After a decent night of sleep, I chat to my girlfriends, eeeeaaaarly in the morning for me, go and get coffee, have a little breakkie and: the owners of the B&B take us to the ferry!
We got on our fancy yacht and after an hour: Guatemala. Luckily Hubby is a bit better informed then me: the immigration office is NOT at the harbor. If you do not sign in, you are an illegal immigrant and will get into big trouble leaving the country. We do find it in the end. No questions asked. We walked by a couple of 'hotels'. Cheap, cheap, but it said 'con A/C'. We go and have a look and take one of ... 20$ a night for 2 nights. Of course it is crappy.
Next step: we need money. We have to take a cap downtown, we withdraw some local what-ever-it-is and now: BEER. Another currency. After careful calculation: it is 30 Eurocent per beer!!! We found our Uiver in Guatemala, look at Tomcat in front of his stamcafe.
It is noon by now and Dr T want to go to a chicken place, a local KFC, let's say. This time I say: 'no!' You can eat there and then we go somewhere else for me. I might only spend 2 days of my life in Guatemala, so I will eat local.' And he comes with me!!! Is he not the bestest, bestest hubby in the world??? We find something that is not too dodgy and have a nice meal. Since Dr T got so sick, we do not eat the same dishes anymore. He is doing well by now, even eats rice and black beans! You get this with EVERY dish in this part of the world, like the frietjes in Belgium.
We stroll around some more and end up in 'our' pub again. The music, the people, the heat, the smells, I could stay here for hours. A boy is standing outside the pub: an elephant man. Meat and skin is growing out of his face, in a big lump in front of his mouth. A little boy with a blind man begs for money. So does a handicapped boy. I sometimes hate myself when I travel around in poor countries. I am so, so lucky!
This is also the city of the hookers. They are everywhere. White, black, fat, teeth less, drugged, pregnant, you name it. And then things happen fast. A guy comes to us and asks something (my Spanish is still baaaaaaaaaad), I do not know what. And the waitress tells him off. The handicapped boy pushes him, saying; : 'leave those nice people alone' (while we did not give him a cent!) . The very weird, gay looking costumer with the pregnant prostitutes (who drinks like a fish: happy fetus), gets up and points him to the door. It is all done in less the 1 minute. The 'gay' guy apologizes. I say 'de nada' and feel protected by the local mafia!!!
We discuss religion, bonobos, Einstein, axioms, have another beer and life is good.
After taking a taxi back to the harbor, we go and look for something to do tomorrow. Tour operators do not speak English. In Spanish they tell me a jungle tour is dangerous. Of course it is. That is why we want to do it with a professional guide. We get nowhere. We can hire a taxi and a mannie tomorrow and randomly drive around. The pictures of the natures, the tour operator shows, are nice but what? I am going to translate the 1 on 10 words I understand myself from Spanish in English for Hubby?
Guys and girls, you have NO idea how hot it is. To my surprise Dr T thinks I stand it much better than him. Me? Being from Belgium? Even the locals have a towel. All the time. To wipe their sweat. I do not notice it sometimes, till the sweat drips in my eyes, you are soaked all the time.
We go back to our A/C room and Dr T takes a nap. We go back downtown, look on internet, for what to do tomorrow. I want to DO something in Guatemala. And the next day, a new country, a new hotel, a new adventure. We enjoy it. Also because we know, we know in a couple of weeks, we go to Jamaica, to 'our' resort. But you will hear in due time.
For now, I have to wake up hubby and drag him to downtown. We still follow the same rule: NOT going out on our own, even not the big, muscled, hairy Tomcat.
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