I stayed on another night in Xela because I couldn't work out getting home and everyone wanted me to stay, so I caught a bus off the street this morning around 8:05. I expected to get into Antigua before 1:00, but as it turned out it took another three hours. The bus got sort of lost and sort of trapped up on some very rural mountain roads when a bus broke down on a narrow strip (well, the whole way was narrow) and we had to creep by after thinking about it for half an hour, leaning precariously over a cliff as we passed. Then of course we had to pass everyone who had gotten stuck going the other way, so I was essentially terror-filled for about an hour and a half. Then the traffic is always terrible in Chimaltenango.
Xela was really fun, I actually quite like that city. It's safer, friendlier, and just better than Guate City - also, it's a big city but it's the kind of big city that doesn't have any skyscrapers. The streets are all super narrow and stone tile, it's like old Europe or something. Xela is also better than Antigua - there are tourists and tourist cafes and such, but they're SO much less pretentious and/or dorky than the tourists in Antigua. Xela is a real, friendly, fun and 100% Guatemalan city. It is a bit cold.
We were going to go to a party on Friday evening shortly after I arrived, but I climbed approximately 3,000 feet in approximately 3.5 hours, and half an hour after I arrived in Xela, I got a headache and nausea and later collapsed half-dead on Hannah's bed. Needless to say I stayed back Friday night, and I still had a headache the next day when we and a Danish girl went to the mall/local pacas (like little home-owned Goodwills) and had lunch and stuff. I was fine that evening, though, and we went out salsa dancing with several other people, which was very fun. Before that we also went to go watch a movie at the Blue Angel, this little cafe where you can also pay Q10 to pick a movie and watch it in one of two living rooms with big TVs. Couldn't pull that off in the US, but it's awesome. We watched 3:10 to Yuma, which I loved!
Yesterday we climbed a hill for a view of the city, then hung out the rest of the day with a Russian girl, a Guatemalan guy, a hilarious Mexican guy, and a Spanish guy who resembles a pirate. It was fantastic! We all watched another movie and had dinner at the Blue Angel; Babel. Interesting, intense movie.
So this morning I got up and then followed Hannah to her school up a hill, then kept walking with my stuff and had to ask three different people where to find a bus to Guate (They pass through Chimaltenango on their way, and there I connect to Antigua). I waited a while on the sidewalk, watched stores opening up, then a someone pointed out an mislabeled bus to Guate (happens sometimes - they take a different route than it says on their front), luckily they also yell the name of wherever they're headed.
I was sort of surprised to see another obviously not-Guatemalan guy on the bus, but I had to sit far behind him the whole way and we never spoke until he decided to get off in Chimal, too. When the bus was stopped in the mountains, he stood up and got out of the bus with a bunch of other people, and I thought he was about seven feet tall. As it turns out he's only 6'6". He didn't know Antigua at all, so I showed him to the Black Cat hostel when we arrived and then we went to a very belated lunch at the Rainbow Cafe. He's from Holland, traveling around between his studies of medicine. Meeting people in other countries is awesome.
Sooo I'm probably just going to copy & paste this onto my blog. I didn't take my laptop or camera to Xela since I took chicken buses (well, apparently Camioneta or Canastera are more politically correct terms for the public buses...), in fact I took very little, just some stuff in my little army surplus rucksack. I also mostly emptied my wallet, stowing money in my socks and stuff, which was good because I got it stolen when I was getting off the bus in Chimal on my way up on Friday. It was entirely my fault, could have been prevented, I was being dumb (put it in the front flap of my purse, my purse was at my back, etc.) and I even felt it being stolen but at the time it did not occur to me what was happening. All they got was about $5 and a photocopy of my ID, plus my old recycled materials wallet, so... I just need a new wallet and better judgment.
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