The Roads

To put it bluntly, I find the roads here quite terrifying. Since I can remember I’ve had a fear of driving up winding roads through mountains, particularly in developing countries. I actually thought this trip I was getting better. Until I got to Guatemala.

While the scenery is spectacular, the narrow, winding roads tend to remove any sense of pleasure for me. On the four chicken buses I had to take from Antigua to Panajachel, most of the way was like a game of corners. No joke! One bus in particular went as fast as it possibly could, not even braking for tight corners. People were being flung off their seats into the aisle – that happened more than once. I was just relieved to find my backpack had not been flung off the top of the bus along the way.

And if that’s not bad enough, landslides in the rainy season are pretty much a daily occurrence somewhere near here. I thought they only happened in really bad conditions like Hurricane Stan a few years ago which, sadly, buried a village killing over 200 people near Santiago La Laguna. Not the case. I’m hearing stories almost daily now of a landslide affecting a road to somewhere or other. They do get cleared up in a day or so, depending on the severity, and there aren’t usually any fatalities involved, thankfully. It’s just bloody scary.

Yesterday in yoga one of the local expats was saying how last week she had to see a doctor in the city and on her way back there had been a landslide on the road from Solola to Panajachel. I took this road the day before it happened. So the bus from Solola, which was meant to go to Panajachel (only 8kms away), took them to San Jorge and just dumped everyone out there. They had to walk for over three hours, in driving rain, along an old muddy indigenous path to get to Panajachel to get the lancha (boat) home. She finally arrived home at about 7 o’clock that evening, covered in mud and soaking wet. And she is 61 years old.

I’m now thinking that after here I’ll go to Xela for a little while then head up to Mexico, returning here when, hopefully, conditions are a little better.