Hello Guatemala! :) (Day 185 of the world trip)

07.03.2020

And the alarm clock rang again at 5:30 am :O That will probably be our standard time ;-)

After half an hour we were standing on the street, waiting for the 6:15 am bus that would take us to Dangriga. We had asked again last night if it runs on Saturdays and they said "of course!"

At around 6, two other Germans - Ellen and Jan from Hamburg - joined us. They also wanted to take this bus, but then get off at the intersection.

We got into a conversation and exchanged information about our past and future travel destinations. The two of them had been to Guatemala before Belize and had some tips for us, which we may even take up :)

As we chatted happily, time flew by.

6:15 am came.

And went.

6:30 am came.

And went.

At 6:45 am we decided that the bus was not coming anymore, but the next one would already come at 7:00 am, which Jonas and I had already used twice, so we stayed calm.

For Ellen and Jan it was a bit of a shame because they wanted to catch a ferry at 8:30 am, but it wasn't quite sure if the ferry really leaves at 8:30 am because different people gave different information :D

At 7:20 am we wondered if maybe there was a problem on the route and that's why no buses were running. Because last night it had rained heavily on our coast, outside the rainforest, and maybe a bit stormy.

We decided to walk towards the main road and hitchhike if necessary, but after a few meters, we were stopped by a local woman who was also waiting for the bus. She could see the bus in the distance and indeed! It was there! :D

We got on and when we said we wanted to go to Belmopan, the bus attendant suggested that we still drive to Dangriga and not just get off at the intersection and wait in case a bus stops for us.

We had planned to drive all the way to Dangriga anyway because it didn't work out so well when we first arrived in Hopkins with our highway switch :D

So we passed the intersection and headed towards Dangriga, when suddenly the bus stopped in the middle of the road. "Belize City, Belmopan?" called the bus attendant.

A little surprised, we got off in the middle of the highway and just as we reached the other side of the road, a bus came towards us heading to Belmopan! Ha! So now^^

The only annoying thing about the smooth transition was that I had actually counted on going to the toilet in Dangriga :D :D

Unfortunately, that was denied to me, but we had no waiting time and after another hour we were in Belmopan :)

When we arrived, we got off and had only been in the waiting area for five minutes when a bus to Benque arrived, which we wanted to take next.

I also couldn't go to the toilet here because the bus arrived too quickly, but whatever. You just have to go through it :p :D

During this trip, Jonas and I didn't get seats next to each other again, but rather behind each other. Jonas' seat neighbor, a Belizean, immediately started a conversation and the two of them chatted and debated the entire bus ride^^

The Belizean is a teacher and has worked in Honduras and Guatemala. English is his native language, so he learned Spanish in order to be able to teach in neighboring countries, and yeah. His story was pretty cool (of course, I overheard :p) and the two men then discussed the different school systems and what role social media plays as a children's pastime at home and what is expected of teachers for childcare tasks...

Listening was nice, but especially Jonas had a really great time and was in a great mood when we finally arrived in Benque :)

There were taxis waiting for us, which would take us the 5-10 minutes to the border. A Norwegian and an Englishwoman (Cornwall <33) shared the taxi with us and we also chatted a bit until we finally reached the border.

There were many money changers in front of the border building, which we would have liked to use again. However, we only had about 2 or 3 dollars left, so Jonas practically left them as a "gift" to the man^^

When we entered the immigration building armed with 80 Belize dollars (you pay 40 Belize dollars "taxes" when leaving the country as a tourist), I remembered my pressing bladder, but of course, the toilets cost money and we had just given our last coins :D :D

What a mess :p

The departure was quite easy and we even received a receipt for the taxes, so everything was official and legal^^

After that, we officially left Belize and had to go through the car inspection as pedestrians, which looked like a car wash. From there on, of course, we were besieged by taxi drivers who wanted to take us to Flores.

