DESTINATION 15 - GUATEMALA!
 
Across the border to Guatemala

After visiting the Xunantunich ruins by the border in Belize, it was back by chicken bus to the hostel pack our bags make our lunch and then board the service to the border provided by our host . Alarm bells are ringing what are u doing? This door to door service which Kenny said 'he had run for years was little more than some clapped out taxi who Kenny had collared on the street, unfortunately for him I followed where he gone when he told us to wait and saw him go to the blo**dy taxi rank!! He had said pay the first part then get across the border pay the second bit there will be the same company they have there own vans blah blah blah just like my one, so we were looking on the other side for a clapped our red car falling apart, Fools! As we sat in this taxi we knew we had been done its not a good feeling. We had paid way over the odds for this taxi and we knew there would be no pick up on the other side. Fools again! We did laugh though as to add to the moment David asked the taxi driver if he could play the new 'slow reggae' CD he had bought off the street and after one good track, some girlie pop tunes blurted out, which even the driver said were terrible and NOT reggae, by now we were all laughing .
 
Crossing the border meant no more English and back to our pigeon Spanish, David thankfully was very able at Spanish and this proved invaluable negotiating the following half hour. After paying our departure tax it was time to deal with the officialdom of Guatemala. First we changed our money in the no mans land between the borders and then it was onto immigration. We had been warned about an unofficial tax being charged as you enter the country venturing forward I was greeted by the smiling assassin immigration person who pleasantly stamped my passport and then told me to pay him. I started to protest David and Nikki joined in and we created a bit of a scene. We weren't paying, if so we wanted a receipt, it was illegal etc etc this seemed to do the trick after stamping the other two passports and with an extravagant fling of the arm he told us to clear off one up for the good guys. Thanks to all the travellers who gave us tips on what to say!
 
Next find transport, mysteriously Kenny G's promise of a taxi to our next stop never turned up odd that . We eventually got into a taxi and headed to the collectivo stop for our trip to El Ramate in the space of about 5 mins we crossed the border got to the minibus stop and were heading to our destination. It was all pretty slick plus it had dawned on us that we hadn't paid Kenny for our Laundry or our luggage storage that put a smile back on our foolish faces! The drive to El Ramate didn't take long the countryside flashing past as the road surface did its best to force our spines into some sort of scoliosis distress. It was blooming bumpy and whilst David and I were back in economy Nikki sat upfront enjoying the luxurious business class.
 
Our first impressions of Guatemala were quite surprising, they say that Belize is the poorer country but on crossing the border and seeing the state of the rocky un paved roads, the run down shacks with bare footed grubby children playing in the dust, young children carrying their baby brothers/sisters on their backs, cows, pigs, chickens and stray dogs running everywhere as traffic hazards, I would have said quite the opposite, it reminded me so much of Laos and even Africa, not what we expected ....
 
After being dropped off one of these little things that have happened to us during our travels as we made our way towards our potential bed for the evening we passed a beautiful looking house with a sign saying rooms for rent, Never thinking we could afford this David asked the owner for details, this lovely lady from Trinidad had a wooden cabin left big enough for three and it was at a price we could all afford. Up yours Kenny G. This house on the edge of the fresh water emerald lake was beautiful and we were made to feel so welcome by the landlady she could not do enough for us. Plus we had our own private jetty from which to swim off, just bliss.
 
The plan was to head to Tikal for the sunrise tour it meant a very early start, i.e. 3AM! But we had heard really good things about it so felt it was worth the early morning pain. As a storm brewed all around us, the rain began to pour down with thunder and lightening reverberating over our heads. We headed out to book the tour and get some food as it turned out we managed half of that. Tour booked 3.45am pickup but no food just a beer each on the jetty thanks to David. By the time the tour was sorted and emails were sent we could not find a single restaurant still serving food. So back at the lodge out on the jetty we drank a beer as the lightening carried on its show preparing ourselves for the witching hour.