Unexpected Adventures!

Saturday, Apr. 16, 2011—Guatemala City to Concepcion de Ataco

Things didn’t go as planned today, but it was a very interesting day. I had no problems catching the Rapid Transit Bus and getting to the stop were my bus station was. It was still 1 1/2 hours before the bus was to leave for El Salvador. As I walked to the station, I saw a chicken bus going to Cuilapa which I knew was halfway to the border. I quickly decided to take it and connect to another bus in Cuilapa rather than wait for the through bus. That began the adventure.

Apparently we went through Cuilapa without my knowing it. Normally someone says for me to get off—either the bus attendant or one of my nearby passengers who knows where I am going. Today, no one said anything. I had assumed Cuilapa would be the end station and that there would be an actual terminal. When we turned up a narrow road leading high into the mountains, I wondered if it could be right. When we got to a small mountain town, it was the end of the line. I explained I was going to the frontera at Las Chinimas. They quickly figured out the problem and put me on a mini-bus headed back down the mountain to the main highway. It dropped me off there as it turned to go into Cuiapas.

I stood there trying to flag buses down, and no one stopped. Finally, I asked some people nearby. They indicated I had to walk to an intersection for the bus I wanted. As I walked there, I could see nothing ahead. Cars, trucks, and buses were whizzing by me. Soon, an elderly man, who reminded me in appearance of Arvind in Copenhagen, pulled up beside me on a bicycle. When he understood where I needed to go, he stayed with on his bicycle we as I walked. He said it would be a green bus with red trim that I would need, and when one came toward us on the other side of the road he pointed it out to me. About 1 km (half a mile) from the intersection, he indicated that he had to turn off, but he said I should go forward and turn right. By the time I got there, I had probably waked about 5 km (3 mi) pulling my suitcase on the main highway from where I was dropped by the mini-bus.

One of the green and red buses whizzed by just as I was arriving at the intersection and did not stop. Fortunately, however, another one came within 3 minutes and picked me up. It went all the way to the immigration control station on the border.

Lines were long at the immigration office for Guatemala. Both those coming and leaving were in one line. With three employees in the office, only one was up front processing people. After 20 minutes when the line had at least 15 people in it, another man got up out of his chair and ambled up to start a new computer for processing people, too.

After being processed, I walked across the river and went through the arrivals procedure in El Salvador. The man was friendly and quick there. There was no fee, so now I have visited both Guatemala and El Salvador without having to pay a fee of any kind.

I rushed up the embankment and caught a connecting bus to Ahuachapan just as it was ready to leave. When I stepped inside the bus, I recognized a guy from my other bus and sat with him. He understood some English, but did not speak it. Anyway, I showed him my plan for visiting El Salvador in which every day is mapped out according to where I will be, which buses I need to take, where to take them to get from one place to the next, and which hotels I have chosen for each place. He was impressed and started sharing the information with two ladies sitting facing us. They liked the fact I would be seeing so much of El Salvador.

When we got to Ahuachapan, my seat mate from the bus walked me to the location where I would catch the bus for Concepcion de Ataco before going his own way. It was a mini-bus which had just arrived, so I had to wait while it filled before departing.

The road from Ahuachapan to Ataco and further is known as La Ruta de las Flores. It is a mountainous road that passes through many small colonial towns. Conception de Ataco is the first one in the direction I am going. It was almost 16:00 when we arrived, and I was worried about finding a room since this is the Easter season. I had not had a reply from an e-mail I sent over a week ago to a place here. Sure enough, the place I had written was out of business and the first two places people directed me to were completely full. The young man at that second place, however, called another place and was told they had ONE room available. As he was giving me directions to get there, two more people came up looking for a room, so I rushed ahead to beat them to the Hegen Hostel where I have a private room with bath and wifi.

It was strange coming into El Salvador, because they use U.S. currency rather than having their own. I had to pay 50 cents for each of my bus rides, and I had to pay $20 for my room. I’ve been in countries where they tried to get tourists to spend dollars (such as Cambodia), but never one where they had nothing in circulation except U.S. dollars.

I dumped my things in my room and went out exploring the town with my camera. It is a very unique place. It’s small, and it hasn’t been a big tourist site until just the past 4-5 years when it seems to have “taken off.” Buildings are painted in bright colors, and many have hippie-type murals on them. There is a wide variety of restaurants from inexpensive to quite expensive and serving a wide range of foods—crepes, raclette, sushi, Peruvian, Panini sandwiches, etc. I just wandered up and down all the streets which didn’t take long, since the town peters out within 8-10 blocks within any direction from the center. On one street I came across a private party in the back yard of a home; inside the garage (which opened both to the front of the house and to the back yard), there was a marimba band playing live music for the party. I took a photo. Unfortunately, no one from the party came to invite me to join them!

I ate dinner al fresco. There were food booths set up at the main plaza, and one had buns filled with chicken meat. I ordered one, and he added marinated vegetables and a sauce to it. It was very messy to eat, but it was so tasty with that sauce soaked up into the bread and with all the good chicken inside. From there, I returned to a place that had frozen fruits. I got a choco-banana dipped in ground nuts.

The local people were heading home by 18:30. The tourists were starting to look for restaurants. I had already eaten, and it was starting to get cool. Therefore, I headed back to my room for the night. It had been a long and eventful day!!