So I guess in the 6 years since I was here last, I forgot just how chaotic and utterly different everything here can be. Upon my arrival at the airport, the first thing that greeted me were boarded up corridors everywhere, all plastered with the phrase "Guatemala: lo mas moderna aeropuerto en Centroamerica!" Which of course translates to "Guatemala: the most modern airport in Central America!"... All I can say is, if that's true then God help the traveller who starts off in Honduras, Nicaragua or anywhere else in Central America, because just about the only amenities I could find at this airport were the moving luggage belt and an outlet in the ladies' room (I had to move though cause I was blocking the entrance to the cleaning closet). Other than that, there was literally nothing: no signs above aforementioned luggage belts, no bus service to anywhere, no money exchange once I left the main part & the atm was broken, no maps, no help desk, and above all: No Phones. At all. Basically I had to end up paying a guy to let me use his cell phone (price $1 usd for 2 minutes) to call the girl who said she'd be picking me up, but was nowhere to be found upon my arrival. She said, "oh, I'm sorry- I emailed you but I guess you didn't get it (perhaps she doesn't realize that there is nothing even remotely resembling an internet connection at this airport)- I have to work until almost 11pm, so you can either hang out there and I'll come get you when I get off work or else maybe you can go to one of the hostels and I'll get you there?" I was panicking a bit because in addition to the fact that I didn't have a ride or any idea of where I was, I also did not have any money in Quetzales and only $10 in US money. In one bill. So finally I haggled with a driver, who agreed to take me to a hostel where they have internet service & money exchange facilities, but when we showed up they said they were all full, which was a total bummer for me. We went to another place up the street who was full up as well, and on the third try we were finally told that there was room but it would cost me $25- at which point I was like, No Way. That is ridiculous, but when I said no thank you the guy conveniently remembered that there were dorms for $15, so I decided to just go ahead and stay there since I really didn't know what else to do. The cab driver didn't have change for my $10 bill so the guy at the desk loaned me the money to pay him, and finally I bid my taxi driver farewell and tried to settle in for the night. I was exhausted, so after a couple hours of reading I decided to call it a night and went to sleep, unsure of what I should do in the morning.
The next day I woke up early, around 7 am, and forced myself back to sleep for another hour, knowing I would probably really need it. I got up a little after 8, took a cold shower (like Puerto Rico, that is all I've encountered here), and got dressed and groomed. By 9am I was ready to go, and figured I'd better call Michele (the girl whose house I was supposed to stay at the night before) and Armando, who had offered his place in Xela as somewhere to stay as well. Inexplicably, though, even though I was paying to use the phone, the guy at the desk told me I was only allowed to make ONE call (worse than jail! At least there you get two) so I had to pick which was more important. I decided that I should just get out of the City and up to Quetzaltenango, since I still hadn't heard anything from my Spanish school and I was trying to start on Monday morning. So I chose Armando, and luckily for me he said it was still cool for me to come up and told me how to take the bus there. At this point the front desk guy was arguing with another customer who was accusing him of overcharging him. The front desk guy was adamant, though- it was what he had said. The man tore up his bill and stormed out to confer with a friend, and the desk guy turned to me and made the "crazy" sign with his finger circling around his ear, saying "he es loco". The thing is, though, that taxi drivers and hostel owners are not using the current exchange rate, which is 7.6 Q to $1USD; they are instead rounding it down to 7Q/ $1, which is definitely more favorable for them. Either way, though, the hostel guy was not budging and the angry lodger eventually calmed down and paid the bill, somehow seeming newly convinced that it wasn't too much after all. When he told me my total, I thought it seemed a bit high, but didn't want to go through the whole thing over again so I just signed the thing and had him call me a cab. Later I did the math, though, and even using his "crappy for me" exchange rate, I still got way overcharged. Welcome to life as a tourist in Guatemala.
When the cab came, he, too, surprised me by quoting me more than I had been told it should be, but when I worked it out in my head I decided not to press the issue as it was only about $1.50 difference in price. We headed to the bus station, but he forgot that I had asked to go to an atm on the way, so when we were almost there and I sensed that he had spaced it I reminded him and we had to turn around and go all the way to another neighborhood to find one. We went into a little plaza with a couple of businesses in it, and upon entry we had to get a ticket from a guard lady with a big machine gun. I can't really figure out why, but we did. So anyway, he parked and I jumped out of the car, dashed over to the atm through a long line of people waiting for the bank to open up- and there, just like at the airport was the sign: "afuera de servicio". Out of Service. Sigh. No problem, I could see another, larger bank right across the road. So I got back in the cab and we were gonna go there when we spotted a different tiny bank in the same plaza, so I went in there. This one was actually open, and the atm was inside, so I swiped my card, entered my pin, put in the amount I wanted- 1500 Quetzales- listened to the whirring and clicking, and out came- 100Q. No problem, the machine was still whirring away, furiously making sounds like it wanted to give me more money, but... nothing. I glanced at the security guard, who was also holding a massive gun, and he looked blankly back at me. I waited a little longer, and when it was clear that nothing else was going to happen, I asked him about it and he gestured to me to get in line like everyone else. When it was finally my turn, I tried to explain to the ladies behind the glass what had happened, but they were not getting what I was trying to say. Luckily, the customer next to me spoke good English and was able to translate to them what had happened, and they all had no idea what to do. At first they tried to tell me the atm didn't accept my kind of card, but when I showed them that it had given me a litlle bit of money, they explained to me that the atm was probably just out of money. But that still didn't assuage my fear that the stupid atm had probably just charged my checking account over $200, for which I had nothing to show but cab fare. Maybe it's because I was hungry, or overwhelmed, or just pms-ing, but somewhere in there I started to cry, and the ladies felt a little bit bad for me. They handed me some napkins and made a few phone calls, but to no avail. The one girl came out and had me swipe my atm card again, and check the balance- and it read $0.00. It was at this point that I really sort of lost it, cause there is no way I had no money in there, and she was clearly at a loss for what else to do. By this time I had been in the bank for well over 25 minutes, and I still had no money and was totally freaked out. Eventually I decided to just go and try to sort it out with my bank because even though the cab guy acted like he was doing me a big favor, I noticed when I had run to grab my sweater that the meter was still running. So we went to another bank that the woman suggested, checked out of that God-forsaken plaza with a different gun-toting security guard, and headed for the big bank that I had wanted to go to in the first place. This, too, was in a guarded plaza but it was bigger and more like the entry to a national park or something, with a person in a little booth and a stick that raises up to let you in once you have your ticket.
