We caught a collectivo from Comitan and it dropped us outside immigration at the border of Mexico. We actually lined up and Carol was first and presented her passport, of course the man couldn't find an entry stamp so asked for her tourist card. She gave the receipts given by the theiving immigration officials in La Paz and he filled in the bottom of the sheet and said we had to go and pay 267pesos at the bank. Not one to shrink from a fight Carol proceeded to argue with Kent chiming in now and then for good measure. Carol said we had already paid and what was he asking for, did he want us to pay twice? At first (this all transpired in spanish) he insisted she go to the bank and pay then he seemed to just give up and said in english 'just go!' and waved us toward the border. Gary had no problems as he was all legit.
Never one to receive good advice twice we exited stage left and proceeded to argue with a taxi driver about the price for the 4 kms to the actual border. At last he agreed with our price and off we went to be dropped in a busy, congested, dirty street which was the border crossing. We walked up the road and that was it, we were in Guatamala so immediately went into their immigration and entered legally for 20 pesos each, phew! If we knew that was all there was to it we would have not even bothered to have gone into the mexican immigration and they wouldn't have cared less.
We got a tourist (read expensive but comfortable) bus from the border straight to Lago de Atitlan and admired the beautiful scenery on the way which is very different from Mexico. Four and a half hours later we arrived in Panajachel on the lake edge and went to a Hospidaje recommended by our bus driver which was perfect for us. We have a simple room with two double beds and use the shared shower and toilets. Travelling with Gary has helped us to be able stay within our budget more easily as we go halves in the room cost.
