Somewhere in Guatemala - Hotel Virginia

Today, leaving from Acayucan was quite pleasant, but a little disconcerting to begin with. We had told the hotel person in charge of the parking that we were leaving early so that our car would not be blocked in. It was a small parking area. So when we came out of room we saw that our car was in the corner, with two or three cars blocking us in! Kinda upset - but trying to stay calm, I spoke to the desk clerk about our situation. He calmly turned around, knocked on a door behind the desk and said something to somebody. A moment later this young man came out, looked around, saw us, got our keys out of our key box, and headed for the parking lot. As we stood there , two cars were pulled out onto the street, another moved over, and our car came out - ready to hit the road!! As they say here - NO PROBLEMO!!

Wish I could have stayed calmer!

Then out on the open road. And again, good roads - bad roads , but no problems. We got all the way to Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala, but still 15 miles from the border, about 3 o'clock and headed for the border. About10 miles or so from the border a lot of Ajudantes, helpers, were standing by the road waving there ID cards at us, wanting to be our helper through the border. I told Tim to not pay any attention to them, just keep going to the border.

Sometimes I wish Tim didn't listen to me! After about a 20-minute drive we came to the border, only to be told by 10 "ajudantes" that we had to go back and turn in out Mexican permit for the car. That we could not turn it in at the Frontier! So we picked one man so he would show us where to go, and back we went toward Tapachula. When we got to where all the men had been waving at us, we realized they were telling us to stop and report the vehicle!!!!

Oh well, .... we got it done and headed for the border. At the Mexican immigration we had to pay $20.00 exit visa, because the man called us transits not tourist. He was right, and we grudgingly paid. Then on to Guatemala. Our helper told us where to park, and his "friend" showed up to help us get our vehicle registered and to get all the stuff in the car through customs. After a few minutes I asked him how much would it cost and he said $250.00!!! At the time he had our manifest of stuff in the car and was doing all sorts of figuring, etc. I took the book, with him, and Tim and I went to the customs agent. There the lady behind the window told us it only cost 40 Quetzals to enter Guatemala and there were men who tried to get Tourist to pay more. I said, "NO JOKE". 40 Quetzals is about $5.00.

I'll tell a few more details about our trip on next blog ... yesterday is not finished yet! but I gotta go.

so come back - I've more to tell

later

Johnny