Yesterday we decided to head to Guatemala City. My flight at that point was not actually canceled and I had to be in the capital to visit the immigration offices due to my illegal status having overstayed my 90 day visa by a week or so. Since my next entrance will be in the capacity of student leader, I figured I best not have immigration issues.

We sat at the gas station outside our barrio waiting for a Guate-bound bus, but it was taking a long time. Finally a bus driver said, Silly folks there ain’t no buses to Guate right now! But we kept waiting because, well, in Guatemala, someone’s always going somewhere. So finally a rogue bus flew by advertising Guate! but it was not written on front like it usually is.

We boarded with the rest of the adventuresome people and cruised out toward the highway listening to the loudest reggaeton music ever played on a bus. The girl next to me said, I hope there’s passage – we might be walking. I laughed and shrugged.

We made it to one point in the highway where there was a huge line of cars. Settling in for a long wait, I was surprised, but then not really, when the bus driver was like, Screw This! and took off past the line of cars and trucks on the opposite side of the road. At this point we had been traveling weaving between different lanes because there were in fact large landslides covering half the road, but the other side still passable, just negotiating with oncoming traffic – but this being Sunday and post-disaster, there were few cars.

After rolling past the long line it became apparent our bus driver was a smart little cookie – phone in one hand, driving with the other but knowing that the road was actually clear. The people waiting were just….waiting.

But finally we got to a major line and everyone started yelling, Ok end of the line! This was not terribly surprising so we grabbed our stuff and starting walking. There were miles of cars lined up headed south but finally we got to the problem – a huge landslide covering both sides of the highway. HUGE! Mud and water and fallen trees and, of course, about 100 local onlookers. We hiked across the huge landslide and all I could think was “This is so against the rules in Peace Corps!” I’m pretty sure there’s a call out to all Peace Corps Volunteers to not leave their sites and here I am doing what I know I would not be advised to do. We made it to the other side of the landslide – huge – and found a pickup heading to the next major town, Tecpan. But we encountered yet another landslide. Impassable. So we got out again and walked.

Now it is dark and we are traveling like a small pack, most of the people from the initial bus ride. There are 2 girls from way north in Huehuetenango, a lady with a baby and her mom, some young guys, and a cross-eyed dead ringer for Gael Garcia Bernal. We walk in the night over broken highway, mud, and rushing water. Then we find a guy offering a ride to Tecpan in his old SUV. The 2 girls from Huehue look at me before accepting this nighttime ride. When I accept, they accept. I’m so grateful that Andres was with me, otherwise I would have been freaked out through all this.

We ride along in the night, 15 people in this old SUV! Like Mary Poppin’s bag we were stuffed in there. We came up to a spot where we could not have passed on foot, the water was rushing and so deep. We crossed in the truck and kept going. We arrived at the major stop on the highway that is the entrance to Tecpan. We all got out of the truck and asked the driver, Will there be a bus? He responds, Yeah at 6:45pm! Oh great. Then we all look at our watches. It’s 7:30pm. So now our little crew of 15 is waiting on the highway but nothing passes, at least nothing going to Guatemala City which is still at least an hour away.

Because I’m with actual Guatemalans we snag a ride. Someone waves down a passing pickup and we do a group negotiation. We all agree to pay Q25 each and the driver will haul us to the capital. So we all pile into the pack of a pickup. 14 of us because when we got on all the men yelled “the señora rides inside!” (the lady with the baby). So the rest of us piled in the back and braced for a chilly ride out of the mountains and into the capital. Everyone started snuggling up to everyone else and swapping stories. One guy started talking on his phone in Q’anjob’al and Andres whispered to me, I totally understand what he’s saying (Q’anjob’al is probably the Maya language most like Concepcion Huista’s Popti’).

After some time it became apparent that we were incredibly lucky. At no point in our travels did it rain. We could have easily been doused with heavy rain or had to navigate those slides in bad conditions – but it was all pretty nice outside, just misty and cloudy.

I was feeling rather proud of this trip, imagining in my head I was part of some kind of Guatemalan camaraderie. We were entering the city, swooping down through the dark passes toward the hazy city light all huddled together probably thinking about who was waiting for us at our destinations.

We finally got off along the highway entering the city and the señora, baby and mom got off, too. As the pickup pulled away, the men waved back at us in goodbye. I promptly threw up my hand in a proud “goodbye my countrymen” kind of wave and realized they were waving at the señora and her mom who they’d actually had conversations with. Uh, yeah, I actually hadn’t really talked to any of my new friends. The camaraderie was in my head. That’s ok.

So we arrived in the zone 1 of the capital and tried to find food but everything was closed. So we rocked some instant soup and hit the hay.

This morning I woke up ready to confront my immigration problems. After a right-on breakfast of café con leche, toast and eggs, I headed out to zone 4 to sort out whatever had to be sorted out because I’ve overstayed my visa by a week. The migration office is a nice little joint. I knew I wouldn’t be the only overstayer, there was a girl from Spain and a crew of Peruvian women who overstayed their 90 days in Guatemala by 2 months! I’m only talking about a week here. Finally, I was charged a whopping Q70 for my week (at Q10 a day!) and off I went. Because I’m flying out tomorrow (now Wed, I’ll explain) I was just like, Yo I’m leaving tomorrow but I’m a week late – we cool? And they were cool.

Next stop was “la SAT” the Secretary of Administration Tributary (that’s the Spanglish) where my car is registered and technically only allowed 90 days, too.

We went to la SAT in zone 1 but it apparently has been moved. So we grabbed a city bus to zone 10 where there are new SAT offices. I get testy on crowded, hot, gross city buses so I was like, Let’s Walk! So once we reached La Reforma Avenue we walked the rest of the way. I called Delta Airlines to see if my flight was cancelled and indeed it was. So I am rebooked to fly out of San Salvador on Wednesday.

Got to the SAT in zone 10 and, of course, the guard was like, Nah wrong office. You gotta go to zone 7. Fine. Bien. Whatever. So we keep walking. At this point we are hot, sweaty, tired of walking around to find out where to owe money. We take the 40R bus out to Roosevelt Avenue (yeah, it’s called Roosevelt, after the famous Jose Roosevelt haha) and find the SAT office, in a mall. I get in line and get called up to the desk. I start to explain my situation and the woman just looks at me like, Huh? And What? So I re-explain. At this point I’m trying to listen to myself to make sure my Spanish is okay and well, I understand me, so I keep talking… And she keeps being confused. Basically, according to her, I don’t have to leave with my car every 90 days – which is totally against what they told me at the border. This lady was like, Are you the owner? Yes. Are you a car importer? No. So……. And that was that. So I said, Well if I don’t have probs with you people I’m gonna peace out of here. And to that she was like, Peace Out!

After that I treated myself to a taxi ride back to the hotel where I took off my socks and watched Spider Man. Day after tomorrow I will travel early to San Salvador for my flight to Seattle. Here’s hoping I won’t have to hike over landslides.

The situation here after the tropical storm and volcano eruption is pretty nasty. They are saying 109 people have died in Guatemala. Really, the rain was a lot and powerful, but would not do the damage it did here in a place like, Seattle for example. Storms and disasters like this serve to remind of the conditions people live in all the time here… shacks on ground susceptible to be wiped away with heavy rains, roads easily covered and impassable with hard weather, and isolation – people living outside the reaches of disaster aid, totally stuck in their villages underwater. It doesn’t take much to render Guatemala broken again because everything is so weak here.