Catching a bus in Guatemala

Looking back on our discussion about taking chicken buses from Antigua to San Pedro I realize I had no idea what I was in for.

I should have known it would be an interesting journey when we did it like the locals and turned a tuk tuk into a clown car, somehow packing three grown adults, 4 backpacks and one massive bag of dive gear into the back seat. Quite impressive when a tuk tuk comfortably fits two people and maybe a small child.

We pulled into the bus yard and spilled out of our tuk tuk right as our chicken bus was about to leave. The bus assistant threw Jay's 25 kilo bag of dive gear on top of the bus as Jay, his buddy Max and I walked up the stairs into the chicken bus, which looked like a converted school bus on acid. We were confronted with a wall of people overflowing from the seats but somehow managed to find three open spots in the back of the bus. Max sat in the last row, propping himself on the edge of a two-seater bench seat where FOUR Guatemalans were already sitting. Apparently there's always room for one more!

As we made our way into the mountains people jumped on and off the bus, most often through the back exit door (what I've only ever used for practice emergency bus fire drills in elementary school). I watched as people ran behind the bus and grabbed for the ladder next to the exit door, and hoped that when it was our turn to get off the bus we didn't have to pull the same moves with all of our bags.

Somehow the bus driver knew we would need at least a couple seconds to get off the bus, because when it was our time to get off we actually came to a complete stop. Stupid gringos!

We waited for our next bus on the side of a busy road in a dusty little town. We followed Max's lead since he's lived in the next town over from San Pedro for the last year and a half and has made the journey back and forth to Antigua dozens of times. He flagged our next bus, which promptly blew by us, barely tapping the brakes. It was our cue to run!

We chased after the bus, uphill of course, Jay literally in bare feet, carrying his backpack on his back and hugging his huge duffel bag of dive gear to his chest (since one of the two wheels had broken off that morning on the cobblestone streets of Antigua, perfect timing). Typing this reminds me of a story my great grandfather would have told me about walking to a store in the snow with no shoes, uphill both ways, etc etc, except this bus story actually happened.

As we ran someone flung open the exit door and the guy hanging off the back ladder started yelling for us to hop on... If only we could catch the bus!

One by one we caught up with the bus and began throwing our bags through the exit door, between people's legs, into the aisle and under the seats. Max was first to hop in and reached for Jay's dive gear as we kept running, which made the rest of the process of boarding a bit easier. I was next to grab onto the ladder, and the bus began to pull me while my legs kept running on the ground... I felt like the RoadRunner from those old school cartoons we used to watch as a kid. In a couple more steps I pulled myself into the bus and made room for Jay to jump in as well.

It was like the scene from The Darjeeling Limited, except we didn't end up voluntarily ditching any of our bags. It wasn't until our third and final bus of the day where that almost happened.

As we got close to where we'd catch our third bus the sky opened up and began flooding the streets. Our bus let us off at its final stop, and we crossed what felt like a small river to get to our last bus that we would take to Lake Atitlan. We boarded through the back door again, and the bus pulled out of its spot in the flooded street right as we were trying to close the exit door behind us...

Apparently Jay's bag of dive gear was just slightly too big to fit in the space at the back of this bus, and as the bus pulled away the exit door popped open, causing Jay to lunge for his bag as it fell half way out of the bus and almost into the flooded street behind us. He grabbed for a random strap which promptly snapped off and ended up looking like a life line to his bag, and I grabbed his waist as I pictured him flying out the back of the bus trying to save his bag that weighs more than he does. Again, stupid gringos.

At the end of the day, once we made it to our cheap hostel in the small volcano town of San Pedro, all we could do was laugh at the ridiculousness that was our journey. I now know exactly what it means to "catch" a bus in Guatemala!

Transportation Mishaps from Panama City to Bocas Del Toro via: Autobuses, Vans, Pick-up Trucks, Boat Taxis, and Tour Guides!

We got to the bus station at the very brightly colored mall, got situated at our "gate" and decided to go get some snacks while Sam stayed with our (way too heavy) backpacks. Dov, Amanda and I went on a mission to buy some sniggity snacks yet all of the stores were closed (it was 10pm... Claro!) We found a bakery that was in the process of closing and sort of asked (told?) them if we could come in and buy some bottled water which they of course agreed to. While we were there I saw some delicious looking bread products (Rios del Oro, aka "Rivers of Gold", and Integral "Wheat" Breadsticks) that I thought would be tasty along with our water. Later in the trip these snacks were compared to: the sand at the beach, the tree trunks we saw in the jungle, a spear to be used to reach the AC buttons in the bus, and "perfectly good" carbohydrates (according to Dov).

