Guatemala; and Nookie gets her feet wet...

I left Barra and made it surprisingly quickly down the coast, even giving a local a ride to the nearby town of Coyul.  I crossed into the state of Chiapas, notorious in recent years for "leftist" indigenous uprisings and political conflicts.

  I don't know what the deal is now, but things were calm, the road in decent shape, and I even passed by the town of Arriaga--made a coincidental and obscure reference in one of my favorite Simpsons episodes:

I had planned on overnighting in the border town of Tapachula and crossing into Guatemala early on a saturday morning, but things were destined to go a different direction.  I had heard conflicting stories about how to deal with my vehicle import permit to Mexico, so I wound up stopping before the border at the little office and giving them a copy of it, and getting mixed up with a "helper" to get across the border.  He claimed he only wanted a tip afterwards and had the info I wanted.  At the border, things deteriorated quickly, and I was basically at their mercy.  After giving them a bit of money as a bribe, I got thru the border, but at nearly 9pm at night, in the border town of Tecun Uman.  The streets were tight, my GPS not giving my any help, and I had been driving since 8 am that morning--in short, I was not a happy camper.

I finally flagged down a dude on the street and convinced him to get in Nookie with me and help me find a hotel with some security. He reluctantly agreed, and 15 minutes later I pulled into an "auto hotel" which looked safe enough and dropped 300 quetzales on the room.  In latin america, auto hotels are places couples go to have licit and (more likely) illicit sex--there are private garages so one can pull in undetected and unseen.  My room was  a bit seedy--mirrors on the ceiling and walls, a sketchy looking jacuzzi, and really sad porn on the TV.  I won't go into any more details, and I was too tired to take any pics, but they probably would have been depressing anyway.

Early the next day I headed out for the border with El Salvador.  I had a bad taste in my mouth about Guatemala and knew I wanted to get to the plentiful right point breaks of El Sal in any event.

Volcano shrouded in clouds from the highway.

As I got within 100km of the border, I started seeing signs for the beach area called Monterrico.  I'd read a positive blog post about the place while doing some research online a few weeks back and made a snap decision to detour out there and spend a night or two.  It was a worthwhile diversion.

The area around Monterrico consists of  a series of lagoons, estuaries, and a beautiful black sand beach.  In order to get there the way I was heading a ferry trip was required.  I'd read a bit about that but was unclear as to how that worked exactly.  I found out pretty quickly, a mere 30 minutes after I turned off the highway.  The "ferries" were long wooden barges, constructed there in the village, and none too seaworthy or sturdy-looking.

my ferry and driver--Luis--guiding me carefully onto his ride.

loaded up and leaving the dock.

other traffic on the estuary.

Nookie underway...

As my guide Louis loaded my onto his rickety barge, I heard a couple of sharp snaps and yells from said Louis and his helpers.  Nookie's prodigious weight had snapped one of the thick wooden loading planks.  I waited while they shoved a few more boards between Nookie's wheels and the loading ramp, then slowly crept aboard the barge, hearing it creak and groan under Nookie's 10,000 pounds.  Finally I made it aboard fully, with about 3 feet of clearance at the back where Louis and an ancient 25 horsepower outboard motor sat, and no more than a few inches on either side.  I don't know how much room was at the back of Nookie as you couldn't really get around to the "bow" of the barge due to the tight fit.  Taking pics was tough as I was so close to Nookie I couldn't really get any distance for perspective, but I took a little video that at least shows us in motion.



Needless to say, I was a bit apprehensive that the barge was going to split open and sink, or list heavily to one side and take on water, leaving Nookie and all my belongings at the bottom of a lagoon in Guatemala.  But it made the voyage safely, about 30 minutes in all.

Unfortunately none of my pics of the beach town of Monterrico came out right, but I highly recommend it for a tranquilo and beautiful spot.  It was surprisingly well kept, the people seemed happy and a notch or two above the socio-economic status of other similarly situated guatemalans that I had seen inland.  The roads were pretty nice, there were obviously some expensive vacation homes for well-to-do Guatemalans around, but for the most part the vacationers were working class Guatemalans, at least to my eye.

I left yesterday morning and made it to the border with El Salvador around noon.  Although slow and confusing, by 3pm I was on my way, and by 5pm I was nearing La Libertad, and eventually found a little hotel/hostel recommended by several people called La Guitarra.  I ran into a Brittish/Columbian couple I'd spent time with in Barra, as well as a New Zealand woman her friend, a Japanese girl, also recently seen in Barra.  The town is pretty nice,  a bit more crowded than I thought it would be, but I still have yet to get a real feel for the place.  The waves are small today and not really breaking, but hopefully by later this evening it might glass off and get a bit better.  A big swell is on the way for later in the week, so that is something to look forward to.  

I'll try to get some pics from around here soon.  As always, more to come!!!