My visit to Tikal had been wonderful with the exception that I did not allow myself enough time to explore it thoroughly. My transport TO the site had been economical and like clockwork (with the exception of a little stress at the border crossing after finding that I had been in Belize illegally!). The problem came with my return to San Ignacio. I had been told earlier to look for a white van in a particular place in the parking lot at 2:30 PM. I made it a point to be there at 2:30 PM but was somewhat distressed to find no van waiting at the spot. After waiting patiently for about 20 minutes I decided to try to fend for myself. I chased down a couple of local taxi drivers but was told that they would have to charge me a lot to drive me all the way back to the border (like about US$100). I kept trying, however, and eventually hooked up with two other American guys who were sharing a cab back to Flores. The cabbie said I could join them and split the fare to "the crus" where the road forks to either Flores or "la frontera". My portion of the taxi to "the crus" ended up being only 50 Quetzales (about US$7.00), and I was dropped on the highway with assurances that the "bus" to la frontera would come by shortly. I waited out in the middle of nowhere in Guatemala looking for some kind of bus when the strangest thing happened. What appeared to be an old recycled American school bus painted army green pulled up right across the road from where I was waiting and about 17 young Guatemalan soldiers carrying machine guns piled out of the bus. The soldiers headed toward the house on the corner - only about 100 feet from where I was sitting along the street - and proceeded to scurry about the back yard doing who knows what. I was seriously worried that a drug bust might be going down and I would end up in the middle of a machine gun battle!
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| Army Bus I Encountered in Guatemala Waiting for the Chicken Bus |
I was DYING to whip out my trusty camera and take a couple photos of this craziness-- but I worried that someone might see me and they might confiscate my camera. So I waited about 20 minutes until they got back on the bus and took off to take a photo. My photo of the bus is above-- and remember that about 17 young soldiers (with machine guns) are on this bus. I never did find out what the soldiers were doing at this house. I am just glad that no gun battles broke while I was waiting for the bus.
Shortly after the army bus left a large van came flying by "the crus" and stopped for me. "Climb in" the driver hollered. I followed his instructions - even though the van was already full. I think I crushed three young girls climbing into the van. For the next 20 miles or so the van stopped and started dozens of times as locals climbed off and on in turn. I was definitely the only tourist on the bus, and it was actually a pretty cool experience. It took a while to get to the border, but the price was certainly right. The fare collected by the 12 year old conductor was only 20 Quetzales (about US$2.50!). Not bad for a once in a lifetime experience! I was a LITTE disappointed, however, that there weren't any chickens strapped to the roof of the van. The chicken bus dropped me near the customs building at the border, and I quickly made it through Passport control and customs. On the other side I had no trouble finding a Belizean cab driver to bring me back to my "home away from home" in San Ignacio. This ride cost some big bucks -- a little over US$10.00 for another half hour taxi ride.
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