We left San Cristobal early, around 7am. Naz had to call O2 customer services and was using my tablet to call. He was on hills for a while but managed to get through to speak to someone. Our shuttle to Guatemala arrived and the driver was asking us to get our stuff on but Nas was still on the phone to O2. He literally finished the call as 1 foot was out the door and WiFi got cut off. Naz cuts things pretty close.

Our journey in Mexico to the border was fine. We had no problems. We stopped at a petrol station with a restaurant next to it. I think this is a practice that most tour companies do, take tourists to specific restaurants along the way to somewhere so the driver or tour company get a kick back. Everyone got a breakfast but Naz and I didn’t have any money as we’d spent it the night before as we thought we weren’t gonna need it anymore as we’re leaving the country. Oh well, we got a nice coffee as that was all we could afford. We had pot noodles as backups.

So we get to the border, things look really shabby here. We queue to get our passports stamped, or in this case nothing was stamped as we had use a departure form which was part of our entry form. So then I never really arrived in mexico only left it according to my passport.

After we left immigration we travelled on the road for another 20 mins before hitting the Guatemala immigration office. I read there was a fake tax to pay and it was true. 20 pesos. We could have argued it but I didn’t bother as it woulda been hassle.

The border divide was literally a vehicle barrier. Security in terms of police or army was little. The only guns I saw were from the dodgy money changers, they had massive wads of cash the size of your fist but also had a large hand gun with an extended clip. If I had the balls I woulda taken a pic!

After the border we travel through some really poor areas. Kids selling petrol on the side street. Kids selling sweets on the street. I never grasp the fact that I pass through rural areas and not metropolitan areas of the country. I haven’t yet experienced a metropolitan city in central america. Last time I was travelling I hit major cities but this time I seem to be avoiding them.

Driving in Guatemala is pretty ropey. People tend to overtake recklessly and they don’t have a problem doing it around corners. Es mucho dangerous! Our driver was pretty pathetic as he kept trying to overtake cars and lorries but never managed to do so as he was either too slow or the minibus was too weak to get past the vehicle. There are still tonnes of speed bumps here too!

We finally get to the city of Queztaltenango, or Xela as the locals call it. We unpack our stuff and jump on another minibus. The original minibus was going to Antigua so they carried on but we had a local minibus take us to our hostel/hotel(we were travelling with some French retirees).

We get to the hostel at 6pm having left at 7am. We were told the journey should take 6 hours! A German guy is staying in our dorm and he and recommends we go to the local market as they sell some cheap enchiladas. They’re veggie, soy based mince, but dirt cheap. Like Q5 for 1 which is 40p! We end up getting 3 each as we were starving. Once again we were eating with our eyes. Waaay too much food. Also the woman put sprinkles of cheese on it so I couldn’t stomach it all. Still excellent value for money and very tasty albeit cold. We ate in the Parque Central which made us feel sort of like at home when you get a munch from a kebab shop and eat outside. No one else seemed to be doing though… We go home and relax as we’re set to book a volcano hike for the following days!