Chicken Bus!

Hola Amigos!

This post comes to you from mountainous Guatemala! Land of the Chicken… but I will get to that.

When I left you last we were still in San Cristobel de la Casas. That was a beautiful place that we became quite fond of and were a little sad we didn’t have another night to spend there. While we had time to see a lot of the city, we felt it would have been the perfect place to chill out for a day mid-tour. Alas, it wasn’t to be. 

Mmmm… Argentinian

We finished the night enjoying some Argentinian cuisine. It was both on the recommendation of Deiber, but also it was a nice change of pace from the constant Mexican food that while tasty, we could use a reprieve from. And this was delicious! Check out the size of the piece of meat above. Cooked to perfection over fire. Mmmm.

With that it was to bed for the early rise. We had another epic journey, this time leaving Mexico and into Guatemala! The trip consisted of two private small buses. One to get us to the Mexican border, and one to take us into Guatemala.

Welcome to Guatemala!

The border crossing went nice and smoothly. Deiber had it all organised, however involved relinquishing the passports for a period of time while it all got sorted out for us. Always a strange thing, but it all went without a hitch.

Guatemalan Countryside

There seemed to be in instant change on the Guatemala side. Everything looked that little bit different. Hard to pinpoint how, but I was excited to feel I was in a new country.

Not quite as crazy chicken bus

The first thing that hit me was the crazy number of public transport buses. And not just any bus… Chicken Buses! These were quite colourful and elaborately painted buses that are used for public transport where they are jammed with people, luggage piled on top, and as Deiber mentioned “you are very likely to find chicken’s on”.

Taking snaps of chicken buses while moving is hard

What followed was a long 7 hour bus ride to our destination of Panajachel, situated in the Guatemalan highlands on Lake Atitlan, with me trying to snap pictures of the chicken buses (to no real avail). It was 6:30pm before we arrived so all was dark, but the drive through the highlands, especially near Panajachel was quite spectacular. Looming large over us was one of the main volcanos, and resting below us was the majestic lake. 

Given it was dark on arrival, we settled into our hotel and wen tout for some food and an explore of Panajachel rather than go down to the lake. The Guatemalan cuisine already felt a little different… more chicken, different tortillas, more salad. Mmm… I could get used to this.

Chicken Beer!

Also the beer was different. I think I found my favourite local beer of the trip (maybe running close with XX Amber). This was called Gallo. How could you not love a beer with a picture of a rooster on it? I am imagining I will become quite acquainted with that one.

Kate enjoys her Pineapple smoothie

Off to bed after a long day, and with the prospect of both a sleep in and some shenanigans down on Lake Atitlan I drifted off to sleep.