part two: guatemala

i made it. i'm in guatemala city and i've met up with my group. traveling through mexico was great, but i'm definitely ready to start the program. i made it across the border yesterday. barely, kind of. i ended up meeting five young gents from england in oaxaca, who were planning on heading to guatemala through tapachula, chiapas. we spoke of heading in this direction, but never set a plan to head out together. fortunately for them, they had enough foresight to buy their tickets ahead of time in mazunte. as for me, i decided to wait til the last minute. when i arrived to buy my ticket in huatulco, the tickets were sold out. i was out of luck. there was nothing left for me to do but to keep heading south. maybe my luck would turn. i decided to ride a second-class bus to juchitan, oaxaca, about 3 hours from huatulco. once there, i tried my luck again. directo a tapachula, por favor. i was in luck, two tickets were available. it was 4 pm and the bus headed for tapachula at midnight. all i needed to do was kill some time. midnight arrives, i board the bus with the ten hour overnight trip to tapachula being a breeze. nothing to do but sleep. i get off the bus in tapachula and i realize that the brits are on the same bus as i, but there are only 3 of them. one of them fell ill in oaxaca, and another stayed behind. fortunately for me, that's how two seats became available. more fortune, the brits spoke no spanish and i now had people with which to cross the border. symbiotic relationship. crossing the border was intense and i'm glad i didn't do it alone. first, we needed to sell our pesos and buy quetzales. we were promptly ripped off. second, we needed to cross the border. once again, a sleight of hand. there's not supposed to be an entrance fee. third, get to Malacatan, the closest place with buses heading to a major town. this third part was the most overwhelming. i clearly remember crossing a bridge in guatemala, looking over my shoulder and realizing that the brits and i had an entourage of ten guatemalans hovering around us. everyone was yelling at us. had something for us. wanted something from us.Taxi! Combi! Amigo! Cuanto?! Aqui! Vamos! We managed to complete our third objective unscathed. we opted for a combi, a minivan fitted for inter-town travel. it was the brits, 17 more souls and i. bienvenidos a guatemala.