My escape from Guatemala City went more or less as planned. Depending on where you want to go you need to choose the accurate bus station. For most destinations it would probably be a place called Trebol. It is a busy intersection with many bus stops around. It is hence needed to ask somebody where to go as it is typical Guatemalan chaos.
I did a mistake of not asking first and just wandering around what looks more like an open market than a bus station. After three times of turning around I asked a guy selling tickets to city's public transport. He pointed me the right direction and I was out for an adventure. My first Chicken bus ride ever!
For those that never experienced this rather scary way of transportation let me assure you - it is fun. There are always two operators. The driver and his assistant selling tickets and helping passengers to catch their connecting bus. Chicken buses are old Canadian school buses converted into colorful beasts cruising the local countryside. If the driver is crazy enough it is a true roller coaster.
I have shared the ride with Ritu - an Indian traveler. She told me that Indian buses are much worse, so she was enjoying the ride while I was new to this horror. The driver was overtaking trucks and other cars in unholy fashion. We were bouncing from one side of the seat to the other and our butts were receiving proper massage all the way.
In about two hours we have reached Antigua and separated our ways as both of us booked different accommodation.
We have reunited after our check ins and went to explore the city. Rita actually contacted somebody via couch surfing so her friend joined us with a rather funky looking bicycle. He was a cool guy and we were happy to have a local to show us around. There are many historical highlights to visit in Antigua.
The main tourist attraction has to be El arco de Santa Catalina - where we all have actually met. It is the main pedestrian street with artists, street vendors and hordes of tourists taking selfies.
Next of we were to the main square with a tiny little park. I took some of the finest pics of the day there...
If you're wandering about what is the weird dish on the last picture - it's famous Pepian. Local "brown sauce" with chicken, rice, some exotic potato usually served with few tortillas on the side. Good stuff!!!
Before we were able to finish our food it started raining heavy. Guatemala is one of those places where if it rains it is a real shower. So we have split our group again depending on who had raincoat and who didn't. I was in the second and so me and Rita continued the exploration of the local market.
Even though it looks very colorful and diverse after a while one realizes they have almost the same products at every corner...
On the way back to my hostel I have encountered a weird appearance. The water drainage got overrun by the heavy rain and the street turned river. I assume it is not that common, but wouldn't put my arm into fire for it.
Antigua is known for its surrounding volcanoes and I went to bed early to be ready for another adventure...
Sidenote: Travelfeed seemed to delete my scheduled post without publishing it - quite likely after having ten stories stacked in the scheduled category. So just kind reminder to anybody having lot of blogs stacked to be published in the future - keep this in mind so you don't loose your memories and stories.
I had to rewrite this post after two weeks of extensive travel in Guatemala and it surely influenced the vibe of this article a little.
Edit: Travelfeed did not lost my article - it just disappeared for few hours before it was scheduled so here is the original post:
All the best,
Global Local
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
Congratulations @globallocal! You received the biggest smile and some love from TravelFeed! Keep up the amazing blog. 😍 Your post was also chosen as top pick of the day and is now featured on the TravelFeed.io front page.
Thanks for using TravelFeed!
@for91days (TravelFeed team)
PS: Why not share your blog posts to your family and friends with the convenient sharing buttons on TravelFeed.io?
Hey, my friend used to run a hostel in Antigua. He is from a small village on the island of Ireland!
Small world...
Our football jersey is hanging up on the wall inside 😂⚽
That's great - Small world indeed, I do get these random encounters all the time.
I live in Panama. The chicken buses turn into party buses at night. Or they used to at least. I don't live in Panama City anymore and covid may have changed that.
@choogirl wow thank you for the info. Might head down there to check it out for myself :) Panama is still on my to do list...
Congratulations!
✅ Good job. Your post has been appreciated and has received support from CHESS BROTHERS ♔ 💪
♟ We invite you to use our hashtag #chessbrothers and learn more about us.
♟♟ You can also reach us on our Discord server and promote your posts there.
♟♟♟ Consider joining our curation trail so we work as a team and you get rewards automatically.
♞♟ Check out our @chessbrotherspro account to learn about the curation process carried out daily by our team.
🏅 If you want to earn profits with your HP delegation and support our project, we invite you to join the Master Investor plan. Here you can learn how to do it.
Kindly
The CHESS BROTHERS team
So cool! I spend 3 months in Central America earlier this year, Antigua was my first stop and I loved it. I ate so many delicious tostadas, from the cheap, basic ones with Guacamole or beans at the market to the fancy ones at La Merced church where they stack several layers of different toppings. Did you climb Acatenango? Are you still in Guatemala?
Sorry that you ran into issues with your scheduled post. Scheduled posts should be visible in the "scheduled" tab under drafts before they are published and are moved to "published" after they have been published, if there is any issue they should remain in "scheduled". In theory, there should be no way for a draft to get deleted during the scheduling process. If you run into any issue again, send me a message. Discord is the fastest https://discord.gg/jWWu73H or https://travelfeed.io/about/contact or leave a reply
Hey @JPPhotography. Food is great in Guatemala for sure and it didn't hurt my wallet too :) I skipped Acatenango for a different one in Xela - will post about it soon... now after not being allowed to enter Mexico I am in Colombia.
To the issue with posting: It wasn't any error probably, however around an hour or two before before the article was scheduled - it was no longer visible in scheduled page - that made me rewrite it on the spot again not to lose my continuity - few hours later the post appeared as posted... So it wasn't lost but wasn't visible for few hours anywhere... Thanks for your care
Oh nice, I really enjoyed some shorter hikes that I did with my Couchsurfing host in Xela, we hiked up to Siete Orejas.
Why would Mexico not let you in? Curious to read that story!