I guess my Central American trip is to teach me to be patient and to embrace the present moment. Otherwise I can't explain it to myself. I was so done with all the chicken buses I have taken already to move from point A to B that when rejected at Mexican border I almost cried knowing I will have to travel with them again.
That being said few days later I embarked on the craziest one day journey ever. I knew it will be more than five buses and a boat, but it turned out to be more like seven, a tuk-tuk and a boat ride...
What is more "loco" is that a direct shuttle would take me to my destination for the same price, faster and safer. But I was hungry for adventure. I choose to take the uncertain way. The chicken bus way... Damn at some point I was the only passenger with another guy with a gun at his belt. And he wasn't a police officer for sure!
I have tried to take a photo from every transportation I have taken to remember how many times I had to change the bus or minivan to be precise. A big mistake was not taking a boat at the Lake Attitlan. That would surely save me lot of time as there was a construction going on.
Each minibus was getting bigger and bigger as I was getting closer to important crossroads or cities. Every ride was on average around forty minutes and the waiting time for another one was just enough for a short toilet break or a small snack. Sometime not even that - running from one bus to another while both were still moving slowly...
Last part of the journey involved taking tuk-tuk and a small boat. That was the most enjoyable part of the whole trip. I knew I am almost there and started to enjoy the ride finally.
The absolute highlight had to be the boat ride through meander of river Acome. I was again perceived as a lonely gringo and I have heard jokes directed my way from the other passengers which were "Guatemaltecos".
Payed my last 20 Quetzals when reached the shores of El Paredon and was free to go and find my surf camp.
It was closet for construction. Typical - one can't really travel without using some form of booking anymore. It is a risk you don't want to take. I was lucky and find an ideal place for me in Driftwood hostel. But hey - four dollars more expensive than first planned. That is the way of a traveler these days. The hostel was also not anything I was looking for. Party hostel full of annoying half drunken Brits... But it's location was top notch - right at the beach and they rented surfboards as well. 150 Quetzals for 24 hours is a good deal for Central America.
I had two days to spend here so surfing one afternoon and next morning was the plan. Waves in El Paredon are big and they break quite randomly even though there are three official breakpoints it is hard to navigate and definitely for experienced riders. I am somewhere in the middle - intermediate I guess. So it was great training and adventure for me. I have made it behind the waves to wait for the right one to try to ride it. That is simply how surfing works - I know, but it is easier said than done. When I was watching the waves breaking around me I thought wow where the heck am I...
Than a set of them came and I did almost scored one of them right, for about three seconds I must have been on it :)
But it was the first wave of a big set, I have positioned myself for another one - already a bigger one, which was breaking quite everywhere. One of those waves surfers who know - don't take. Not my case though. So I was taught a lesson and splashed back to the beach in no time. That was it for my energy and muscle power and I had to give up. Next day was a similar story...
In the rest of my time in between of surfing I was running around the beach looking for drift coconuts. They are not as good as the green ones on the trees but are easy to find and quite frankly there are usually lot of mosquitoes in the forests around El Paredon as it is the river delta here. I tried there as well...
Last evening we have experienced what has to be the best storm I have ever seen. Stuck in a little beach structure with hammocks rain and wind was at first hammering us from all the sides imaginable. But later the storm calmed down a little and it become a theater of lightnings and thunders.
All of us who dared to stay and did not chickened out into the concrete buildings had the pleasure to experience this awesome natural phenomenon. As it sometimes is the highlight marks the end of one episode and it is absolutely the case here. My days in El Paredon were numbered from here on. I had to be moving closer to the capital - where a flight awaits me as that was the only escape road now possible knowing the land border to Mexico is closed for me...
All the best,
Global Local