We have been travelling through Mexico for 30 days and it’s time for a change. Today we crossed into Guatemala. Border crossings are exciting and daunting at the same time. It means you need to learn and experience new things: how to cross the border, the customs of the people, a new currency, how to find a place to stay at night, the expected cost of food, how to treat people (are they withdrawn or social), how to deal with traffic, the road conditions, the weather, the terrain, etc… Getting to the border was easy enough. We choose the southern border so we would avoid the highlands in Guatemala which have 3000 meter mountain climbs. The Pacific Coastal region only has 800 meter climbs (though Antigua will take us to 1600 meters). Looking to the east we can see the huge mountains off in the distance. The border crossing went smoothly. We had to pay 1 Peso each to exit Mexico, we didn’t even need to get stamped out on our passport. The visa stamp on the Guatemala side was 10 Quetzals each. Immediately I noticed a difference from Mexico. The border town seemed more lively than its counterpart on the Mexican side. It seems like there’s just more stuff here and more stuff going on and the people just seem happier. So far there aren’t huge distances between towns, and even between towns there’s stuff. Hopefully that’ll continue and we won’t be short on food like we were in Mexico where you could go 50km – 80km and see nothing. As we headed off to the next town (40km down the road) it started to rain (all through Mexico we only experienced rain two or three times while cycling). It seems like the rain always starts around 4pm in Guatemala whereas in Mexico it starts around 8pm. Weird how that change occurred as soon as we crossed the border. Halfway to the town we stopped at a market to pick up dinner. Kevin noticed that the prices in Guatemala were a little higher than in Mexico (which in turn was higher than in the USA). The quality of the produce is lower than in Mexico. The roads are potholed, much like they were in Mexico (though that improved as we headed further south), but the roads are much wider than they were in Mexico. The people seem more social. Two vehicles cruised alongside Kevin talking to him about where we were headed (that only happened twice all throughout Mexico). Within the first 40km of Guatemala we saw the aftermath of three accidents whereas in Mexico we’d see an accident every 600km. Toyota seems to be the vehicle of choice here whereas in Mexico it was Nissan. We also climbed to 500 meters during that first 40km. The grade was very gradual though so we didn’t really notice we were going up to 500 meters. In Mexico the grades were much steeper so you’d know when you were climbing to 500 meters. Hopefully that won’t change but I doubt we’ll be that lucky. The hotel at the end of the day was of the same quality we found in Mexico.
Overall I’m just feeling better in Guatemala than I did in Mexico.
PS: Kevin went to the supermarket in the evening and was really pleased to find a 1 gallon jug of milk reduced from 36.60 Quetzals (~$5.50 US) to 9.65 (~$1.50 US) Quetzals. That made Kevin’s day.
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