Guatemala Update 1

I have made it to Guatemala safely.  I started the trip by trying to sleep in the Miami airport overnight while waiting for my flight to Guatemala the next morning.  It was good to save the money a hotel would have cost and know from experience that I can sleep in the airport if I have to but I probably won´t do it again.  The lights are on in the airport all night and there are announcements every few minutes.  That combined with a hard floor made sleeping very difficult.  I probably slept an hour at most.  There were lots of other people there attempting to sleep but I don´t think most of them had any better luck than me.

When I arrived in Guatemala on Wednesday I was extremely tired.  I didn´t think to negotiate with the taxi driver before I took it to the bus station.  I probably overpaid a couple of bucks but not enough to worry about.  The bus was a little better than I remembered.  The bus used to stop everywhere and pick up more passengers.  Now they don´t do that because of bandits.  This made for a 3 1/2 hour bus ride rather than a 4 hour bus ride.  There were only 6 passengers on the bus and it was a Greyhound style bus.  The bus ticket was roughly $8 and the taxi to the bus station was $12.  I´m not sure how the bus company is making a profit but I´m guessing there are usually more passengers.

Once I arrived in Xela I got a hotel room for the night.  The hotel I remembered was only $4 a night back in 1996.  In 2009 it is still $4 a night.  This is a great bargain.  The rooms are small and you have a common bathroom but for the price it is a great deal.  The cleanliness was better than some hotels I´ve stayed at  in the States.

The next day I went to get my room for the month.  The place I wanted to stay at didn´t have any rooms available though.  I spent most of the day walking around the city looking for a place to live for the next month.  I decided on a hostel that charges about $100 a month.  I have a private room and share bathroom and kitchen facilities with the other guests.  This is the same setup as the place I wanted to stay at although the first place only charges $85 a month.  It is still a pretty good price though.  I spent one more night in the hotel and moved into the hostel this morning.

Now I need to go shopping and get some food.  I´ve been eating at fast food places like McDonalds and Pollo Campero so far.  Fast food costs about as much here as in the U.S.    It is strange that I could pay as much for a fast food meal as a hotel room.

I haven´t found internet service that I´m happy with yet.  The first place I went to had extremely slow computeres.  The next two places (including this one) I´ve gone to have had pop-ups on the computer all the time.  This makes me think the computers probably have viruses so I don´t want to do too much on them.  Hopefully, I can find a better internet place tomorrow and I will have another post then.