Today was a travel day from Caye Caulker in Belize up to Flores in Guatemala. I took the 9:30 ferry to Belize City and then waited for my shuttle to Flores at midday. So far so good.
The shuttle was an hour and 9 minutes late which I was told is fairly standard and often wait times can exceed 2 hours. The journey was fine and we reached the border after about 3 hours. The border crossing was very easy and I didn’t get asked any questions at all, just a stamp leaving Belize (and a $20 US exit fee) and a new stamp into Guatemala.
We boarded the new shuttle in Guatemala and waited for it to get going. We waited and then waited some more. Apparently the driver was waiting for some other passengers or something and we remained stationary on the bus for about 2/3 hours on the border… eventually some passengers with me got fed up and decided to walk into the nearest town from the border to find an ATM and get food.
It was at this point the driver decided yep it was time to go (even though no new passengers turned up) but 5 people were in town at the ATM. The driver wanted to leave without them, even though their passports and bags were on the bus but other passengers were telling him to wait. So we drove into the town on a wild goose chase looking for the 5 people that had got into town. Up and down the streets, checking fuel stations and restaurants. The border town seemed quite nice to be fair. The driver was becoming increasingly agitated but after 40 minutes we found the rest of the passengers. Onto Flores we go.
I arrived at my hostel much later than expected and went to an ATM to get Guatemalan currency out. The max was 2000 quetsal which is about $400 AUD. The ATM processed my card, I got the notification on my watch that $400 had been withdrawn all lovely… except the ATM didn’t dispense any cash to me. I tried speaking to my bank which proved difficult seeing as I don’t have a phone number and couldn’t call them. I tried to contact the ATM bank but that was a lost cause. So there wasn’t much I could do.
An expensive first day in Flores indeed.