Archive for Transportation
Tapachula to Antigua
Posted by: | CommentsAfter smoking all my cigars, finishing ‘Guns, Germs and Steel‘ and getting deep into ‘The Epic of Latin America” (book review to come), I decided it was time to make the return trip home. Casa Mexicana will definitely be the site of future vacations, with great food (regrettably only for breakfast), a tranquil environment and five star staff for only 600 pesos a night. Each of the guest rooms is named after a famous Mexican woman (I got Frida Kahlo), and is well appointed.
I did have some recommendations for the owners, including:
- Free tequila between lunch and dinner for those smoking cigars poolside
- Free massages for guests who stay more than one night
- Name a room for Salma Hayek or Ana de la Reguera instead of one of Mexico’s most prominent communist activists
But otherwise no complaints.
A taxi driver who couldn’t understand a word of “Autobus por favor” or “La camioneta por favor” or “Tengo que regresar a Guatemala en uno de los grandes autobuses” eventually got me back to the bus station where the same senoritas as before giggled at me and confirmed my seat on the upper deck of the Transgalgos bus, “donde no se sentará cerca de enojados, los niños cansados, con hambre o de otra manera desagradable” . It was right on time (30 minutes late) and we sped to the border in air conditioned comfort.
Going south is a lot easier than going north. Apparently no one cares about who or what you smuggle south across the border. The Mexicans stamped my passport-again without looking-and I walked across to the other side where 20 minutes in line and 10Q got me stamped back into the country. The computer network was down, which means my passport was stamped ’sin energia’, so that when I leave the country again and there is no record of my entry into the computer I don’t get (too much of) a hassle about my most recent travel. They never took the bags off the bus or asked me what I was carrying, although everyone in town offered to change currency at absurdly low rates.
On the Guate side I noticed that I could have walked across the bridge south and continued walking and never been stopped by anyone. If I didn’t have a bag, I’m pretty sure you could walk north without being molested or ever setting foot into migracion. In fact, as I glanced down into the river, I noticed lots of people walking back and forth across the barely moving stream. I wondered why we don’t police this border instead of the far longer one a few thousand miles north, but such rational thoughts don’t belong in the field of government service and so I pushed it aside and got back to wondering whether the bus driver would let me off at Escuintla.
You see, this bus goes from Tapachula to Guate, but my house is only about 45 mintues from Tapachula, which could save me an hour or more, so I had asked the clerks, the piloto and the stewardess if they would let me get off at Sarita in Escuintla. They all assured me yes, and sure enough about 5 hours later they pulled to the side of the road and the stewardess climbed into the belly of the bus to pull out my luggage (in the future I’ll see that my bag is the last one into the luggage compartment). She declined my offer of a tip and the bus sped away.
Sarita is popular chain of restaurants that target strategic intersections around the country. It’s the same company of ice cream fame here. It’s similar to a family restaurant in the states, which means the food and service are average and children are plentiful. A short time later Santiago picked me up and my journey was complete.
Some trip costs for you obsessive types:
Two Cuban cigars in Antigua: 160Q
Shuttle to city: 80Q
Internet use at bus station: 5Q for 15 minutes
Bus to Tapachula: 160Q
Late fee at Guate migracion: 10Q per day
Fee to boy to drag bag 200 meters: 5 pesos
Cost to enter Mexico for solo tres dias: 0 pesos
Tip for old man unloading bag in Tapachula: 5 pesos
Taxi to hotel: 250 pesos
One night at Loma Real: 1000 pesos
Fajitas and beer at Loma Real: 225 pesos
Taxi to Casa Mexicana: 250 pesos
Bottle of El Jimeador Tequila: 130 pesos
One night at Casa Mexicana: 600 pesos
Taxi back to bus station: 250 pesos
Bus ticket back to Guate: 245 pesos
Money that disappeared on food, alcohol and misc: 800 pesos
Learning how things really work at the border and making friends with El Jefe de Migracion: priceless
Antigua to Tapachula & Border Crossing
Posted by: | CommentsI had some urgent business in Mexico recently and thought some of my experiences might be illuminating for other travelers. I didn’t want to drive myself, enjoying instead the comfort of the first class bus system in Central America. Not only are these buses not Chicken Buses, they’re closer to first class airline seating.
