink and a cheese wrap, Glenn had mine and I was happy with a coffee as we had just eaten b/f.

Arriving in Bogota, it was like being greeted by an old friend, we had spent so much time at this airport. We collected our bags and queued at check-in where we were greeted by a trainee and handed her our passports. It took a bit of time as she kept asking us our nationality, our names and our passport number… after telling her several times the info was on the passports in her hand, we resigned and wrote it down for her.

We had heard there was a hefty airport tax you needed to pay when you left Colombia and wasn’t sure if it was included in the price of our ticket. Wanting to check this and not holding up too much hope for the trainee, we were glad when her supervisor came over. It turns out that it was included and we were actually given around $50 back as we had stayed within 30 days and not 60, bonus!

 The flight was delayed so once seated on the plane, we highlighted our concerns with the steward who informed us that it was okay, the next flight would be aware and waiting for us. He then handed us each a cheese wrap, Glenn ate both.

 True to his word, a lady was waiting for us when we disembarked in Panama City and promptly ushered us to the gate next door where the plane was waiting for us. Our baggage at this point had now been checked all the way to Guatemala city… we hoped it would make it!

 Not much to report on this flight other than it was around an hour, and we were served another wrap, with cheese!, that totals 6 cheese wraps for Glenn.

 We arrived in Costa Rica with a bit of time and had to go through a security check with our hand luggage so no time to pick up a snack. Being tight budget driven travellers, we now carry an empty water bottle and fill it up when we reach airside as there are water fountains available. To be honest, this is something I’m going to continue doing when back in the UK to avoid the rip off prices at WH Smith and the like!.

 Again, another 1-1.5hr journey, another wrap, with cheese (these people have no imagination) but this time with a slice of dried cake which I was glad of as was feeling quite hungry. Glenn was happy to pass me his slice too as he munched into his 8^th cheese wrap of the day!

 We arrived in Guatemala City (GC) to a relatively empty immigration desk and was soon collecting our luggage (it made it!) and heading to arrivals to look for our pre-booked transfer.

 More on this tomorrow, but we had booked the transfer through an agent I was in touch with. We had read that the normal shuttles stop around 8pm and as we were arriving around then, didn’t want to risk it… GC is supposed to be a pretty dangerous city.

 We were met by JJ, a smiling, balding Guatemalan who spoke excellent English in a very soft American twang, if you didn’t look at him, he sounded just like John Travolta. We had drinking water waiting for us in the air-condition car (the agency was pulling out all of the stops)  and was soon speeding off to Antigua with JJ providing us with some interesting facts, 4 of which I remember:  

 Quetzales (the currency) is actually the name of their national bird and depicted on their 100 note bill.

The national beer is Gallo (I think Glenn asked this question), named after a rooster

A whopping 60% of the population are still Mayan, the majority are illiterate. Despite early education being free, kids are kept back to work on farms etc just to sustain the family.

The general local transport is Chicken Buses, these are old School buses shipped over from the US and painted in extravagant colours. The different colours help those that can’t read determine the destination of the bus.

You don’t need insurance to drive a car in Guatemala!

GC is indeed a dodgy in places, and is zoned to show where is/isn’t safe

There has been an influx of Morman’s, 7 day evangelists and the like from the US trying and succeeding in converting the religion. For example, in JJ’s family alone, 50% are catholic, 50% of them are 7 day doodahs. They build churches, schools, persuade the locals to come on board and then tax them a % of their wage to help with the lord’s good work, halleluiah!

 We arrived in Antigua 45 minutes later and was informed that whilst it was relatively safe, the dark cobbled streets could get dangerous due to the lighting, plus to watch out for the windows that protrude onto the streets take out the odd unsuspecting daydreaming tourist wandering along. We said goodbye to JJ and declined his offer of a lift to the tourist agency the following morning which was only 2 blocks away. The agency we’re very keen to get us there!

 

 After checking in, we headed to a nearby road where we had seen some bars. We didn’t want to wander too far as it was dark and we were still getting our bearings. We dismissed a few bars that were belting out techno tunes and found a tiny little Irish bar called The Snug which is about the size of a bedroom, walls adorned with Irish paraphernalia and lots of peanut shells on the floor. It was to become our local in Antigua.