We got back to our gate to find Sam and tell him about our snacks, only to find a young local guy asking Sam if he had seen a girl with either a white shirt, or white skin (Sam wasn't "exactly" sure what he was saying). The conversation (in English) translated to something like this:

Local: "Have you seen a little girl?"
Sam: "No..."
Local: "She was right here (pointing)."
Sam: "...No. I'm sorry I haven't seen anyone."
Local: "She had a white shirt...?"
Sam: "No. Sorry."
Local: "She was a little girl."
Sam: "No."
Local: "The shirt had long sleeves."
Note to reader: there was no little girl around us. Not a little girl, a big girl, a girl with short or long sleeves, or a white shirt, or white skin for that matter! Unless he was talking about me since I was the only gringa there.
Sam: "No. I still didn't see her."
Finally this guy began walking away, only to turn around, and one last time (just in case):
Local: "Did you see a little girl?"
Sam: "NO."

After the local walked away I spent the next few minutes watching Sam experiment with a fortune teller, scale-type machine (it was all-in-one to make sure you get your quarter's worth), while Amanda and Dov looked for 5 cent balboas to get us through the revolving gate to our bus. We boarded the bus and got to our seats (1-4, the entire first row across). Dov, of course, had seat "Numero Uno", again reinforcing the idea that he was our unofficial leader for this adventure to Bocas. Once we got situated, the front door dividing the cab from the back of the bus closed, which included screens that prevented us from seeing the driver (or him from seeing us??). However, we were able to peek through, and saw that the boy sitting in the driver's seat at that exactly moment could not have been more than 13 years old, and the entire rest of his family seemed to be living in the same closet-sized space with him. Hooray!

We quickly realized why we were so "lucky" to secure seats in the front of the bus. Turns out that the AC that is responsible for cooling the entire bus ONLY blows out of a vent right at our knees, creating an arctic chill that lasted for the next 8 hours to David. Our packing skills came in handy during this ride as Amanda snuggled into her sleeping sack ("sleeping sock") which turned out to be at the top of our "Glad We Packed..." list which will be blogged about at a later date. Within 10 minutes Amanda was curled into a ball and was fast asleep against the window (again!), and Dov was about 5 minutes behind her, snoring against his window... This left Sam and I with approximately 8 remaining hours of "leisure" time to get to know each other's life stories and share some tunes on our iPods. As a result Amanda changed the rankings on her "Glad We Packed..." list to give earplugs the #1 spot.

Once Sam and I started shivering from the arctic blast, we snuck some of the material from the end of Amanda's sleeping sack to try to create some warmth... To no avail. At one point I made the treacherous trip to the bathroom using only Sam's cellphone as my guiding light over the obstacle course of bodies sprawled across the isle. As I made my way to the back of the bus I realized the temperature quickly changed from glacial chill to sweaty sauna (apparently the AC didn't make it to the back, despite the bus driver's best efforts to freeze the four of us into popsicles). When I got to the bathroom I regretfully had to wake up a man who was sleeping on the floor right in front of the bathroom door. As I started pulling on the door handle everyone around me started saying "Duro! Duro!" (telling me to pull hard, and then even harder as the door wouldn't budge). The man I woke up took a couple pulls at it after I was unsuccessful by myself, and together we were able to pry the door open. All I could think about once I got into the bathroom were two things: 1. Don't drop Sam's cellphone! and 2. (almost more important than the first) Don't get locked in!!! (how embarrassing would that be?!) So I held onto Sam's phone for dear life, and gingerly held the door closed while I was in there.

A few hours later Amanda and Dov awoke to find us parked in the middle of a cafeteria. We were all disoriented at this time (either from lack of sleep or from being asleep), and it took us a while to realize this was a sort of "drive in" outdoor cafeteria. Likely at our 13 year old driver's middle school, where Sam had suggested he may have had to stop to hand in his homework.

After a few passport "check-points" (did we take a wrong turn and cross into Costa Rica or Columbia??) and random stops later, we arrived at David at around 5am (we made it!). As we walked down the empty bus "terminal" I realized two guys behind us were getting awkwardly close to Sam and I. Dov turned back and in an effort to prevent any mishaps, shouted "Mira! Mira!" ("Look! Look!") as he mistook these guys as muggers trying to take my bag (when I was just moving it in front of me). After that awkward moment these guys fortunately and quickly forgave our misconception and directed us to the correct bus terminal which we had walked past about 10 minutes before. Easy to miss as the "bus" was more or less what we would call a decrepit, old, mini-van, which we would be taking from David to Almirante.

