Guatemala by Bus

After flying from LA to Guatemala City airport we have a only a fleeting glimpse of Guatemala as we spend the whole day travelling the country by bus to reach the Mexican border. Nevertheless it's an interesting journey. Almost nine hours with no toilet stops certainly causes some interest. After several cross-legged hours we find that the only thing to do is wait till the driver stops to let people on & off, dive off, find the nearest bush & hope that you can make it back to the bus before the driver sets off without you. In Paul's case this was inadvertently done in full view of a dozen heavily armed Guatemalan policemen. Luckily they didn't take action against him.

Guatemala has its share of problems. On the journey we saw lots of small children working in the fields or as street sellers & we also saw a fair few random men wandering around wielding huge guns. However, it's also a beautiful country which we saw as we travelled up into the stunning, mist-covered mountains where the coffee plantations are. We enjoyed the amazing theatrics of the street vendors who jumped onto the bus at every opportunity (traffic lights, slight slowing down) to try to sell everything from fruit to lucky charms to quack medicine & I also liked observing the traditonal clothes that the local women wore. They looked beautiful in their intricately embroided & woven garments in rainbow colours and cleverly folded shawls made into slings to carry children.

We'd heard some worrying things about the Guatemalan border into Mexico so were relieved to get across the border with no problems and a lot of help from extremely kind locals.