Unfortunately, there are no bus stations in Antigua, so you have to get to the capital to catch one of the buses. Tica Bus is the only one with a functioning website, but TransGalgos is a great option as well (you can buy a ticket through most travel agencies in Antigua). I rode TicaBus from the capital to Tapachula at a cost of about $20. The buses have TV, cold AC and a bathroom. It’s a comfortable ride and I use it to catch up on iPod listening and book reading.
It takes about six hours to get to the border. Once there you need to exit the bus and get your exit stamp from Guatemalan migracion. Migracion officials use a computer network that is tied into a central database in the capital so they know quickly whether you have overstayed your visa. The computer system also populates all the fields so there is no paperwork to complete. If everything is good, you’ll get your exit stamp and you’re on your way. If you’re late it’s 10Q per person per day. I’ve never been asked for a bribe by Guatemalan migracion officials.
Once you’re done at Guate migracion, you walk north across the bridge. The tour buses pull forward beforehand and unload all the luggage, so you can carry it through Mexican migration. I have found the Mexican officials to be generally less hospitable than the Guatemalan side. However, if you explain that you are only visiting Tapachula and not going further into the country and that you are only staying for three days, then you can avoid the normal hassle and ‘fees’ that average about $20 per person to enter. In my case a simple, “Papa buenas tardes, estoy visitando a Tapachula para tres días y luego vuelvo a la tierra de los chapines” and he stamped a random page without even looking to see if it was my passport and then started hassling some Salvadorean behind me.
Then the fun begins. Your tour bus operator will greet you outside migracion and instruct you to drag your bags through migracion. I was stopped immediately, although I noticed all of the darker skin folk were waved through. The grumpy senora made a cursory check of my checked bag and then waved me on.
A few meters further down the corridor another grumpy senora stopped me and instructed me to push a button on a traffic light looking device, whereupon the light flashed red, the word ‘random’ began to blink and a buzzer went off in a back office. Two additional grumpy migracion officials exited and escorted me to a table which, while still outside, was not entirely in view of any other passengers.
Was it my stash of cigars de Havana that set off the alarms? The book I had just checked out of the American Legion library in Antigua “Guns, Germs & Steel”? Had the stewardess on the bus related my disappointment to the migracion officials that they served only coffee and soda and not tequila on the bus ride north?
Whatever it was I watched while they rifled through my checked bag while dozens more locals streamed past unmolested. Apparently the randomness of the searches is limited to those exceeding 200lbs and/or 6 feet in height. Finding nothing too objectionable (I did invite the senora to join me in Tapachula to give me a masaje, which she didn’t find amusing but the two hombres did), they waved me on, and I returned to the glorious air conditioned environment of the bus, finding the driver much relieved that he had not lost a passenger in migracion.
Thirty minutes later we were in Tapachula, where the senoritas were much more pleasant. I asked the girls behind the counter how much a taxi should cost me to Loma Real, and when they responded “250 pesos” I asked, “Esta el gringo precio or normal?”, whereupon they both giggled and insisted it was the normal price.
250 pesos later I found myself at the Loma Real front desk where another senorita giggled constantly at my Spanish and booked me into a 1000 peso a night room which she assured me was perfect. The pool looked inviting, the exercise room was functional if spartan, and the restaurant had a great menu. More on Loma Real tomorrow, but a few observations on Day 1 in Mexico:
- Tapachula is hot. It’s Escuintla x 150%
- Mexican Spanish is different from Guatemalan Spanish. Simple sentences were difficult to understand or be understood.
- I heard more honking on the way from the bus station to Loma Real than I have heard in Guate in 16 months. Mexicans are in a hurry and watch the green light like hawks (the red light not so much).
- Most things appeared to be cheaper in Tapachula than in Guate, from the price of food to the taxi and the alcohol.
- I didn’t see ANY dogs
Day 2 tomorrow.
The TicaBus lobby is clean, comfortable and has a cafe with internet access.
