Day 2 – Dec 4, 2009
Our second day in Guatemala has been full of memorable moments and great learning experiences… but sometimes the learning experiences are not the ones I want.
Our clean rooms with its baby blue trim woke us up early in the morning thanks to its bright skylights. We needed to get ready because our ride to the bus station was picking us up at 8am. Our driver who had brought us the night before to our hostel was already waiting outside before we had zipped up the last of our backpacks. He patiently waited.

We decided that since we had an hour before the bus was to leave to Rio Dulce, we would make some stops along the way to exchange some money at the bank, eat a $3 breakfast at a McDonald’s drive-thru and stock up on drinking water for our 6 hour bus trip. We arrived at the bus station with only 5 minutes to spare… or so we thought. I rushed to the ticket counter with my backpacks in hand and blurted out my destination with a horrible Spanish accent, “Rio Dulce por favor”.

My statement was not received with the reaction I had anticipated. I was in a hurry and did not want to miss the bus. The girl at the ticket counter tryed telling me something in Spanish that my limited knowledge of greetings and the numbers one to ten could not comprehend. She was shaking her head. I understood what that means and this was not a good sign. She motioned one of the security guards over to translate. In his broken English he explained to me that the bus was full and the next one would not be until 11:30 am. We were going to have to wait for two and a half hours! This bus station was not situated in the best of places. A congested parking lot barely big enough for three busses in the heart of a crowded city. Peddlers were shining shoes, selling watches and all sorts of other trinkets. (Read Jaeden’s Blog on his $1.50 designer sunglasses).[/URL]

As I exited the bus station with disappointment all over my face to break the news to my two kids who were waiting outside, I saw another lady with my kids holding a cooler packed full of food and ice. She wanted us to bring this cooler to the orphanage we were going to and was disappointed to hear we would have to wait a bit longer. The ice was not going to last and she too would have to bring it back later. Fortunately this lady had a cell phone and so she called our driver and had him come back for us. We were not going to have to wait after all!

Within a few minutes our trusty driver was back and ready to give us a tour of the city. Unfortunately he didn’t speak more than a few words of English so it was a rather simple tour. It mainly consisted of “Spanish Plaza”, “Palace” and “Liberty Street”. He parked near Central Park which was a large empty fountain in the center of a square full of a tent city of shops. This square faced the grandoise National Palace which was built in the early 1900’s as government offices. Our driver escourted us to the front entrance where we were told tours are no longer free but require a 40 quetzal ($4.80) ticket. With nothing else to do, we went in and waited a few minutes until an English speaking guide was found.

The National Palace was intricately carved with woodwork, an imported 2 ton Polish chandelier and naturally green stone columns. It was a beautiful palace that is being well preserved. The two large courtyards are covered with large canopy’s to keep them dry. Large paintings wrap around the walls of the large staircases. Our guide spoke great English and was able to give us a great history lesson on the Mayan people and Spanish Conquerors. As we were leaving the Palace we noticed a ceremony in one of the courtyards. Upon questioning our guide she explained that at 11am every day there is a changing of the rose ceremony where different groups or people gather, have speeches and watch someone replace a rose that is cupped in some stone hands. The person given the honor of replacing the rose is selected because of their community work and involvement. Apparently this ceremony is repeated every day. Behind this bronze sculpture we saw the flame of peace that was lit by the Dhali Llama less than 10 years ago.

Following our tour we walked around Central Park. I asked permission from a few ladys selling clothing in their outdoor booth if I could take their photo and they agreed. In Guatemala it is impolite and rude to take photos of people without asking. I took a few more photos as I headed back to where our car was parked.

Our next stop was at Parque Minerva. Apparently it is a Park that has a relief map of the country of Guatemala. We could see from a distance the mountains and volcanos that made up part of the three dimensional map. The admission price however was 25 quetzal’s for tourists and 5 quetzal’s for locals. The kids were not so keen on looking at an oversized outdoor map and so we decided to head back to the bus station.

