Saturday, February 22, 2003
Earliest. Day. Ever. Up at 4:30 a.m. for a 5:00
a.m. bus. There are no later buses to Palenque. To
top it off, Tom and I were the last passengers picked
up and so were assigned to the worst seats in the
rickety bus, not just over the tire and thus without
a place for our legs, but also broken. And we're
returning to the border on the same teeth-rattling
dirt track we came in on, so anything that can be
done to make us even less comfortable is surely much
appreciated. Luckily, no one else boarded, and we got
a whole row of broken bad seats to stretch out on. So
it could have been worse.
Broken bus in Betél
One hour screwing around, three hours to Betél,
immigration, a half hour on a lancha down the Río
Usamacinta to Frontera Corozal, more immigration,
then three more hours to Palenque. We'll be there
before we know it.
One last look at Guatemala
In Frontera Corozal, Mexico, we boarded a combi,
and I was lucky enough to ride in the suicide seat
next to the driver, so I had a great view. We got
stopped at military checkpoints three times on the
way. Twice we all had to get out and they searched
the vehicle for contraband. We also passed a convoy
of 12 truckloads of army personnel. Chiapas has
military everywhere.
In Palenque we stayed at a different hotel this
time, the Yax-Ha Posada, 180 pesos with air
conditioning, less without A/C. Of course we want the
A/C! We had some great tacos at Taqueria Los
Tarolites, one of the many taco stands lining the
Zócalo, a filling meal for both of us for 42
pesos.
Fancy Mexican color scheme at the Yax-Ha
We secured bus tickets for 9:45 tomorrow morning
to San Cristóbal de Las Casas on ADO bus line, with
little help from the ticket agents. They had no
patience with gringos. They wouldn't even try to talk
to us and made us write out what we wanted. But ha!
We got tickets anyway. This was the exception rather
than the rule though. At other times in our travels
the airport and bus station personnel have gone out
of their way to make sure we understood what we were
doing and boarded the right bus or plane, even coming
out from behind the counter and showing us where we
needed to go, whether we needed them to or not. Thank
you, kind people!
View from our posada
After showering I found that I'd picked up several
insect bites in Guatemala, despite repeated
applications of deet and wearing long pants near the
river. I hope malaria is as fun as I've read. It will
be inconvenient, but the hallucinations are supposed
to be quite enjoyable.
While I was busy examining my possible malaria,
Tom put his hand in the ceiling fan - again. I guess
he's going to do this every time he visits Chiapas.
Hopefully he won't lose any fingernails this time. In
his defense, you did have to stand on the bed to
change T.V. channels, and from there it's only a
short stretch to the fan.
|