….i wish i could say this was the reason for the traffic….but no, trucks in guatemala have trouble with hills.

turns out guatemala has checkpoints afterall. i’m not sure what the point was, but it seemed more professional than mexico….not too much, though.
the police stopped all cars on the road and i had to show him my driver’s license, passport and auto immigration documents he actually looked it over in quite a bit of detail, even comparing the license plate. however, then he asked me where i was from (usa), what my profession was (engineer)…and then started talking about how rich people in the united states are — not the best topic when talking to a cop with a gun, my passport and a mouthful of corona’s (gold embroidered teeth that are all the craze in guatemala….each costing up to 600Q….see pic).

anyway, cops in guatemala seem more present in guatemala than in mexico. they all drive big blue pickups and you probably see them more often than you do in the us. i saw one guy get pulled over in front of me. the cop was going 60 km/h (speed limit)…..and the guy in an expensive looking landrover passed him. not sure what happened next….but the landrover passed me 15min later.

note: gps date and miles are off (i havent driven in xela).
sitting here at cafe baviera for breakfast and free wifi. a few notes from xela:
1) are people here more emotional than elsewhere? in 1.5 days, i’ve witnessed 2 funeral processions and 4 people crying (2 were adults).
2) xela is a nice city…decently sized, but not the congestion and noise of huehue. it definitey caters to tourists, with many spanish language schools and tour groups around eery corner.
3) menu item H at this cafe is a vegetarian omelet for 45Q (with sausage for 57Q)….i’m pretty sure the sausage isn’t vegetarian.
4) it seems like a great way to get to know a city is to come up with a simple, yet challenging mission….like trying to find a sticker with the national flag. yesterday it took me a few hours and several miles.

off to central/eastern guatemala now. so far no impact of the earthquake here….hopefully it’ll all be sorted out by the time i reach honduras with patrik in a couple weeks.

1) climbing volcan san pedros is exhausting, coming down is painful, and as you can see from the pic, i got there too late to enjoy the nice view from the top (this pic was taken close to the bottom of the volcano). the best part is coming down and seeing the pain on other faces trying to climb the trail (it’s only 4km, but is pretty steep, slippery ground and a couple miles above sea level…the hardest ‘easy climb’ of my life). mark’s dried persimmons got me through it.
2) concrete weight set at the base of the volcano.
3) all over the countryside people use wood stoves because it’s cheaper than gas. depending on the family size, men and women gather ~100lbs of firewood every day. look at how they carry the wood (with the weight on their forehead). wood stoves can’t be good for the environment or the people.

here are some photo highlights from today:
1) this is what a $3 room looks like in lake atitlan. pretty clean, hard beds…kinda like a jail cell (…american jail cell)
2) because of the mountains and climate, incredible mists form on the roads and landscape here.
3) stray dogs are everywhere in guatemala. only, most look surprisingly healthy and beautiful.
4) every afternoon it rains in guatemala. today in xela, it poured so hard that power was lost in the center of the city.
5) no picture for this one..but guatemala’s landed a second punch on the sentra, in almost as many days. the top corner of the windshield is cracked. not sure if i can blame it on the topes, but i will. TOPES!!!!

writing from san pedro, a small town off lake atitlan. it’s harder to get to than panajachel…but apparently much calmer and less touristy (note: all the lake towns seem to survive off tourism).
pondering guatemala so far, i’m reminded of bruno’s (sacha baron cohen) interview of a fashion designer…do you believe in consistency?…no. the country seems to be made up of opposites:
-most of the roads are great…BUT they periodically will have huge rocks in the middle.
-most people don’t own cars…BUT i always seem to be stuck behind a truck and the roads always smell like vehicle exhaust (there are no smog checks here….i’ll post another picture later)
-from the road, the houses look simple and with small farms…BUT a large percentage of the population is landless (or so i hear)
-the woman at the hotel at antigua told me business is fine (even after i had negotiated the room price)…BUT the mechanic who fixed my exhaust says that business is way down because of the economy (the choice is simple: bread or a quiet car).
-the countryside is beautiful…BUT the cities seem to be crazy, and polluted with smog and noise.
-every morning is beautiful…BUT every afternoon thus far, it has rained.
-the country seems to be poorer than Mexico…BUT most items are equal to or more expensive (such as gas & some food).

