Departure

On our way to Guatemala

The empanadas we baked last night was the only thing that drew me out of bed this morning. Mateo and I need to pack our bags, sift through all of our things and decide what needs to come with us. This will be the fist real departure from a location with out our motorcycle, I’m sad, about leaving Laura, Lander and Inada. We won’t be on our bike any more. What will we complain about now, we will no longer have sore butts, or drives through thunder storms in winding roads. At least we have had 11 days to get use to the lack of motorcycle, I can imagine how much more difficult getting our motorbike to the boarder of Guat and ditching it would of been, luckily Lander did purchase this VW bus and now we are pleasantly enrout to export the bike and have if in safe storage with Lander until who knows what.

cute Bus Butt

Co-ploiting

Maybe we will return with a new engine and install then head south once again on a new adventure. Maybe I will be confident on a motor cycle by then and we each will have our own to tour South America! For now the bike will sit quietly at Landers until Mateo is in the right place to make decision on it. I’m happy it is not becoming scrap metal or some more debree on this side of Mexican-Guatemala boarder. We left around 10:30 from San Cristobel and raced to the boarder, 5 days ago while we were having our jungle adventure Lander purchased a VW bus. Laura and Lander needed more mobility than they currently have with public transit. Mateo and Lander had took off the front tire on the bike and put it into the be bus the night before.

Us making good use of the bike as a foot rest one last time

Times in the VW

En route to the boarder

We arrived to the Cudade just prior to the boarder and processed our papers to export, we were ready for our Guatemalan adventure to start! Ladner did all the talking and translating for us, it made things to easy for us. We soon found out the boarder was closed from the Mexican military out side the export office. As far as they knew only vehicles were not allowed through and pedestrians were able to pass. We found a safe place for the Vw to park and all three of us board a taxi for the border. When I think of a border crossing I think of what I saw when passing from the United States into Mexico, tons of broader patrol, giant speared fences, and large gaps between one side an the other so people can be shot if trying to cross with out permission. Yeah not here, yes the boarder was open for people on foot but the offices were all closed, no immigration  workers in sight. It hadn’t been open for a couple days now and won’t be for many to come. Well here we are standing in Guatemala, at a crossing that is entirely open to any thing that can fit under the gate but no immigration office.  If we continue on with out a stamp in our passport, only trouble can lay a head if we wanted to leave Guatemala. We get back in the Taxi and return to Ciudad Cuauhtémoc. Lander finds out from the taxi driver that the surrounding area over the boarder has not been receiving electricity and they are protesting by blocking the roads and the boarder. Sounds reasonable to me, I would be irritable if my power was shut off. Mateo and I weigh our options, stay a night, try and get in tomorrow, or take a bus south to Tapachula, to cross the boarder there. The bus option is what it will be, the bus is of course four hours behind schedule but at least it’s an option. From there we will catch another bus to Guatemala City. The bus is running late by four hours so departure has been pushed back to 9, it is a 4 hour trip to the other boarder crossing. That will get us to the boarder at 1am. We made sure it was a 24 hour, border crossing. At the bus station we met a girl from Germany who had been traveling around Guatemala for a couple weeks, she also received the awesome surprise of the closed boarder. It was nice to take a charter bus with air conditioning and reclining seats! The bus station in Tapachula is desolate with a couple security guards and people getting off our bus. I know it is 1:30 in the morning, not many things are open at 1:30 out side only the bars/night clubs. One thing we do know is that there is a bus that goes into Guatemala City that leaves from the other side of the boarder at 4 am. The three of us, German girl and Mateo get into a cab that drives us to the boarder. This border looks like what I think to be a border crossing would look like, with out the security guards. We get our Mexico stamps for the second time in a day and cross the border. The three of us are met but some Guatemalan guy and his son, I didn’t like his from the start, any one willing to help you out speaks English and speaks like he knows everything I become werrey of immanently. Too helpful yes, we walk on over the border Guat guy showing us where the immigration office is. It looks closed, really closed. Guat guy is tapping on the window and asking for the person on the other side to open, I lose hope after a minute of so of this tapping and asking. We could just sleep at the border, then we saw signs of life. Finally the cardboard gets removed from the small round window and we see a guy who looks like he was still in the process of waking up. It will cost us 10 quetzales, legally there is no charge to get a visa in Guatemala. We where not going to contest the fee. The Guat guy soon had four people with him, 2 young boys and another guy wanting to exchange some money with us 7 quetzales for one US dollar, not a bad exchange rate. Mateo made a deal with him, Mateo is a Math nerd thank goodness because the money exchanger was quickly trying to rip us off, unsuccessful he was. The Guat guy goes running off, he was a chubby guy not the runner type, he returned quickly in a cab. He was trying to convince us that since it is 2:30 in the morning that can cost more and validate safety by pointing out that the police were in our presence. I don’t trust the police, ever since we ran into a guy who told us about the local cops of Mexico being scummy. After a good 15 minutes we are out of there sitting in the taxi for 100 quetzales. Thank goodness, I don’t want to find talked my self negotiating taxi fare with a driver at 2 am at any boarder ever again.