Guatemala!! The long road to Guatemala started with an early wake up, a quick goodbye to Rene and a bit of luck with a bus to the boarder leaving as we arrived to the market. That was as far as mine and Asia's goodluck went for the day: on boarding the bus we were bombarded with 100s of people constantly boarding trying to sell food, things and anything else you can imagine. A crazy preacher guy boarded the bus and started yelling these horrible prayers about God and the devil which lasted nearlly an hour and made us along with most others on the bus nervous. The bus continued at snails pace and after 2 hours we arrived to the boarder town of San Cristobal. The boarder crossing was easy thankfully and we were able to board a bus heading to Guatemala City. We were told the bus would take 3.5 hours and in the end ended up taking an unbelievable 8 hours. The bus rolled at snails pace and picked up people every 2 kilometers and these chicken buses generate a lot of heat when they are not moving so myself and Asia spent the whole trip sweating in the steam box that was the chicken bus. A 20 minute lunch stop and I scoffed down the safest looking street food I could find: a meat paddy type thing with salsa, fried beans and tortillas. The 20 minute lunch break turned into over and hour and at this point I was dropping in sweat and wishing to be anywhere else but here. The bus continued and ever so slowly headed towards Guatemala City, arriving to the outskirts of the city around 3pm but taking a further 3 hours in horrible traffic. It was at this point I realized I get absolutely no enjoyment out of travelling like this anymore and I have had enough of old buses, smelly people, pollution, danger and all those things I used to love when travelling. We got dropped off in zone 9 in a very bad and quite obviously a dangerous area; we needed to be in zone 4 to meet Asia's host Diana so we called her and luckily she could come and collect us. Both Asia and I were ready to leave the city when Asia arrived to pick us up; Diana kindly drove me out of the city and took us to a bank so we could exchange some dollars before taking me to the bus stop where I could catch the bus to Antigua. It was 7:30pm when I boarded the old chicken bus to Antigua and it was cram packed full of people and nearlly all men (maybe a sign: not safe for women). A nice guy shifted over and allowed me to sit on edge of his chair and I started talking to another local in the hope to make a friend. The bus continued on towards Antigua packing more and more people in and then a strange thing happened; the driver turned all the lights off whilst we were driving along and this guy started rubbing my neck - I freaked out and explained I like women which luckily made him stop. I realized I was in a very bad situation and one that could be dangerous on this bus with its lights out crammed in with what could be bad people. I did my best to keep my cool and when we got to Antigua I jumped out of the bus and took a huge sigh of relief. I then went looking for a hostel as it was around 9pm and luckily met some helpful people who guided me in the right direction. I ended up at a place called Casa Shalom and for $4.50 a night I got a shared 3 bed dorm, wifi, hot shower and use of their kitchen. I made myself some dinner and got chatting with the two guys in my room; Japanese and an Argentinian guy - they were both very friendly and only spoke Spanish which gave me a good opportunity to practice my Spanish. It was late when I finally got to bed and I was so tired I don't think my head even hit the pillow.

OBSERVATIONS:
- Left El Salvador
- Entered Guatemala
- Guatemala feels more dangerous
- Guatemala City - horrible and overcrowded
- Arrive Antigua