Friday, December 20, 2013

(Pre)Guatemalan adventures: part 1

After >1 week in Guatemala, we can already conclude that this country is full of adventures. It even started with our trip over here: we took an overnight bus from Cancun (Mexico) to Belize City. Thanks to a 2 ½ hour stop at a corrupt Mexican border control agent (charging everyone a $25 ‘border-crossing fee’;  receipt: not a chance) we arrived around 9:45 am on a Monday morning in Belize City – a few hours later than scheduled. We were afraid that we just missed the 9:30 am bus to Tikal (Guatemala) where we would meet our friend Mario.

After walking to a taxi stand (the next bus was in another bus station) the driver told us the bus would leave at 10am and we would probably still make it, so he drove us through the bumpy roads of Belize’ capital to another bus station, where we had 1 minute to buy tickets, breakfast and go to the toilet. Wow, what a rush but we were so relieved that we made it: the next bus would leave somewhere late afternoon while Mario was waiting for us in Guatemala. We saw some other passengers who were also joining this bus, 10am sharp.

About an hour and a half later, finally someone told us that the bus would leave. Lesson: relax and don’t count on anything to be on time here!

This was only the start of many adventures we already had in Guatemala. Below are some pictures and videos of the Tarzan Canopy Ziplining tour we did in a Guatemalan jungle. It was an awesome adrenaline experience to fly from tree to tree! (as was the ride through the jungle J)