Of Land and Cars
Posted by: | CommentsGreg over at Project Somos shares a few anecdotes to life in Guate that you won´t want to miss. Here are the highlights:
It seems, through lack of communication or something that the property just became smaller. No legal description was included in the offer to purchase, only the total amount of land, so now the volunteers found out that the one boundary is somewhere between 6 and 30 feet closer from where they were originally shown it was. Oops. The conversation went relatively well and three of the Guatemalan Board, and Dennis set off to actually measure the boundary to find out if it is 6 or perhaps 30 feet in from hedge that borders the property. This type of omission of accurate information does occur here and I do hope they are able to resolve their differing positions.
Just be sure you get a title. And it´s valid. And the person selling the property really owns it. And the person who owns it hasn´t acquired the property by squatting. And that no one else has ever squatted on it, because if so, they have a right to it.
I like driving in Guatemala. There are none of the frivolous and fancy things like speed limits, or actually any highway regulations to stop one from driving like it is a video game. The only difference from a video game is that here on thehighway there is no rest button and you die. Wrecks are common and deadly. Lots of obstacles like animals, boulders in the road, landslides, many times cars in the oncoming lane passing on blind curves and suddenly they are in your lane. Wow, this is almost fun.
Then there are the chicken buses -turbo charged diesel converted school buses driven by men with an overt death wish or drivers that believe they are invincible because they have a Jesus decal on their windshield. Whichever the case, I give them lots of room and expect crazy stuff from them. Riding in a chicken bus is like a life and death Disney ride on steroids – going around curves so fast the wheels on one side might as well be off the ground. I included a few road trip pictures to entice you to call your AAA or CAA road club for maps, so you too can make the trip.
It is remarkable given the age and condition of so many vehicles and the rarity of a licensed and trained driver that there aren´t more accidents. It´s not uncommon to see a full chicken bus or a loaded down tractor trailer pass a caravan of jalopies around a curve up a hill into ongoing traffic. Nobody here even responds; there is no honking, lights blinking or road rage, they just move over and keep driving. Amazing.
Hall of Fame #1
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve decided to create a category and page on this blog to identify those businesses with whom I’ve had a great experience with. One or more of you have already recommended that I setup a forum-style feedback system, but that will have to wait.
A few days ago Senora Fraulein Benz suffered a setbac, viz., the transmission simply stopped working. I suspect she was jealous of all the attention the oil pan had been receiving recently and wanted to remind me of just how special and important she really is. So, I found myself on the highway towards Alotenango in the late afternoon and with few options.
The normally reliable Gunther said he was in the middle of a big project, something about a truck with a broken axle, two men and some cattle, and couldn’t help. Thankfully he called back with the number of a guy who he said was the best tow truck in Antigua and wasn’t “too expensive”.
I know from previous quotes that a tow across Antigua can run 400Q, and being on the road south of Ciudad Vieja and getting to 1st Ave and 4th Calle in Antigua was likely to be expenisve. So I called and I could almost hear the cash register ring when I told him the make and model of the car. (Nobody ever understands Senora Fraulein Benz, BTW).
An hour later a brand new tow truck arrived and the guy made a quick evaluation and then started prepping the car. The guy was a real pro, doing it just like AAA in the states and within 5 minutes Fraulein was securely fashioned to the tow truck. I really wanted to ask him for a ride home and start drinking, but I resisted the temptation and thought it might be best to ride with him to Gunther’s, lest someone in Zone 3 inherit a Benz with no tranny.
Once at Gunther’s the hombre expertly positioned Fraulein between the other cars on life support and I asked the dreaded…”Cuanto Cuesta?” He pursed his lips, squinted and cocked his head in that way locals do when they’re trying to work the math for the gringo formula, i.e., ‘normal price x 3.5′. I took a deep breath and was about to say, “Estoy buen amigo de Gunther, por favor, no queiro el gringo precio” when he beat me to it and said, “160″.
I had to ask him to repeat it, which is normally a mistake since the second price is always higher, but he repeated it slowly for me, “un cien y seisenta” followed by “Quiere factura?”
So I gave him a nice tip, and he gave me his business card, so put this guy in your cell phone and tell him “Mi amigo Don Marco con el Mercedes me dijo que me llame.”
