I got up early and set about trying to find some breakfast.
This was not easy... It turns out that I am now getting up in the morning well before any of the shops are opening. I´m not sure if this is me getting up really early or just the locals starting their days really late. The end result was that I simply abandoned the idea and just loaded up the bike and headed out of town. I stopped on the highway after about half an hour and got some milk and cookies from a little roadside store.
I got to the boarder at about 8:30am and found that it all went smoothly. It was actually easier than the Mexico boarder and much cheaper (cost about a total of $10). I got a 40 day visa though I only really have plans for two or three weeks here.
Then I set about waiting for Teryk to show up as the heat of the day started to settle in on the boarder town.
The town of Mesilla is a lively little place with the main road being completely lined for about a km from the boarder with every kind of little shop selling "stuff" that you can think of... Obviously there is quite a cross-boarder shopping habit here.
It took a couple of hours, but Teryk did show up at about noon with another rider (Maria) who also had some boarder issues to deal with. It took a bit over an hour for them to get sorted out and then we had a chat and it was decided that we would all head back to where they had come from, which was a small village on the shores of Lake Atitlan (One of about four places on my list of things to see in Guatemala).
We headed off and I followed them (while nursing my clutch and trying to keep up).
The journey was going to take about four hours and I was happy to follow along and not worry about the navigating. My initial impressions are that Guatemala is in fact more wealthy than Mexico.- Most of the vehicles on the roads are newer and in better condition than in southern Mexico. All the public works equipment (dozers, trucks, and diggers etc) are far cleaner and in better condition. The villages are neater and the roads are all paved and seemed in very good condition - not much dirt here (that I have seen yet anyway). There are also far more villages and lots more traffic than most of Mexico. This is only my first day here but this is how it seems.
I´ve thought about it a bit more though and it is probably partially due to the size of the country - it is very small. So small in fact that if I fully unfold the map, I would use up about half the countryside!... OK, a bit of an exaggeration but you get the point. It would only take two days to ride the length or breadth of the country. So, I think the apparent wealth of the place is more a product of not having to spread the money over the very large size of a country like Mexico. I also figure that the better road paving is probably a product of the high rainfalls that must fall here (the whole place is jungle and mountains and gorges). If the roads are to last more than a year or so they must be well made and have good drainage systems. So that at least partially explains things. I note also that there are still lots of people around who appear to be dirt poor as well, and the buses here are more like converted school buses rather than the big coaches of Mexico - Probably also due to the smaller distances traveled here.
Anyway, we rode on for a few hours but there was lots of road work on the highway and we were not going to make our destination before dark. So we turned off and headed into a small city (the second largest in the country) and then found a place to stay for the night.
A good day.
