Change of plans due to border closure and new hostel (Day 195 of the world trip)

17.03.2020

Yesterday evening, when we were almost asleep, there was a knock on the door and our host Walter was standing there. He apologized for the power and internet outage and then shared the bad news with us:

The president of Guatemala had given a speech a few minutes ago, announcing that the airports would be closed for outbound AND inbound flights from 0:00 for at least 15 days :O

This meant that we probably couldn't take the flight to Mexico on Wednesday morning...

All tourists are now stranded in Guatemala since the borders are also supposed to be closed.

Hmm...

Since we couldn't do anything spontaneously, we just informed ourselves online about the events (not that we don't trust Walter, but you still want to read it yourself...), canceled our hotel in Mexico City, and eventually went to sleep.

This morning, I woke up and had an email from the airline. Our flight had been rescheduled to April 4, 2020. Great :p

So, we can't change that the flight is canceled, but it's rather inconvenient that there's a rebooking instead of a cancellation. We only wanted to go to Mexico City because Mexico is still open and it would be easier for us to travel to the south from there. If we are now "stuck" in Guatemala for over two weeks, we don't know if we still want to stop in Mexico ;-)

Well. To clarify things with the airline, we still wanted to use the shuttle we booked yesterday to Guatemala City today. Maybe we could get information about the cancellation on-site. Besides, the German embassy is located near the airport, so we would also visit it.

Pick-up time for the shuttle to the airport was 12:30 noon.

Jonas and I went back to the city in the morning to buy bread and spreads while the bakeries are still open and also withdrew some cash, as you never know if cards are accepted everywhere.

At 11:30 am, we returned to the hostel and heard the next setback :D The airport not only stopped its traffic but also decided to have only the security personnel there. There is no representative of the airlines or other ground staff in the shutdown airport -.-

So, since our flight was canceled anyway, we would have only gone to the airport for the conversation with the airline, which was now pointless.

The situation with the German embassy wasn't as expected either. Due to the situation, it is not recommended to come in person. It will probably be difficult to manage a large number of people.

Well. So we quickly wrote to our shuttle provider to cancel the shuttle and canceled another hotel - namely the one in Guatemala City.

Of course, there was no refund of the almost €30 for the last-minute canceled shuttle, but we didn't expect that either. No one can be "blamed" for spontaneously changing plans. The decisions "from above" are quite spontaneous ;-)

Now it was our task to register with "ELEFAND". This is an online list where Germans can voluntarily register with their current country of residence. This way, the Foreign Office has an overview of how many Germans are in each country and where exactly they are in case of a crisis.

The closed airports represent such a "crisis", and it was not possible for us to register for hours because the website kept crashing. There are estimated to be 100,000 Germans abroad right now, and most of them probably haven't registered yet, so there was probably a real rush ;-)

Oh yeah - staying in Guatemala City, nice and close to the airport, was never a real option for us. We have heard so many negative stories about this city, and even if you don't want to blindly join the prejudices, it wouldn't be very smart to stay there.

In Central America, from our perception, people are generally negative towards the government. The closure of the borders will be a significant financial burden for the already closed stores in many places.

If there are also real curfews, we can imagine that this might lead to protests and violence, especially in the capital. We certainly don't want to be present in a city that is already considered dangerous!! :O

So the decision was made to stay in Antigua. However, due to the unstable internet and the situation with the bathroom (there was only a bathroom with a toilet and the sink was in the dining room. For brushing teeth, shaving, etc., that's a strange feeling when there are people there who are eating or talking :p), we decided to look for a new hostel.

We chose a hostel called "Parrot House," which is located near the bouldering hall in the city center. This way, we also save the walk every time we only need something "small"^^

The city feels even quieter than the previous days, and many people now wear face masks or cover their faces with cloths. When we arrived at the new hostel, we were led to the room, given the WiFi password, and then bid farewell without a word. Contrary to the online reviews, the reception was quite cold and not inviting (especially when you just came from a warm-hearted host family :D), but I suspect that the staff member was mainly tense.

He also wore a face mask and may be hesitant to have too much contact with others - that's what the president, who is apparently a doctor himself, suggests ;-)

But the room is quaint and nicely furnished, has its own bathroom, and in the common area, there are hammocks and even a rooftop terrace <3

We only booked the room for one night now and will look again every day. You can't plan more than two days ahead at the moment anyway, so we'll just take it day by day :)

In the end, registration with the Foreign Office worked out luckily (with a lot of patience because everything keeps crashing...) and earlier, we were outside in an Asian restaurant - the only one that was open for dining that we saw on the way (normally there are probably 20-30 restaurants on the way, but they were all closed).

Oh yeah - Jonas actually wanted to wait at Lake Atitlan or at the beach, but I was too unsure and got my way :p The thing is, we don't know if we could easily leave from there. Buses hardly run today, if at all, and who knows how long the shuttles will still connect the tourist spots?

Because if there is a development that allows us to leave the country, we will probably want to take it, and then I argue that it would be better to be 45 minutes away from the capital than 5 hours...

It would definitely be nicer at the lake or the beach, but maybe there will be new developments tomorrow, who knows?

As I said, we're making the best of the situation :)