Hitching in Guatemala
Well it was pretty stupid. We were in Belize and going by bus
through an area where English was not spoken. Somehow or other we
understood that we should stop overnight in this extremely humble
sleeping place.
But at about three in the morning we heard a
great deal of activity and got up to find everyone getting on a bus
to Guatemala. Great. We did too. But it was pouring rain, and we
lurched through mud and downpour, and the bus got more and more
crowded (including of course livestock) until it stopped and
everyone had to get out who was going to Tikal. Which wasn't very
many of us -- maybe eight, all Europeans except me and my
boyfriend. The word seemed to be that another bus would come along
and get us.
We waited and waited and I finally was pretty mad and
just decided to start walking. What did I imagine? Alone. Uphill.
Eventually, an army-type truck stopped and offered me a ride, which
I eagerly (and somewhat smugly) accepted. Until I decided that
what these two men, with machetes and four-day growths were talking
and laughing about, in a Spanish that suddenly seemed all too easy
to understand, was having their way, so to speak, with me. I
sweated.
Eventually we got to a sort of guard post which everyone
had to stop at what I thought was the entrance to Tikal, and I
insisted on getting out, which they finally let me do. The very
friendly and concerned guards (or whatever they were) then did me
the huge favor of arranging a ride with the next truck that passed
through. Except that there was no room in the cab, so I had to sit
in the back. It had been a pretty warm day, so at first I
appreciated how cool whatever I was sitting on seemed to be. No,
cold. The road was horrendously bumpy of course, and I turned out
to be sitting on frozen chickens on their way to the restaurants
in Tikal.
Still I did finally arrived, with an extremely bruised
backside, proud to have beaten all those other tourists, and to
have a chance to select the very best shack for our stay, but
about fifteen minutes later a bus arrived, with my boyfriend and
the others, and I had to pretend that it had been a great
experience, but I was pretty black and blue as well as sobered.
Ann
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