Saturday 8 August 2009

On the road again

After another day in San Pedro, which I spent replacing worn out kit  and sitting in an aircon room watching cable I started moving again.  First I got a bus back to Copan for the night then caught the shuttle minibus to Antigua, Guatemala.  The border was chaotic but quick enough and then we were through for a six hour drive.  At first  sight there was no change, unlike Europe or Asia where at borders you get a sudden switch in the language on the road signs.

 

To start with the roads in Guatemala were strangely empty ands the bus shot along at high speed, I noticed a strange domed karst like mountain looking out of place among the more western peaks around it and that many eroad junctions were marked with elaborate constructions of columns, walls and even little statues.

 

On the bus were an interesting selection of people, including a Guatemalan lady who travelled the region selling jewelery, a group of American students who somehow owned a house in Antigua and an elderly American couple, he was blind and she had never been on plane till she was sixty but they had managed to get from Mexico to Copan in ten days on local busses.

 

We passed the outskirts of Guatemala city and crossed above a deep canyon with breeze block buildings clinging precariously to the side then headed uphill to Antigua.

 

On first impressions, it reminds me a lot of Cusco, lots of churches and colonial buildings, lots of tourists and a very busy backpacker hostel called The Black Cat. I arrived late and fell asleep early so not much more to report for now.

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