I was right to be concerned about getting in to Guatemala - not because of the border crossing itself - there is no information, but following other people and a bit of ear-wigging it became quite clear, but because of the logisitics issues on either side. Firstly - buses will not cross border, so you get dropped off on one side, ease your way through immigration and customs - then you are in another country - without any money and little real knowledge of what comes next. The 10 weeks of basic Spanish have come in useful, but I have to admit struggling with some of the quicker speaking Guatemalans. Fortunately, there was an Argentinian-American on the same bus as us from San Cristobal who was heading in the same direction. We managed to find the local bus terminal, no first class buses, just, as the Lonely PLanet calls them - chicken buses. After checking these were safe, we handed over all our Mexican Pesos to the local money changer, dogey geezer with a tash and bundles of cash, ignoring any exchange rates apart from the one he offered us. Then we found out that there were no direct buses to our destination for the day (Panajachel), so we agreed to get on the bus that was leaving this minute - we agreed to take it and before we blinked our bags had been thrown on the roof and the driver was edging out of the station! Our new friend Alex, was still mid transaction with the tash and the cash.
We were on this bus for about 4 hours and were told to change at quatro caminos - fortunately the driver shouted out the destination when we arrived (which he did not do for any other stops). When we got off - a couple of men approached us and asked us where we wanted to go - again we said Panajachel - Nicolas bag was picked up and ran across the crossroads (quatro Caminos basically means crossroads in Spanish) to another bus which was already revving its engine to depart. Nicola ran after it, across the crossroads, quite concerned, but this is just the way the buses work here. The only reason my bag was travelling slower was because it was heavier and so much easier for me to keep up. After getting on the bus and driving off - we, through Alex, found out this also was not a direct bus - it only went as far a Los Encuetros andother couple of hours away.
As we pulled in to Los Encuentros, it was already dark and Los encuentros turned out to be nothing more than the side of the A1!! with a few Taco stands. We got off the bus, seperated from Alex for the first time and hund around with the locals who looked like they wanted a bus somewhere. There are no schedules and you only know where the approaching bus is going is when it powers towards you at high speed beeping its horn and you eyes focus on the small writing above the driver. Needless to say - we missed the first one! The next one, with the help of a local , who spoke good English, we got on - to again find out that this bus did not go directly to Panajachel - only to Solola (it was still dark) about 10km from our final destination. Agsin a little bit of pigeon Spanish meant we got off at the correct place - to try and find the 4th bus of the day. Luck, we thought was on our side - when we spotted a taxi, knowing we were only 10km away we thought we were, atleast home and dry - not so after stating our destination the taxi driver, said he could not take us there, in Spanish, and then a long explanation as to why, none of which I understood. We managed to look dumb for long enough that he caved and said he would try. The issue was that the road to the town was being dug up over night for repairs - we basically just drove through the hole and made it finally ti Panajachel. Lets hope its worth it!
