Shotguns in Guatemala City, English lessons and an active volcano

People in Ireland warned me that Buenos Aires was very dangerous, then when I was in Buenos Aires people warned about Brazil, Sao Paulo about Rio, Rio about Mexico and so on. The problem with Guatemala City was that everyone warned me about it, even Guatemalans. I ended up spending over a week there and really enjoyed it. I think if I had been staying at a hostel I would have done like most other backpackers and left after 1 night as I could see why it is considered so dangerous.


Almost every business in Guatemala City has private security for protection. They all have shotguns, its a strange sight at first but eventually you get used to seeing shotguns everywhere. What makes it stranger is that some of the security guards are only teenagers, some aren't wearing uniforms but all of them are armed generally with have shotguns. So far I've not been brave enough to take a photo of them.


Instead of a hostel I was staying with a couchsurfer. He runs an English school so I was helping out at his classes everyday, mainly having conversations with his students in English. It was a great opportunity to get to know some local people and see a different side to Guatemala city. It was also interesting to be helping them learn my native language while I was trying to learn their language. I had the luxury of living in a very good neighborhood, having my own room and having Harold (my host) drive me everywhere. Generally I use public transport but I'd be advised by a lot of people that it wasn't so safe in Guatemala City so having the use of car for my stay was really useful. Later in Antigua I read an article about the chicken buses in Guatemala City and why they are so dangerous. According to the article 120 bus drivers were killed in 2009. See below:

Guatemala News Article

Harold was hosting two other CS'ers when I was there so he ended up showing us around the city and taking us to places that would be have difficult as regular tourists. The most memorable of which was a popular bar that had live music every Thursday. Guatemalans like to sing along to music so as soon as the band started playing their first song the audience start singing and this continued for the rest of the night.

Live music in Guatemala City

After English class on Friday we did a trip to Pacaya with some of the students. Pacaya is an active volcano that was dormant for a century until it erupted violently in 1965 and has been erupting continuously since then. The last eruption was in May 2010. Previously it was possible to get close to the crater and at times see streams of lava flowing but since the erruption they have imposed some rules mainly that it is only possible to climb the volcano with a guide. It was disappointing not to see any lava but I'm not sure if my converse would have survived. The heat from the volcano was pretty intense at times and has been known to melt some peoples shoes.

Climbing Pacaya

The fog was pretty bad

This was where my shoes started to get very hot!

Group photo near the summit

Guatemala, Flores and Tikal Ruins

After almost a week on Caye Caulker it was time to get moving again. Another boat trip to Belize City, a 15 minute walk to the bus station followed by my first chicken bus in central america. Chicken busses are old school buses from the US that are now used for public transport in central america. They are generally decorated and painted in vibrant colours and stuffed with passengers and luggage ranging from backpacks to livestock to local produce. It was standing room only at the start of the 3 hour journey but eventually it cleared out and we got seats.

Inside a chicken bus

Back seat on a chicken bus

I spent 3 days in San Ignacio exploring the waterfalls and jungle then crossed the border into Guatemala. From here I went to Flores which is a popular tourist destination due to its proximity to Tikal. The ruins at Tikal were impressive and reminded me somewhat of the ruins at Palenque. The must fun part of it was probably climbing the temple which had a really steep ladder to get to the top. Once on top you had great views of the ruins and the surrounding area.

It's a steep climb!

Don't look down!

You got to belize it!

In Mexico I met a lot of people who had come from Belize and had really enjoyed there time there so I decided to go even though it wasn't a country that I had been planning on visiting. I took a 5 hour bus to Chetumal in the south of Mexico and from there a 2 hour boat taxi to Belize. First stop was San Pedro for imigration and then onto Caye Caulker.

Belize Immigration

Caye Caulker met my expectations on what I thought a caribbean island would be like although I was a little surprised to find that they had a local credit union.

Belize Credit Union

The hostel we stayed in was probably the most chilled out and relaxed hostel I've stayed in to date. They didn't do reservations. We were told that we had to pay for our first night and until we decided to leave the bed was ours. We'd pay the balance when we leave. There was 2 kayaks and about 8 bicycles that you were free to use.

View from the kayak

Strangely all the showers, taps, and toilets used salt water, very strange but seemed to be the case in most places on the island. Here's the view from the back door of the hostel.

View from the back door!

A Weird Mexican Hostel

After the failed sailing trip I took the ferry back to Cancun and a bus to Tulum. Here I stayed in one of the strangest hostels so far on this trip. Their checkin process, restaurant, bar and checkout process were all automated and self service. The checkin process I can somewhat understand but after this it just got a bit strange. For example for the free breakfast you had to logon to the computer, choose what you wanted and print a receipt. Then you hand this receipt in at the restaurant and you get your food. I got a bit of a surprise the first morning I did this. I ordered the scrambled eggs and toast. Here's what I got:

Cook it yourself scrambled eggs and toast