Entering Guatemala

Entering Guatemala was an interesting experience. We took a bus to the Mexican border and went through the normal immigration proceedings. Then we got into special taxis and headed the five kilometers up to the actual border.

The border was unlike anything I have ever seen. It looks like a market. Either side of the road are stalls selling everything. The border itself is a piece of rope on the road. We got out of the taxis, stepped over the rope and went through Guatemalan immigration, I don't think there was any customs or quarantine.

We then met our driver who had driven in the night before, which was lucky because there was some roadworks which held him up for five hours. Eventually he made a "donation" to the workers which allowed him to get past.

Driving along the same road we found the same roadworks. We were there for over an hour before we could get through. They were caused by a landslide. Every time they cleared the road, more of the mountain would slide down. They had been doing this for over two months. The landslide itself completely took out one building and damaged several others. I hope no one was home when it happened.