Bright and early last Monday we started the voyage from San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexico to Panajachel Guatemala.
Traveling in Mexico is usually pretty comfortable, this trip was no different. We took a ADO bus (similar to Grayhound) towards some boarder town in Mexico. The ride was 2hrs.
Once there, I had the lovely exist fee of 262$ pesos to pay at Mexican immigration office.
Interestingly, this is when I finally lost it on the "pms'ing" girl who in many ways ruined my trip. The bi.tch is never happy and if ever she does pretend to be in a good mood it's to pry into my personal life to which she gives dumb superficial opinions that are really useless. For example.. I've made a few good friends in Antigua, so when I suggested that I might leave the group early to head to Antigua she says.. "Mike, didn't you spend all sorts of money for this trip in order to 'find yourself'? Now you're just going to leave?"
Ok, at first I didn't know what to say but in retrospect.. Yes I did spend a lot of money for this trip, and I did want to learn and grow, relax even, but if you want to find yourself.. you are not going to do that by following a tour group lead by a tour leader! I wanted to be open to any possibility/ies. In my opinion, you find yourself by learning to trust your instinct!
In any case, since that one conversation and many others that have followed, I now believe that whatever she says.. the opposite is usually true. :) (hmmm could this be foreshadowing? Dam I think I am going to write a book)
See, my tolerance had reached it maximum level as we were in the Immigration office because she was in line in front of me huffing and puffing because it was taking a while to get to front of the line.. this was more or less our leaders fault because she didn't tell us that we had to pay this 262$ peso fee at the bank next door therefore we actually had to go through the line twice.. the first time they sent us away. When we rejoined the line the tour leader tried to cut-us into the line which some Isrealies apparently didn't appreciated because they kept cutting back in front of her. This was our fault. It was rude of us to cut in front of them but there she was speaking in a loud voice about how they kept cutting in front of her, once again.. huffing and puffing and moaning all the way.... I had to say something, so I choose the sarcastic route. Finally I say "You know.. you're really pleasant Hanna.", that's it! WOOOO.. she freaked on me! Honestly, I don't remember the whole barrage of s*** she said to me at that moment but it was something about being immature and how she wish I'd leave the group and that she wanted to me to stay away from her for the rest of the trip... she walked away shaking with adrenaline. ouch! Guess that sarcasm really stung. lmao!
Ok so that was awkward.. lol.. we still had at least 8 hrs till we got to Panajachel! haha!
Moving on for a moment, our next stop was to get a taxi to the next little border townin Guatemala (I don't know names). Once we got to the little border town we got 3 toktoks (2 people per toktok) to get to the next "check point". Btw, I felt like I was on 'Amazing Race' tv show at this point. Don and I were put in dodgiest tok-tok there was. The sucker stalled three times on the way there! At least once while we were on an incline and we started to roll backwards lol! Plus, everytime it stalled I thought for sure the toktok was dead and we'd have to walk and that we'd lose the group, but that didn't happen of course. The driver had a handle on it, thank god!
Finally, we got to the Chicken bus...I don't know if you guys know what a tok-tok is or a chicken bus is. If you don't, seriously google it!! I won't explain a toktok a picture says it all, but as for the Chicken buses... that deserves a little background. A chicken bus is usually a brightly colored school bus where people can usually bring anything they want with them, including chickens and they are usually packed with up to 3 people per seat. That might have been cool back when it was a school bus filled with 3 foot tall kids but when you got 3 grown men on your little bench... it gets to be VERY uncomfortable! Anyway.. our ride was 2 and a half hours to the next check point where we were to be picked-up by a private shuttle. Thank goodness for the private shuttle!! it's a god send after nearly 3 hrs on a Chicken bus! Alright so we were almost there. We drove another 4 hrs through whindy and mountain side roads to finally arrive in Panajachel.
Lol I know... that was long an details explanation of the trip.. heck.. I remember it well :)
First day, I totally ignored the outburst I had with bi.tchy-poo and tagged along with the group to a nice restaurant. I had the famously Guatemalan meal of Pizza, so sue me! I was hungry and didn't want to regret my order.
The next day, we visited three Mayan towns that surround lake Atitlan. We arrived to each of these towns by boat and to be honest it wasn't all that interesting. I had a beer on a nice terrace and the views were beautiful (i took a few panoramic photos) tho we weren't allowed to take pictures of the people or in town due to the fact that these are Mayan towns and as usual they don't like to have their pictures taken. It steals their soul, unless you pay them then somehow it's cool :P ahhh contradictions, gotta love 'em!
During this trip which was getting increasingly uncomfortable, I discussed with my tour leader the possibility of leaving the group and heading towards Antigua. It turns out that Antigua is only a 2hr drive from Panajachel and would only cost me 15$ for a shuttle. :D Done and done! I signed the 'independent travel' papers and that night I was packed up and ready to catch my shuttle for 6am in the morning :)
Yup so now it's Wednesday and I'm in Antigua in a private hotel. I'll rejoin the group tomorrow (Thursday) for the free hotel and I'll be heading back to Ottawa on Friday.
Now i'm off to meet some friends! :)
Adios amigos!! that's all for today!