In fact, Flores was our destination for today, but the teacher on the bus had explained once again that we could best take a (much cheaper) collective, a "micro-bus", so we politely turned down the taxi drivers ;-)

Theoretically, after the car inspection, we could have just walked over the bridge to Guatemala, but that seemed a bit strange to us... Didn't we have to enter the country? :D :D

A man who looked like one of the taxi drivers waved at us and pointed to a colorful house covered with posters next to the path. At first, we understood that you could exchange money there, but eventually it became clear that this is where the entry and exit for Guatemala takes place! Ah, I see! :D

So we went inside and had our passports stamped before being checked for the coronavirus with the guns known from Taiwan and had to provide some information about our origin.

But the questions were a bit strange and didn't seem very effective to me :p Instead of asking which countries we had been to before, they wanted to know what our nationality was and how old we were. That was all... A bit weird, but okay :D

As we found out in Belize, there was the first case of the coronavirus in Chetumal - the day we left. Phew! ;-)

Before leaving the border building, which really looked like a travel agency advertising for excursions, Jonas and I compared our stamps. Only half of the ink was visible on his and the "90" for the duration of the visa was not marked on his.

Since we are in Central America and it can sometimes be strict and exciting and strange at borders, I insisted that we ask again and indeed - the border officer added the missing information to Jonas' stamp and that made me feel safer :p

Finally, we crossed the bridge we had seen before and were really in Guatemala! Yay! Our country number 13 :O

There weren't any surprises, of course, there were taxis offered to us again, but we went to the micro-bus stand where a van was already being loaded for Flores. We explained that we didn't have cash, but kindly the driver offered to stop at an ATM <3

After that was done (and successful!), we stopped for a small merchandise load and when I saw a toilet sign there, I was very happy ;-) Finally! After five hours, an opportunity! :D :D

The drive from there to Flores took about 2 hours and was actually quite comfortable, although it was again quite cool because we drove quickly and the windows were partially open, but this time I had a scarf, headband, and jacket ready :D

Because of the wind, I had my eyes closed most of the time, but when I could see, I mainly saw pastureland with cattle and sheep, along with a few bushes or small trees.

Otherwise, it didn't look as tropical there as it did in Belize, but there were also no completely dry areas...

You could directly tell from the infrastructure that we were in a poorer country again. There was the main road we were driving on, which was mostly paved, but all the side streets (including those leading to villages and not just to a house) were either gravel roads or you could just see tire tracks in the grass^^

We didn't see any industry in this region - everything seemed very simple and rural here, but that could look different in other parts of the country. The first impression reminded me a little bit of Laos in terms of style.

Oh yeah - and the most striking thing: the people are sooo nice!! <33

The van driver had let me out at the ATM and then parked 50 meters away and even came to meet me on foot to "pick me up" so that I can find the car again. How sweet!

And it was super nice that he even stopped at the ATM.

And the van attendant spoke nice, slow Spanish with us so that we could understand him and gave us tips on how to get from the final stop to our accommodation on foot or by tuk-tuk and yeah...

The people smile and seem quite content :)

Maybe it's because we are in a tourist region or because we are driving into one, but my first impression was very positive! Definitely much more positive than what we had as a first impression in Mexico :D

Flores itself has a part of the city on the mainland and the center/old town is on an island on a lake and it is really really beautiful <3 It reminds me a bit of San Cristobal ;-)

Our hostel owners speak fluent English and the 6-bed room is large and clean. There is a communal kitchen and a rooftop terrace where we are currently sitting and we were greeted very friendly here too!

After checking in, the search for food was on and we decided on a vegetarian-vegan restaurant where we had nice vegetable dishes :)

Somehow, we are often not quite full after eating out, so unfortunately, there were Oreos again :p

For tomorrow, we have booked a tour to the Tikal Mayan site, for which we will be picked up at 4:30 am :O :D

Tikal is THE thing why you go to Flores, but I have to say, I quite like the city anyway! Let's see how long we ultimately stay here. We have only booked two nights for now, but we can see :)