At this bank, I finally was able to get my money, with the cab driver standing directly beside me so I felt awkward that the screen was flashing the entire balance of my bank account in huge numbers that filled up nearly half the screen, but I just got my cash and tried to get out of there as quickly as I could. I decided to just deal with the bank thing once I got to Xela and not worry about it anymore
A few minutes later and I was at the bus terminal, where I paid the driver 3 times what I originally had agreed to (the meter said it, after all, and he had been very nice about it so really there was no choice) and discovered that I had just missed the bus by 15 minutes. Damn. No problem, though, it's cool- The next one was in an hour and a half, so I plunked my bag down, plunked myself on top of it and proceeded to finish Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye while I waited in the exhaust-choked lot in front of the bus station.
Eventually, the bus came ambling up, and I managed to stow my bag and find my seat without incident. A kind-looking girl sat next to me, and she talked on the phone while I tried to read and intermittently dozed off for the next several hours of the bus ride. I had known that the ride was 4 hours long, and leaving at 12:30 I figured it would still leave me enough daylight to be able to wander around after putting my stuff down at Armando's. What I hadn' t counted on, though, was the bus getting a flat, which it did, and it taking the crew about an hour to fix it. Why I hadn't expected this to happen at this stage in the game, I don't actually know, because looking at the way things had gone so far it only made perfect sense. But I made the best of it and got out to relieve my bursting bladder with all the other dudes on the side of the road. I almost used my little "pee standing up" device but I chickened out at the last minute, not wanting to call even more attention to myself than I already was by being the only female looking person to get out to pee at all. So I just tried the best I could to arrange my sweatshirt strategically and peed for what felt like a million years.. At that moment I just felt sorry for all the other women on the bus who were too scared or polite to pee at all, because as we all know, not being able to go when you have to is one of the most uncomfortable feelings there is. Not to mention bad for your kidneys (gotta love those kidneys).
Anyway, eventually I made it to Quetzaltenango and managed to successfully use the payphone to call Armando, who came 15 minutes later to pick me up. While I waited, though, I noticed two little girls walking by with an older boy, who stopped just in front of me to show off his new cell phone to a friend. The bigger girl peeked out at me shyly from behind the boy, and her face threw me off- she had the face of a young woman, but the body of a child. She was beautiful, and was wearing a tiny black hoodie and quite hip shoes, sort of fancy converse-looking things; anyway, at first she just smiled and peered out from behind the boy, and when I smiled back she came right up to me and said "Tus ojos son muy bonitas!" It took me a second to register what she had said- "your eyes are very pretty" but when I did I immediately returned the complement, and we started chatting away. She was so sweet! She showed me her little sister, Roberta, who was three years old and throwing herself on the ground smiling and laughing and rolling around. My friend's name was Cindi, and she told me she was 14 though, like I said before, it would have been impossible to guess because she looked and seemed so much younger. She couldn't have been over 4 feet tall, but a lot of the women are tiny here. Anyway, she and her sister bade me a big goodbye when their brother was done talking to his friend, and it put me in a better mood instantly. Then, the indigenous woman standing next to me with a baby in her arms- she had been across the aisle from us on the bus- made a bit of friendly small talk with me about how cold it was, which is true- it is surprisingly cold up here in the mountains, and dry- not at all like Puerto Rico. When her ride came, she too, bid me Adios! like an old friend and by the time Armando rolled up I was feeling pretty optimistic. Armando was great, too- he drove us all around the town, pointing out the main attractions as we passed them and then going up to the top of a hill near his house to show me the city below, and where we had just been. It looks like a big place, and it is the second largest city in Guatemala, but when he showed me where we had stopped to buy water in relation to the Parque Central below us, I realized that although it looked very far it hadn't taken us more 10 minutes to drive it. By this time it was dark, so the whole city was lit up beneath us and the multicolored lights danced and glimmered to the faint sounds of music drifting up from below. We stayed for a few minutes, got back in the car and headed to Armando's house, where he showed me around and then we called it a night as I was exhausted and he had work to do on his computer.
1 comment:
sounds very stressful at the beginning! but glad things are going better now.
tienes cojones!!
x
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