While previously huddling under the corner of Amanda's sleep sack, Sam and I had discussed what would have helped us be more prepared for the frigid trip. Once we made our stop we made sure we took out socks, pants, and my sleeping sock from our larger packs (that were under the bus) for the trip to Almirante. As soon as we saw our "bus" we realized we wouldn't need any of these additions though, as we would be lucky enough if all four wheels stayed on during our journey (needless to say, there was no AC to worry about).

Miraculously Amanda and Dov fell asleep once again, and even Sam nodded off for a bit as we made our way through the mountains on treacherous roads that had parts of them washed away from previous land slides. I, however, spent the entire bus ride hoping (read: freaking out) I would make it through this to write about this experience! Just to rub it in that Amanda can sleep through anything (in particular, all modes of transportation), she did not open her eyes once as her head ricocheted off of my shoulder as well as the seat in front of us. I think we disturbed the local Panamanians who seemed very confused as to why Sam had sweatpants around his knees (to keep warm, naturally). As we made our way from Almirante we realized why this portion of the bus ride was predicted to be so long. We stopped to pick up literally every single "villager" who was walking to who knows where through the jungles and mountains, and then stopped at a local grocery store to pick up water cooler sized jugs of milk, and small children as well.

We finally arrived at Almirante where we took a pick-up truck taxi to a boat taxi (note: if someone "offers" to carry your bag, you will be somewhat forced to tip them). We got on the boat and were joined by a television and full stereo system which looked straight out of 1987. Once we arrived at Bocas Del Toro, we had a personal "tour guide" who "worked for our hostel" escort us to Mondo Taitu, with only a few stops on the way to check out other hotels he thought we would like instead. Finally we arrived to discover our hostel also serves as a town bar, and our rooms were only a banana's throw away from the bar stools. How convenient! Another adventure begins...

Missing Flights, Random Brits, and Bus Journeys.... All on Day 1 in Panama

Our first adventure began before we even arrived in Panama. When we got to Newark airport we joined the long line of people headed to Latin America. After standing in line for about half an hour, we were informed that our flight was "closed" meaning everyone in line heading to Panama, about 40 of us, would have to be put on the next flight which did't leave until 4pm. People were getting way too emotional for being that early in the morning, but we let the people with more energy do the negotiating to get us all onto our flight. At 8'05am we were finally given the "okay" to get on the 8'30am flight. We pushed our way through security, literally ran through the airport to our gate, and made it just in time to sit on our plane for about half an hour before our flight even left! After Amanda and I finally caught our breath and calmed our nerves we laughed about how improbable it was that we ended up making it on this flight given the odds we were handed just an hour earlier. Then we realized that my window seat was the ONLY seat on the airplane that did not, in fact, have a window. I stared at some nice speckled grey plastic until I fell asleep for the remainder of the flight...

About 5 hours later we arrived in Panama City, Panama! We were rushed to a taxi by a guy who demanded a tip for holding the "Taxi" sign, and then were on our way to Luna's Castle in Casco Viejo, or Old City. Luna's Castle is full of a neverending "kumbaya" feeling, where there are guitars on the walls ready for anyone to pick up and play on the balcony overlooking the water and city skyline. People pass the time in hammocks drinking one dollar beers from a stocked fridge that you can help yourself to and is purely on the "honors system". Everyone wears flip flops and tans, and hangs around planning their next excursion to another destination in paradise. This is the kind of place I can see myself staying in for a long while...

After we put out backpacks by our assigned bunks, we began our attempt at booking our flights to Bocas Del Toro for tomorrow, Sunday, since we hadn't had any luck with this process in the states. We ended up not having much luck in Panama either, and as we were figuring out what to do next we met a British guy named Sam who was in the process of planning his trip to Bocas as well! He said he and his friend Dov were taking the express bus tonight and invited us to join them on the trip. We hestitated for a few seconds realizing that if we left tonight we would only end up being in Panama City for about 8 hours before were were off again, but this ended up being the only viable option if we hoped to get to Bocas on this trip. So Sam, Dov, Amanda and I jumped in a cab and headed to the bus station to buy our tickets. The "express" bus is going straight to David, and will "only" take about 7 hours, at which point we will get on another bus for 4 hours to another stop where we'll get on a boat and take that to the islands. The good part about all of this traveling is that it will be in the middle of the night, so we'll get to sleep while we're traveling instead of wasting time during the day when we could be laying out on a beach or drinking from coconuts :)

So in an hour, at 9'30pm, we are getting back into a taxi and heading for the bus station to continue our first full day in Panama. I hope I'll actually have a window seat this time around!