 We were greeted by Dominic, a lad from Teddington, just down the road from where I live!  He gave us a warm welcome and quickly set-up a tab and gave us our ‘welcome to Guatemala’ beers. We soon got chatting to the other customers as the bar is so small, you can’t help chatting and making friends.

 We got some tips off a few of them to help plan our trip and then left around 11pm and headed for home, mindful of not being knocked out by one of the protruding windows.

Day 2 - The Plan is to have a plan

Given we had only 13 days in Guatemala, our usual planning strategy wasn’t going to work. Normally, we turn up at a place, spend a day or two scratching our heads, working out what we want to do and then how to get out of there. This clearly wasn’t going to work if we had less than 2 weeks.

We had a very outdated guide book and whilst Guatemala isn’t huge, all the places we wanted to visit were quite widely spread apart. I’d contacted several agencies when we were in Colombia, asking for itineraries and seeing if they could book transit only options for us. We got this down to one or two and our plan for today was to head out and visit a few more before we made our decision.

 We headed out in search for a coffee first and to explore a little of Antigua which is a small town nestled between two (one still active) volcano’s. Its full of cobbled streets, a huge plaza and lots of old churches. It used to be the capital until they moved it to GC as the volcano kept erupting! It’s beautiful, but to be honest we had seem so many stunning towns in Colombia, we probably didn’t appreciate it enough.

 We found one agency who confirmed the route was do-able and provided us with prices. He was a bit slap dash though so I didn’t have much confidence in him. The next agency gave us a lot of great tips and had a much more consultative approach, we kept her card.

 

 We then headed to the agency we had been in contact with and were greeted with a warm welcome, a pen each and lots of glossy brochures. After pushing off their package for JJ to drive us around for the duration, we came up with a route we liked, minus the hotels they tried to push on us and told them to re-price it and we would return later.

Next,  we headed off to find a rolling tobacco shop and then to get a sim card. There was a long queue for the sim card but we were kept entertained when 3 guards arrived with sawn off shotguns to collect some cash.

 

Simmed up, we headed back to the 3^rd agency who we decided we would go with as they offered a slightly better route for around the same price. The girl was still preparing the itinerary so we had to hang about a bit for her. When done, she showed us the breakdown which had doubled in price!

When Glenn pointed this out in his usual direct manor, she explained that she was using another agent who was miffed that we were not using the hotels and said that as it was last minute, the prices went up. To be honest she was very embarrassed but it had wasted a lot of our time.

 

Now 2pm, we hoofed it back to the 2^nd agency and quickly confirmed out plans and got some money knocked off. We popped next door to grab some lunch so she could prepare everything.

This turned out to be a bar called the London Pub, although you wouldn’t know as a lot of the paraphernalia was depicting the Beatles! Whilst waiting for the food I headed out to find a pharmacy to get something to help with my cold. I found one, again with a guard with a sawn-off shotgun on the door. This was to become a regular feature in Guatemala, they guard banks, pharmacy’s, technical shops, bus stations and on one occasion, even a petrol station!

 

 Fed and watered, we headed back to the agency, paid the fee and picked up our tickets, we had a plan! A bit of city, lakes, pools, jungle, ancient ruins, rivers and culture. We headed to the snug to celebrate!

 This time Ed was behind the bar who was Dominic’s mate and also from Teddington. We also met the bar owner this time. A really colourful bloke called Rory, he was married to a Guatemalan who he had met when they lived in New York but was now in Guatemala as he had been caught out on his fake marriage he had to a US citizen (for a fee) and was deported. He was full of crazy stories, ones you take with a pinch of salt but to be fair, he could back all of them up.

 

 We knew we had stayed too long when one of the customers came over with a portrait he did of us (for free). We kept it as although I’m not too sure about how he’s drawn me, and Glenn looks like Michael Jackson, it also includes Rory (with the hat) and Ed so a nice memento.

 

 After too many beers and meeting lots of new friends (most from south west London?) we paid our tab picked up our portrait and headed home, ready to start our Guatemalan adventure properly tomorrow.