well, the directions were almost correct. as with most guatemlan directions, it was right +/- a block. another funny thing is that if something’s close by (1 – 8km)….they always seem to say it’s 3 km away. not a couple, not a few…three. anyway, for 100Q (US 12.50), they welded my exhaust system back up (it was completely separated). the guy who did it for me wore goggles and a hat….no face shield, no gloves, no jacket. he says he can’t feel the sparks anymore.
note: the gps time is wrong, but location is correct

guatemala has been great and awful. let’s start with the bad:
-the border town sucks. why have both border towns thus far been so bad? you’d think that the government would want to put a nice and friendly welcome mat. these are my first impressions of guatemala from the border town of la mesilla: at the first place, i paid $4 USD and got a receipt…i’m still not sure if it was legitimate or a scam. there are no banks or atm’s (and they don’t accept credit cards), so you have to exchange with people on the street who give you bad deals. the automatic sliding door at one of the government buildings is run by a man…it’s cheaper to hire a person full time than to repair a door. the private security guard has a belt with bullets…one of the slots is missing a bullet. behind the counter to process my car is a young man, who seems to smart to be working there…but there aren’t many opportunities. the
-guatemala has thrown the first punch against the sentra…in the form of a 1 foot diameter rock in the middle of the road, which dented the oil tank and split my exhaust pipe…hopefully some glue will work, or mmaybe i can pay someone $5 to weld it back up.

now the good: -guatemala is so much prettier than the mexico i saw. except for huehetenango (which is crazy busy, polluted with cars & noise) the countryside is incredible. beautiful tree covered hills with birds chirping. best of all, instead of little shitty pueblos every 15 minutes like in mexico, farmers live throughout the countryside. so, instead of looking at a town filled with dirt & garbage, you see small houses surrounded by small farms. plus, these small houses reside on hills and have incredible views. my picture can’t do it justice. -chichi (i forget the full name) is a nice little town about 1hr from the capital….i’;l let you know how it is tomorrow. so far, so good.

well, this is it: the border of mexico! overall, driving in mexico has been fine. here’s a brief summary of my driving experiences thus far:

1) GASOLINE is usually very accessible and can be found at least every 50km. except for natural gas (and some little gas shops in the middle of nowhere), all gas is sold by one company (government owned, i think?). that means that it’s all the same price, which is nice since you don’t feel the need to hunt around for a good spot. the prices are similar to the US, except it’s always full service. also, about 1/3 of the shops only accept cash.
2) ROADS are currently being repaired in much of the country. that means that some roads are in disrepair, while others are awesome. The toll roads tend to be better, but can definitely add up (tolls are usually every 50km, and range from $2 to $10). route 200 ranges from great to awful
3) TOPES suck and are everywhere.
4) STREET SIGNS are usually decent…but can range from non-existent to 100 feet across (see pic).
5) COPS are much less common than in the US. I never had any issues with them. One friend (who i won’t embarass) told me that the cops are all awful. Eric (oops!) even told me that they sometimes plant drugs in your car and demand you pay them upwards of $3k USD.
6) LINES are guides…kinda like a first grader learning to write. sidewalks are there to let you know when you’re close to buildings.
7) HAZARD LIGHTS can mean there’s a cop coming, there’s a tope, i’m stopping, i’m turning left or just watch out.
8) PASSING is either done without any signals, or with the left turn signal…which then stays on for the next 10 min or so (no joke!).
9) RADIO can be pretty awful. Some stations have more commercials than music. Also, for some reason, when in the country, my radio seek button would skip over perfectly good stations…so you might have to do it manually if your car is racist like mine.
10) SPEED LIMITS are limited by your vehicle…not by the posted limit. similarly, seat belts depend on the number of passengers.
11) MILITARY CHECKPOINTS are quite common…usually at the borders of states and big cities (every 200miles or so?). They almost always either just let me go, or asked me where i was going, then let me go. only twice was i actually stopped (once in the state of oaxaca, they searched my car decently & once in comitan where the man asked my for car importation info). It’s unclear if their purpose is to find potential threats, scare potential threats (like TSA in the US), or simply to show the population who is really in charge. i’m guessing it’s a bit of all three…but mostly the latter.

love on a pickup truck