Guatemala & Mexico Part 2 – Falling Bridges, Erupting Volcanoes & Prison Encounters

Writing the headline above made me realize that my relaxing vacation in Guatemala wasn’t that relaxing after all. But it was an amazing adventure that I definitely will remember for the rest of my life. The trip turned out to be very different from what I had in mind when I left from home, but I welcome all the unplanned mini-adventures that I encountered during my stay in Guatemala. However, I have to admit that some parts of my trip actually turned out to be less adventurous than I had envisioned from home. So I guess the only conclusion I can make is that a completely unplanned trip will never go as planned!

I will go through the whole trip in a chronological order, but if you haven’t already read Guatemala & Mexico – No Plans Needed, you should read that first. This is part 2 and is a continuation of the previous post.

All events are true, none are exaggerated, none were planned, but it was all enjoyed!

Bus from Mexico City to Guatemala City

So I had my bus ticket. This is a while ago, so I cannot remember how much I paid for it, but it was a very comfortable bus. Far nicer than the “chicken buses” that you see wobbling around in Central America. I was also lucky to get two seats to myself, which gave me lots of room for my lanky legs. So soon after I sat down I was deep asleep. This is a very long bus ride, so I was mentally prepared to sleep for a long time. I don’t remember how long it was supposed to take, but I think it would be around 24 hours.

An unknown amount of hours into the drive I woke up, rubbed my eyes and started glaring into the darkness. The bus was completely empty and due to the darkness it seemed like it was in the middle of the night. In the middle of nowhere. I assumed we were just having a break, so I stood up and walked outside. There I was met with heavy rain, an endless row of cars and trucks in front of the bus, a lot of strangers, but nobody who appeared to be passengers on my bus. But I found the bus driver, he could of course not speak English, but he was able to communicate the essence of the situation: First he pointed at me, than my backpack that I now noticed was laying lonely on the ground next to the bus, then “sign-languaged” walking with his middle and index finger. Ok, I get it, I have to walk.

I ran back in on the bus, grabbed all of my belongings, ran outside grabbed my big backpack. Confirmed with the bus driver that this was correct: I pointed at me, pointed down the road, made the walking motion with my fingers while saying something like: “walking? si? si? yo walk? si?”. Apparently I had understood him correctly the first time, so I did what I had to do and started walking. I stopped now and then to ask people about what was going on, but of course I got no answer in a language that made sense to me.

A while later I was at least able to find out what was the reason for this enormous line of cars. I don’t know for how long I had been walking, maybe 45 minutes, when I finally arrived at the end of the road. Literally. The road disappeared into a massive river. Or more specifically, there was a bridge, but it was sort of hanging sideways. And people were carrying all there stuff over to the other side. It was still possible to cross by foot, but you would never be able to get a car, motorbike or even a cow over (which was a problem for the poor owner of a cow that did not want to risk it’s life to cross a falling bridge).

But luckily I got over to the other side, and to my pleasant surprise I found a little group of other tourists there. Two crazy eastern European hippies, one Canadian girl and a British couple. They had all been on my bus actually, but for some reason it took me 15 more minutes to wake up than it took for everyone else. Anyways, I was now able to communicate with people. And even better, these people had actually done their homework and could communicate with Mexicans! Wahooo.

A Happy but Shameful Ending

This sped things up, and the rest of this nightmare-ish, but unforgettable little bus ride is not that exciting. We hitchhiked from town to town, until we found chicken buses to take us the rest of the way down to the Guatemala border. From there we got a nice bus down to Guatemala city. From there another chicken bus to Antigua, my goal! I made it. We even found the hostel that this Canadian girl had wanted to stay at: The Black Cat.

A funny detail was that I was the only one who actually ended up staying at the Black Cat. Since I was the first to walk in the door, I got the last available bed at the place. And as a result of countless hours / days of busing, walking, hitchhiking, etc., my brain was too exhausted, too reduced, just too tired to have the decency to offer the last bed to the poor Canadian girl who had wanted to stay at this particular hostel in the first place. She had done the research and she had asked the bus driver to drop us of there. I hadn’t even heard of it before. I still feel terrible about this, and I don’t know where she ended up staying. But she must have found some place. I remember I saw her in the town a few days later, but I was too ashamed to walk up and say hello.

Thank you for still reading, I will soon continue with Part 3 of my unplanned Mexico and Guatemala adventure..! Next time featuring Volcanoes and Prison Encounters.. So keep coming back!

Oh, and please share any thoughts you have about this in the comment field below!