Guatemala Archives - The Odyssey Expedition

Day 64: Dinner With Homer

Post author:Graham Hughes
Post published:14 March 2009
Post category:Central & North America Guatemala Mexico The Odyssey Expedition
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05.03.09: By this stage of my Herculean bus ride, it had been a week since I'd had a hot shower. To say I was beginning to smell a little ripe, would be an understatement! The bus got me to the Mexican border before Mexico had decided to open for the day, so I found myself waiting for a) Mexico to open, and b) the bus to the capital to show up. I had been told that the bus arrived at 10am. But you should know by now not to trust anything anyone says, ever. It came at 1pm. I was so excited to be back in Mexico - Mexican FOOD!! Woo! Enchiladas, Nachos, Burritos, Fajitas OH YEAH... I just wanted to stuff my big greedy face, but a nasty side effect of the malaria tablets I've been taking (incorrectly - they aren't joking when they say…

Day 63: Election Day

Post author:Graham Hughes
Post published:14 March 2009
Post category:Belize Central & North America Guatemala The Odyssey Expedition
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04.03.09: The boat that Ishmael had got me on (it had been chartered by a German couple - I was cheekily tagging along for the ride) was doing a trip over to Belize early in the morning, and it meant I got a speedy trip over there, and an hour to kick my heels in Punta Gorda (it was election day) before heading back. Ishmael accompanied me on the boat back to the bus station and by one in the afternoon, I was on the bus back to Guatemala City. I don't know if in the long run this was the quickest way of doing it, but it all worked out alright - even though I was a bit late getting to Guat City, I got an overnight bus to the Mexican border.

Day 62: Livingstone, I Presume?

Post author:Graham Hughes
Post published:14 March 2009
Post category:Central & North America El Salvador Guatemala The Odyssey Expedition
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03.03.09: I got into Guatemala City about 10am (not much sleep on the bus then) and hopped straight onto a bus for Puerto Barrios on the Caribbean coast. This was the plan for getting to Belize, but it was a little stuffed up by the fact that I was running four hours late. Now Belize isn't Belizey-Peasy as it's name suggests. More affiliated with the Caribbean (down fried chicken!) than Latin America, this once-British enclave of Central America is a little off the beaten path and a little tricky to get to. It involves a five-hour coach journey and a couple of boats. There's a boat that leaves Puerto Barrios for Punta Gorda in Belize at 2pm and then comes back at 4pm. I got to Puerto Barrios at 5pm. But luckily, I met Ishmael (as in Call me...). This wonderfully crazy guy from Livingstone in…

Day 58: Go Yell It To The Ocean

Post author:Graham Hughes
Post published:28 February 2009
Post category:Central & North America El Salvador Guatemala Mexico The Odyssey Expedition
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27.02.09: The Longest Day Part I. So, we got to Tapachula near the Guatemalan border early in the morning to find another bus to Guatemala City waiting to take me away, ha ha. So goodbye Mexico, I'll see you again next week. The journey into Guate City was fairly uneventful, as was the quick change for San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. I got in about 7pm. After an amazingly scary oh-dear-it's-dark-I-got-no-map-where-the-hell-is-an-ATM-when-you-need-one walk around the city, I found a bus that was leaving at 3am going all the way through Honduras, Nicaragua and ending up in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. It would get me in at 10pm the same day. All good. I threw my bag in the bus station office and headed out to the pub. It was in the Irish bar (there's always an Irish bar) that I met Jorge…