We returned to the bus station with 30 minutes to spare and sat down to wait… big mistake. We were once again given the red ice and food filled cooler to take to the orphanage along with our 4 backpacks. By the time we went to the bus ten minutes prior to leaving, the storage space under the bus was already full! After turning us away we returned more insistant than ever that some space be found. They looked at the jigsaw puzzle of items under the bus again before humming and hawing and moving some other items out. They then placed our cooler and large pack in this newly empty place. That meant we only had our 3 packs left to place at our feet for the 6 hour bus ride.

Before we mounted the bus, we first had to pass the token security personnel. They searched our bags and checked us over with a metal detector to ensure the bus would be safe for the journey. Apparently in the past there have been problems with highway robberies. These busses are a bit unique. First of all sitting next to the driver in the front is an armed security guard that joined us for the entire trip. Periodically he would make his way through the bus to make sure everything was ok before returning to his seat. Between us passengers and the driver at the front was a locked glass door. In order to get out, the bus driver or security guard would have to open this locked door to let us through. Long distance bus security in Guatemala is taken just as serious as Airplane security.

As we were about to leave Jaeden decided that he needed to go to the washroom. He was out of luck though as the security guard would not open the door and the driver pulled out. He would just have to wait. We didn’t stop for about an hour and when we did, he dashed out. The driver was showing no signs however of wanting to wait at all. As soon as a few people boarded the bus he started to edge the bus forward. He moved forward and stopped about 4 times before Jaeden rushed out and saw him trying to leave. He darted in front of the bus and was onboard in a flash.

Throughout the entire 6 hour trip we had a number of 2 minute stops and one twenty minute stop about half way through the trip. The longer stop was at a restaurant where it was obvious the drivers received a kickback for taking us there. They sat on an elevated platform in a private seating area and enjoyed a meal at the same time as the rest of us. Meals in Guatemala are very inexpensive however at only $3 per person.

As we approached our destination in the town of Rio Dulce we asked the driver to drop us off before the long bridge which went to the city. This was done with the intent that we would shorten our walk to our hostel from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. We frantically grabbed our bags as they stopped in the middle of the road, jumped out of the bus and scrambled to get our things from under the bus.
We didn’t realize until about 20 minutes later that something was missing! Our video camera!

Upon realizing that we had no camera to take photos or videos we frantically asked the front desk of the hostel for help. We had them call the bus station to ask for the camera. When we received no response we asked that someone take us to the bus station as quickly as possible. The hostel security guard grabbed a flashlight and told us to get into the Backpacker Hostel’s boat. Since this hostel is located over the water of a lake we darted across the narrow channel to the other side. We scrambled out of the boat and headed directly to the bus station only 2 minutes away (at the speed we were going). Upon arriving at the bus station we saw the cleaners going through the bus. When we explained what had happened they invited us to board the bus and have a look around. The camera was gone! Our brand new camera was gone!

Sulking and depressed I returned to the boat. The breeze cooled my temper as I sat in silence on the boat ride back to our hostel. How depressing. We had come all the way to Guatemala to highlight a few orphanages with photos and videos and would be unable to document the experience. I had no appetite to eat dinner and ran through the events that had just transpired over and over in my head. I asked the front desk if there were any places that sold cameras. They arranged for a taxi to take me to a shop that they said sold cameras. When I arrived there, only one camera was in the outdoor market display case. A basic camera for $200. I passed on the opportunity to be gouged and moped back to the Hostel once again.

That evening we spoke to a few people at the hostel who were volunteers at Casa Guatemala, the orphanage up the channel from where we were staying. The Backpackers hostel is run by the orphanage and helps support the work that goes on there. The volunteers made a few calls for us and arranged for us to borrow a camera during our tour of the orphanage on the following day. We had the use of their camera at least for the next two days…
If the first 24 hours in Guatemala are any indication as to the adventures we are going to have, it is going to be an exciting trip!