One of My Business Ideas
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve had a lot of business ideas since getting here and there is no doubt in my mind there are lots of opportunities for people from North America and Europe to bring their education and business experience here and start some great little businesses. There are challenges, for sure, but as I often explain to visitors, it is very much like having a time machine when coming to live in Guatemala.
I noticed a year ago how many bicycles there are in and around Antigua. There are obviously a large number of people who can’t afford a car or motorcycle and need more flexibility or range of transportation than a chicken bus will provide. In the mornings and late afternoons you will see dozens of cyclists going to or returning home from work, and a lot of the ‘handymen’ who get around town use bicycles (although it is extremely rare to see a female on a bike).
Depending on where you live in the valley, riding a bicycle could be a real workout. Even getting out to San Pedro las Huertas on a bike is an exercise, let alone getting to San Juan del Obispo (for those of you who lack the geographic familiarity, we’re talking about biking further and further up the small hill to the south of town known to some as Volcan Agua). I remembered how in Asia people have started putting tiny little engines on bicycles to supplement the power produced by pedaling, and it occurred to me that Guatemala is a perfect market for this kind of product.
Well, Rudy has posted a picture of this kind of adaption right here in Antigua. (I’d share the pic here but he’s sensitive about that).
One of the leaders of this movement in the US is a company called Spooky Tooth Cycles. I did some research with them when I was exploring this idea almost a year ago. I chose not to pursue this, but I think there is a great market for someone to setup shop in Antigua or a nearby town, import the parts from China, and install and service these things. By my highly scientific count (standing on a street corner with a drink and counting for 10 minutes), there are approximately 7 times as many bicycles on the roads as motorcycles, and 3 times as many motorcycles as cars, which indicates to me there is a huge gap to be filled between bicycles and motorcycles.
When you consider how many families try to use a bicycle to get around and how many people are carrying lumber, vegetables, tools, garbage and construction materials on their bicycles, having a motorized supplement could be a great benefit.
P.S. When you start your company don’t forget to pencil me in for 5% of the equity.
I Love Antigua, Reason #118
Posted by: | CommentsTwo weeks ago I was out with The Wife when a tumulo scraped unusually hard and a block or two later the oil level light came on. Readers may remember that this old Mercedes has had a few run-ins with tumulos before. Knowing the car was losing oil quickly, I had to make a quick decision and so drove the wrong way on 7th Avenue in order to park the car in front of a friend’s apartment, where it sat until Gunther could tow it to his place (the gas station on 4th Calle at 1st Avenue).
It turns out the most recent ‘cold weld’ repair to the oil pan was just too fragile for the tough streets of Antigua. This time around I asked Gunther to take a few additional preventive steps, which included new shocks on the front end, plus what he called some ’spacers’ which he would insert in the springs on the front axle. I’m not a car guy, but I understood the idea would be to lift the delicate parts of the underbelly of the car about an inch higher off the ground, and the shocks would hopefully keep the old girl from bottoming out.
I had also mentioned to Gunther that the brakes were shaking a little at high speed and asked him to investigate.
Well, it took two full weeks, but here was the itemization:
1. New front shocks
2. Spacers in the springs to ‘lift’ the car slightly
3. Turned the discs
4. New weld on the oil pan
5. Tow across town
And the bill came to Q2500. It was hard to complain that it had taken longer than I thought it should have.
I have since had a steel skid plate designed and will hopefully have installed within a few days. That will show those tumulos! And, instead of bringing another Mercedes down, my next car will be a Range Rover and I’ll ride those tumulos with pleasure.
Next time you need your car worked on, don’t hesitate to call Gunther’s at 7832-0215, and tell him Don Marco sent you.
Tipico Mentirosos
Posted by: | CommentsLast November I ordered some stuff in the US for Christmas and sent it to a freight forwarder in Miami to have delivered to Puerto Barrios. Shipments normally take 7-10 days to arrive, then are brought to the capital where customers pay a pro-rata charge of the total container cost. It’s a good way to get things here without a great deal of expense or red tape; you don’t have to deal with customs, you just pay the freight company a % of the total cost based on volume and you drive away with your goods.
Well, the week before Christmas, Santiago and I were on the phone daily checking on the status of the container. You single guys can’t imagine the stress level when you’re a few days before Christmas and the important items are weeks behind and somewhere between Miami and Guatemala City.
