Quest to See the World

Well, i was kinda forced out of Antigua yesterday. What happened was that i inquired to the guy working at the hotel where i was staying about the possibility of leaving a day early, on saturday (yesterday) instead of today, and if i did, would i be able to get my money back for the night. (i´ve spend about half of my time so far in antigua, the biggest day of holy week was yesterday, and i´m ready to move on and see new things.) he said that he didn´t think that i would be able to because people have been calling to see if they have rooms, but they´re full because of holy week and now they´re not going to try to get rooms there anymore so they won´t be able to rent it out that soon. the only way that i could get the money back was if they´d rent it out for saturday night.  he said that he´d have to talk to the owner, so i asked what time he´d be back and said that i would return in an hour or so to talk to him about it. i also said that if i was going to lose my $, i was just going to stay. i just wanted to know so that if i could get my $ back i could then go and make the arrangements for transportation for the next day to my next destination before definitely giving up my room. well, when i went back to talk to the owner, as soon as he saw me he said, ¨Heather, i have good news…i sold your room.¨ i was like, ¨what?! i didn´t say that i was definitely leaving.¨ the other guy who was working told the owner that i was leaving and wanted to know if i could get my $ back, so when a guy called from honduras asking if a room was available for that night, he said yes. the guy was on his way and was going to arrive at 8pm. now the next part is what gets me. he said that he couldn´t give me the  $ back until the guy from honduras shows up and if he doesn´t show up, i don´t get my $ back, but he´s really certain that he´s going to show up because the reservation is for 10 days.?! so basically, i didn´t have a room anymore because it was reserved for someone else now, without me saying for sure that i was leaving, and i couldn´t get my money back yet either.  does that make any sense??? he asked me if i will be returning to antigua and i said, yeah in like 2.5 months. and he was like, well your $26 will be here for you, even if it takes you a year to return, we´ll have your $.  he also welcomed me to spend my money to call him to find out if the guy showed up or not. it would be nearly impossible to find a room somewhere else because they´re pretty much all booked, so i had no choice but to leave, and this occured at around 6pm. then, it only figures that the bus leaving at 8:30am was full and the next one wasn´t leaving until 1pm which would get me to my next destination around dusk which wasn´t an option. i am spontaneous, but i don´t like to be forced to be. i then was trying to decide if i wanted to go somewhere else instead. later that night i just decided that i was just going to throw myself into full backpacker mode and get on the chicken bus for a 5 hour ride to quetzaltenango (xela).

after waiting to see if my stomach was going to be okay for the trip i headed to the bus terminal to get a chicken bus. the first bus was pretty full. i had to put my pack and my smaller backpack on my lap because two other people got into the seat with me eventually- luckily they were small people. no problem, the bus ride was only 30 minutes to chimaltenango where i had to change buses. i got off and quickly found the bus headed to xela and it was already starting to depart, meaning i hopped on the moving bus. as i jumped on, my eyes probably got really big because the thing was so packed i couldn´t make it passed the first seat. luckily, there was still one seat left, or should i say one third of a seat left, right in the front on the opposite side as the driver-good view. just so you know-there are 2 and sometimes 3 people who work on these buses: the driver and one or two guys who make their way back through the bus and through the people collecting the fare once it has gotten underway on the road. as i hopped on the bus with huge eyes and a large enough backpack on my back and a smallish one on the front of me (and keep in mind that i was the only foreigner on the bus) the money collecting guy grabbed the larger pack from me to throw it on the roof. now when he grabbed the pack and hopped off of the bus with it the driver was starting to pull away and didn´t hesitate at all as he jumped off with my pack. a couple of minutes later and a few hundred feet further down the road with the bus still moving slowly, the guy jumped back on the bus and told the drive to go. i was just really hoping that my pack was actually going to be on the roof when i arrived to xela, and it was. ( i had all of the important stuff with me anyway.) i don´t know how those guys jump on and off of those moving busses so easily and then onto the ladder that´s on the back, climb up and attach a big bag to the top! once the bus was underway and i was comfortable enough on my 1/3 of the seat i relaxed a bit. thankfully the driver wasn´t crazy around those bends with huge cliffs on the side. i prayed anyway. a few miles down the road a couple got on the bus and had to stand beside the bus driver and on the steps beside the money guy who hangs out the door yelling the destination as we pass through major intersections. when a couple of people got off they squeezed their way back to find a third of a seat for themselves. at one point i got my bottle of water out to take a drink and as i got the lid off we hit a big bump and my water went splashing all of the leg of the guy sitting next to me. no problem, but i felt badly. about a half an hour later i decided that i was a bit hungry and wanted to eat a snack so i reached into my bag to get out the bottle of hand sanitizer to freshen my hands before digging into my pan de la cruz (cross bread-a holy week thing i guess-good stuff-cinnamon bread with tasty icing on top). when i popped the top of the bottle open a bunch of it squirted out very forcefully and shot onto the back of the driver´s seat. when it started squirting i made a noise of surprise and the guy next to me looked at me like i was crazy. thank goodness i wasn´t sitting a few seats further back because it would´ve squirted all over someone´s head!

the rest of the trip went smoothly, as smoothly as possible when packed like sardines onto a school bus. it went quickly because it was new to me and i was just checking out the scenery. it was really beautiful!! i hear that it´s even more beautiful from here further up toward the mexican border where i´m heading next.

