Day 14 - Belize to Guatemala via El Salvador

I only have one picture today because it was purely a travel day.  I took the first flight out of Punta Gorda, stopped briefly in Placencia and Dangriga before deplaning in Belize City.  I waited four hours at the airport for my next flight, which was to Guatemala City with a layover in San Salvador.  Then I rode in a car for five hours from Guatemala City to Zacapa.  It is usually a three hour drive, but it took five hours due to an entire mountain pass of construction. 

 

What I learned: 

1) Guatemala City is a very modern city.  Adam and I were shocked at the state of the Belizean ‘cities’.  Ask us about Belmopan, the capital city.  It is almost beyond description.  Guatemala City, on the other hand, felt like coming home.  Not Northwest home, but like I belonged there.  It had a flavor that reminded me of a cross between Guadalajara and Seoul. 

 

2) Driving in Guatemala City is not for the faint of heart.

 

3) I probably decreased my lifespan by several months by breathing in the fumes from all that traffic.  It took 1 ½ hours to get out of the city.  The boys will tell you I'm a stickler for keeping the windows rolled up on the freeway and in heavy traffic.  But it's a whole other story in Central America with no air conditioning.

 

3) There may not be any straight roads in this region of Guatemala. This is a very mountainous region.  It was beautiful, but felt like driving in West Virginia except with bigger mountains.

 

4) The truckers do go through Guatemala.  This is something that Adam and I were speculating about.  We can count on one hand (Adam did) the number of semi-trucks we saw in Belize.  There just isn’t the infrastructure (or industry) for them.  The main highways are two-lane (one in each direction) roads that are not always paved.  It is very, very rare for a side street to be paved, and when they are, they are ridden with huge potholes.  The roads are much better in Guatemala.  We noticed that right away when we crossed the border.  There are LOTS and LOTS of trucks on the roads in Guatemala.

 

This is a picture of me with Sarah, a psychologist and the director of the orphanage here, Luis, a 14 year old who lives at the orphanage, and Carlos, our excellent chauffer.  The three of them picked me up from the airport and I felt like we were friends after spending 5 hours in the car with them.  Carlos and Luis don't speak English, so I was able to dust off my Spanish.  I need a lot more practice!