14 to 16 May 2017 - Antigua (Guatemala)

The last few days of my holiday were spent in Antigua with only the second day of rain in the past nearly five months. It was more damp than rain and did not stop my wandering about the place. I went for a haircut one day but was told it would cost me £9 ($8) which I considered far too much for the likes of Antigua so I went by a ‘chicken bus’ to the village of San Antonio where a haircut cost me £1 and the bus fare 80p ($2 total). ‘Chicken’ buses are American school buses have been in use for ten years when they are  auctioned off. Many are bought and driven down through Mexico to Guatemala where they are completely overhauled and used for local transport. The ‘chicken’ word could mean that live chickens are carried on the buses or that people are packed in like chickens. I was told that they were completely overhauled with new engines, transmission and brake systems, all suitable for the roads and mountains of Guatemala. There seems to be a love-hate relationship with these buses by tourists and the more well off locals as many people consider them to be a dangerous way to travel but all I can say was the two trips I did on them caused me no concern. I rode similar buses in South America and did not think anything about them until I read what was written about the chicken buses.

Chicken buses at the bus station

                                               

On the morning of 16 May I was picked up by a minibus for the hour or so drive to Guatemala City Airport. The flights to the UK necessated a change of planes at Miami where I had to go through immigration as there was no transit lounge there (at least my bags were booked through to London). When I presented my passport at immigration I was taken out of line and into a back office, I think because I did not have an ‘ESTA,’ the on-line visa. I did apply for this before leaving the UK but it was refused as I had visited Iran and Pakistan a few years before. The result was that I had to go to London for an ‘interview’ then issued with a full 10 year visa stuck into my passport. There were about twenty people in the back room but I was only there about 10 minutes then escorted back to the normal area where I waited for the flight to London. The immigration staff were polite, the delay minimal and the three second body scan a novelty. The flight to London was uneventful and thus ended another very enjoyable holiday.