when i arrived to cuatro caminos where i had to switch busses again, i had to ask if it was the right place. i thought that the bus was going to take me directly to xela, but it didn´t. i then asked where to find the next bus and everyone along the way was very helpful. i usually ask women rather than men. the next bus was really old and the driver was quite old too. this bus was also very full. i think that all of these busses were so full because there weren´t that many running since it´s a holiday week and it was also the weekend. i asked the driver what to do with my pack (the large one) and he took it from me and placed it under the console in the front. nothing went on the top of this bus probably because the driver was older and the money collector was an older indigenous woman, although they are a lot tougher than a lot of guys in the states! i again got a seat right in the front, but this ride was only about 30 minutes. this bus didn´t take me to the xela bus terminal either. i asked the money collector lady where to get the minibus, which is a van, into town and she pointed to the place. i don´t know how people who don´t speak spanish make it around, they must get lost a lot. another local woman heard me asking about the last bus stop and we went together.  this next minibus came very quickly, everyone hustled in and we were on our way once again. the same lady told me where to get off and then had me follow her to the plaza central even though i could see it from where we got of the bus. everyone is even more friendly and helpful here in the highlands. the trip ended up costing around $5 and taking 4.5 hours. if i had taken the tourist shuttle it would´ve been $12 and 6 hours. i´m glad i took the chicken busses.

the town was dead and everything was closed. i had to wonder around a bit to find the place where i´m staying-casa argentina. there were food vendors at the end of the plaza next to the church, but that´s it. the town kind of looks like one of the less visited towns of puerto rico. it´s not a tourist town at all which i like. i´m finally getting to see the real thing. the place where i´m staying has private rooms and shared bath with hot water showers for a whooping 30 Quetzales a night ($3.96), it even has cable tv in each room, no roaches either. it´s such a good deal! the houses here are really cool. once you go into the big metal gate/door it opens up into a huge courtyard with rooms all around. there´s another building in the back and a rooftop terrace. i asked for one of the rooms on the second floor so that the sun will shine in my room in the morning. the only thing about the room is that at night i can hear something in the wall making noise. i´m not sure what it is because there´s a toilet on the other side of the wall, so it could have something to do with that, or it could be some sort of creature, but the walls are cement block so it´s not making its way through anytime soon. i´m also not too worried because it´s really, super cold here at night so i know it´s not some weird venomous creature like some of the ones that exist in the jungle.

last night i went to the central park/plaza around 5:30 and a lot of people were starting to show up. i walked around the food stalls and decided what to get. everything has changed now-chicken busses and street food, well until i get sick again anyway. first i got a bag of mixed fruit which i had eaten before without problems, then corn on the cob, then a piece of pizza (i know, but i love pizza), then chocolate covered strawberries on a stick which i absolutely love!! i was a bit skeptical about the strawberries because if they´re not cleaned really well they can cause some stomach problems, but i was willing to take the risk and will again tonight. they were only $0.70. every summer in pittsburgh i go to the arts festival and get my stick of chocolate covered strawberries. they are my favorite!! i then saw that something was happening at the church so i went to check it out and a candlelight mass was just starting so i went in. it was nice. after mass there was a candlelight procession. it´s interesting to see how the people dress differently for the different days of the processions. before friday the guys wore purple, then on friday black and last night too. last night women were dressed in black with black veils caring a large statue of Mary mourning. today there was another procession and everyone had their colorful clothing on in celebration. by the time the procession passed the plaza it was packed with families and teenagers. the toys the guys sell on the street here are different than the ones they sold in antigua. it was really cold after the procession at around 8:30. i had on a t-shirt and long sleeve shirt and a fleece pullover and was still cold. i made my way over to the food stalls again and saw something called ¨ponche de leche.¨ i know what punch is and i know what milk is, but i wasn´t too sure what milk punch was, but i was cold and wanted to warm up, so i got a cup. it is soooo good. it´s warm milk with cinnamon and sugar and something else that´s really tasty. it made me want to get a churro too, but i didn´t. i made my way back to the room and fell asleep around 9:30. these early mornings are killing me.

today i went to las fuentes georginas-hot springs way up in the hills through crops with indigenous people working the fields. it was so beautiful up there!! i went with a tour agency, there were 5 of us-the others were all here taking spanish classes. i got up at 630 and the van left at 8. we got there at 9 before the rush. there were a few people there and it was really tranquil. it was less than $3 to get in. the hot water seeps out of rocks and drips down into a huge natural pool. the vegetation is really green and lush all around. after being there for about 1.5 hours the mad rush of people arrived, all guatemalan families with their inflatable sharks and sponge bob things. i´m glad we got there early. we got back into town at 1pm and i was going to take a bus to san andres xecul to see a bizarre yellow church that í´ve seen pictures of, but not many busses were running today so i just stayed in town and ate and took some pics.

tomorrow i´m headed up to san cristobal de las casas in mexico. finally, mexico!!!! now i won´t have to say that i´ve only been to border towns. i hear it´s a really beautiful there. i´m going to get a zapatista doll to add to my collection of ethnic dolls. i was thinking about taking the tourist shuttle, but it was pretty easy to get here, so í´m going to take the public bus there too. a guy working in an agency told me that it´s pretty easy and the border crossing isn´t bad. that´s the only thing that concerns me, but i´ll leave around 7am to get an early start. it´s about 4hrs. to the border at la mesilla, then another 4 to 4.5 hours to san cristobal. i´ll hang there for a couple of days before going to palenque. i´m really excited to see mexico!

 

 

 

Tags: Central America 2007, fuentes georginas, quetzaltenango, xela

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 7:25 pm and is filed under Central America 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.