Well, on the 22nd we were told the stuff would be in Zone 1 that afternoon, so I worked things out to be gone for the afternoon. Turns out the stuff didn’t arrive that afternoon. The next day we were told it would be in the capital the following morning, the 24th. On the morning of the 24th we were told it was not in the capital and they didn’t know when it would be. You can imagine my response. Instead of knowing on the 22nd that I wasn’t going to have important Christmas gifts, I found myself on Christmas Eve not having them. What is Christmas without a bunch of gifts? I mean, don’t these guys realize what Christmas is all about?
So anyway, a lot of time, money and stress went into Christmas Eve…’tis the reason for the season, but we got by. I assumed that the container had simply gotten to Puerto Barrios too close to Christmas and nobody wanted to work, and so it would be after January 6 (Epiphany), before we could get anything.
Well, while this may be Guatemala’s most accurate blog, but even I wouldn’t have given odds on the goods actually being available on January 6th. However, sure enough we got a call on the morning of the 6th from the transport company saying our goods were in the warehouse and we could pick them up after lunch (that’s 3pm).
Anticipating the amount of cargo, Santiago and I drove separately to the capital, where we discovered Anillo Periferico blocked off, resulting in unbelievable chaos and traffic on Roosevelt and all ancillary calles. I suggested Trebol but Santiago chose Bolivar Ave and eventually we arrived at a warehouse in Zone 1 and were let inside.
The guy with the clipboard declared that he had the complete manifest and our names and items were not on it, and therefore, he did not have the items. Santiago’s response reminded me of Fuego the other night when the Wife and I were returning from a night out…even though Fuego was completely shrouded in clouds you could see a red glow at the top. Only, Santiago angry reminds me of the way Captain Jack Sparrow moves around when under stress.
Anyway, I only caught every third word, but he was explaining how we had been called that morning and told to come down, how the two of us had driven from Antigua, how we had brought two cars, how these things had been in Miami more than six weeks before…and the guy’s response was, “Well, here’s the list, check for yourself”.
Eventually we found a few of the boxes, things belonging to Mrs. Santiago, so that took some of the pressure off him, but the rest of his shipment and all of my stuff were still MIA. (For those of you in San Pedro La Laguna, that’s ‘Missing In Action’). A few more phone calls and lots of strong questioning revealed that our stuff wasn’t even in the capital. It was still in Puerto Barrios, or so someone claimed.
There was no explanation for why, after all these weeks of stonewalling, we would have been told the items were in the warehouse and waiting for us. There was no explanation for why some stuff was in the capital and some was in the Port, when they all came on the same container. There were no explanations for anything. Humorously, one woman said, “But they’ll be here tomorrow, just come back.”
We did get an interesting explanation of how this whole process works, why there is no red tape, where some of the glitches can occur, what paperwork you might want to have ready if you are transporting say, a whole truckload of plasma TVs, and some other interesting tidbits that help explain why 80% of this economy operates underground-or as one of my Chapin friends calls it, ‘informal’, but I wouldn’t have driven to the capital for that lesson, or at least, I would have coupled it with a trip to Pricesmart or something.
On the one hand, I was really…disappointed that I had just blown an afternoon when we had been lied to all along. On the other hand, how could I really be surprised? This is the MO (Modus Operandi) here; people lie regularly and even when it’s not necessary. I’ve been waiting for my stuff for six weeks, they could have easily said it would be another week and it wouldn’t have mattered now, but they called us and told us to come to the capital when the stuff wasn’t even there. Can you imagine driving from Coban or Xela to pick stuff up and finding out it wasn’t there to begin with? I’m beginning to understand one element of the high murder rate here…
Manana…yeah right. Here’s my address, amigo, deliver it to Antigua and I’ll think about paying the agreed upon fee.
Strange Things Seen in Guate #6
Posted by: | CommentsMy daughter tells me her favorite boy band (Jonas Brothers) has a song called “Hold On“. I snapped the first pic on the highway to Ciudad Vieja, at about 90 km/hr. The second one was when we got into town.
I backed off after taking this; at 90km/hr I wouldn't have time to swerve.
I didn't realize until seeing this pic that they were all trying to cover their faces.
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