Getting Around

On this trip we used a variety of vehicles and boats to get aground.  Most were for the tourists, but a few were what the natives used on a daily basis.

Here is our tourist bus.  When we located to a new place, all of the luggage was piled on top and securely tied down.

Where do old school buses go to die?  Central America, of course!  We were told that our buses only have about a 7 year life span, and then they are shipped south to be reconditioned, painted and used as city buses.  The are called "Chicken Buses".  Most of then are very colorful, and each has a woman's name on the front and back.  Here is the bus we rode in Antiqua, Guatemala.

Here is another.

Another was Norma.

Lake Atitlan is fairly large, deep, and has several towns located around its shoreline.  This is the boat that took us on a 1 hour ride to San Juan La Laguna across from where our hotel was located. 

Tuk-tuks were a very popular and cheap way to get around for the locals.  These were near the dock after we got off of the boat, and we rode them to our next destination.  Fun!

Our next stop around the lake was Santiago La Laguna.  This was my first time riding in the back of a pick up truck!  It saved us a long walk up a steep hill in town.

There was a plane involved, too, as we had one internal flight within Guatemala.  Then into Belize where we changed buses.  

I will do a post on our last site in Belize separately, but to get there, we had to take a motor boat on the New River. 

Just for comic relief, here is the armed guard that tailed our bus on the trip from Copan to Antiqua. We were having a rest stop at a convenience store.  He was very serious about his job.

Finally, and armed man guarding a fish store in Guatemala City.

All in all, we used 8 different transportation vehicles, stayed at 7 different hotels, and walked a lot.  I got laid over in Miami on my way home, so I count my hotels at 8.  Wow!  (And I am not counting the vehicle that picked us up at the airport in the beginning, and the one that took us back at the end.)