We left Copan around 7 o’clock so we could arrive at the border at La Florida before the crowds. We quickly and painlessly processed out of Honduras and went through immigration into Guatemala. But our car papers had expired for the C-4 countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras) on January 26. We had expected to have to renew them in Nicaragua but for some reason it wasn’t required. No problem in Honduras either but suddenly it was an issue. We had taken the car out of Honduras but couldn’t bring it into Guatemala and the official couldn’t figure out what to do. We were stuck between borders - in “boda boda” hell as they would say in Africa!
We were getting anxious to be on our way so I offered the official $40 for his expert advice and his help if he could come up with a solution. He issued new papers in my name, not Connie’s. Now we are certain that we were royally fleeced when we first entered Guatemala. (See December 17 entry.) In the end it took us the usual 2 ½ hours to cross the border but it would have been the same even if our papers had been in order. The bank clerk shut down for an hour to have breakfast so we couldn’t have paid our $7 registration fee anyway.
We had forgotten how mountainous Guatemala is and how dangerous the drivers are on the twisting, single-lane roads. We survived the insane drivers and even negotiated Guatemala City with relative ease yet only managed 177 miles today. We are staying in the non-descript town of Chimaltenango on the Pan-American Highway from where we will launch our assault on Mexico tomorrow.
