How to…get in to, around and out of Guatemala

Getting in
Guatemalan immigration is so relaxed that we had to ask for an entry stamp at the Cuauhtemoc/La Mesilla border crossing from Mexico. There was no fee and we just strolled right through. Most tourists don’t need a visa to enter Guatemala and will be given a ninety day tourist stamp on arrival.

We were on a shuttle bus from San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, that dropped us off at the border and transferred us to another bus on the other side where we continued to Panajachel, Lake Atitlan.

Getting around
Shuttle buses are the tourist speciality in Guatemala. The travel agencies know the places that tourists want to go and provide direct buses between them. All the towns we went to (Panajachel, San Pedro del Atitlan, Antigua, Coban, El Remate) had plenty of tourist agencies where you hand over your quetzals and get collected and delivered door to door. The service isn’t quite as efficient as the price would suggest; we found that adding two extra hours onto the quoted journey time was nearer the truth - mañana is a popular word and attitude in Guatemala. The tourist shuttles are easy, but are nowhere near as cheap nor as atmospheric as Guatemala’s famous chicken buses.

Chicken buses are brightly repainted American school buses - old, rickety and polluting - but cheap as chips. Good for short distances, but notoriously painful over long distances - bucket seats, no suspension and black fumes belching in through the windows. They are also considered unsafe by some (including the British Foreign Office who don’t allow their staff to travel on them) as robberies and murders are a possibility. Indeed, the tabloid papers are full of daily reports of bus drivers shot dead in Guatemala City - often because they drove through the wrong zone or didn’t pay their dues to the gang lords. You can take your chances and many people we met had travelled across the whole country on chicken buses without incidence. Anyway, isn’t a tourist bus richer pickings?

Chicken buses are being phased out and already in some parts of the country the only option is between a public minibus or a tourist minibus. Most travel agencies will fix you up with a shuttle bus (minibus) or you can go to the local bus terminal and talk to the drivers until you find the right minibus to your destination - the timetables seem to change regularly.

Large first class coaches plough selected routes. We travelled with Monja Blanca from Guatemala City to Coban on a bus resembling Dukes Travel in the eighties. Not the swish first class bus of Mexican standards but fit for travel. We were joined by a colourful bunch of Guatemalans, some in indigenous huipiles and stripy skirts, many in cowboy hats and one lady with some chickens and vegetables wrapped up in a bundle. Do chickens on a bus make it a chicken bus?

We were fortunate and travelled across Guatemala safely, as did all the other travellers we met.

Getting out
We took a shuttle bus from El Remate to Belize City passing through the Melchor de Menchos border crossing - the only land crossing between Guatemala and Belize. We were stamped out of Guatemala and asked to pay a twenty quetzals fee (£1.80). This is, apparently, a municipal fee to fix the muddy, potholed road that, apparently, “the tourist chew up”. When I challenged the charge, having been told that there should be no fee entering or leaving Guatemala, we were told that it was “nothing illegal” although, conveniently, the chap in charge of producing receipts was having a day off. The road really did need fixing though.

The entry to Belize was easy and efficient. British citizens get a one-month tourist stamp on arrival. We were then questioned by customs in indecipherable pidgin English as to whether we were carrying any fruit, vegetables or alcohol - negative - and suddenly queen Elizabeth II was looking up at us from the banknotes. Adios Guatemala!

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How to…get to Mexico from El Paso, Texas

The El Paso/Ciudad Juarez border crossing ranks as one of the most shambolic we have crossed so far. Confusingly you need be in Mexico to get the papers to allow you to be in Mexico. Given the rigour of U.S. immigration upon arrival we were expecting a similar grilling upon departure, but on our bus journey from El Paso to Chihuahua there was no sign of American immigration.

The two adjoining cities straddle the border and immigration controls are confusing. Upon entry to the U.S. we were told that Mexico is considered a contiguous region with the U.S. so that for stays under 30 days we would not need a visa or tourist card to visit. It would also appear that U.S. citizens and World in Slow Motion backpackers with a U.S. visa can visit certain parts of Mexico within a certain distance of the border (e.g. to Ciudad Juarez) without a visa/tourist card.
Not wanting to chance it, we took the advice of the Foreign Office who state that British citizens need a tourist card to visit Mexico, which allows for a 180 day visit.

Given the lack of available information the following tips may help anyone taking the same route (El Paso to Mexico) by public transport. We cannot state the following as fact, but based on our experience so far we hope the following helps:
1) To get your Mexico tourist card go over the Avenue Juarez bridge from El Paso (U.S.) into Ciudad Juarez (Mexico). There is a covered pedestrian gangway and no questions were asked when leaving the U.S.
2) When over the bridge (across the border into Mexico) walk two blocks to the east to the Mexican Immigration Office on Avenida Lerdo.
3) Here you fill in a form, get a copy (this is the tourist card) and get a Mexico entry stamp in your passport.
4) Now you can choose whether to get a taxi to the bus station in Ciudad Juarez for onwards travel or get a bus from El Paso. We opted for the latter (it seemed simpler) so had to go back over the Avenue Juarez bridge (it costs $0.30 for pedestrians) through U.S. immigration back into El Paso, Texas.
5) Our bus then crossed the border to Chihuahua without a single piece of paperwork being checked, either on the U.S. or Mexican side of the border. There was nowhere to surrender our U.S. departure card, which we need to do as we will be out of the country for more than 30 days, so we will have to visit the American Embassy when we reach Mexico City. Apparently you can skip the queue and go around to the window at the back of the building.
6) When in Mexico, you need to go to the bank (any bank) to give them your tourist card and pay around $30 USD in exchange for a receipt. You need this receipt to leave Mexico.

As we’re not 100 per cent sure that the information we have is correct, we’ll be updating this page as our adventure continues, when we leave Mexico for Guatemala/Belize and then re-enter, before entering the U.S. one more time. In the meantime, if anyone knows more than us, do let us know…
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How to…get in to and out of Cambodia overland

Aranya Prathet, Thailand, to Poipet, Cambodia
We crossed the border into Cambodia at Aranya Prathet, one of Thailand’s five land border crossings. It was a very confusing process with little information and scams a plenty. Have your wits about you and don’t trust anyone.

Having been warned against taking the ‘direct’ bus from Thailand to Siem Reap (that apparently takes you around the houses and down the worst roads so you arrive late and tired and go to the first guesthouse the driver suggests) we made our own way to Aranya Prathet. It feels like the end of the road with little in the way of accommodation and the dredges at the bottom of the culinary barrel (including frog, lizard and bush meat).

The border is open from 7.30am to 5pm and you can buy your visa at the border. The tuk tuk journey from town (6km) should cost no more than 50 Bhat, and make sure your driver takes you to the border and not to the ‘Cambodian Consulate’. The Cambodian Consulate is a scam. The sign and building certainly look legitimate and they do sell Cambodian visas, but after one too many “sure brother’s" we got suspicious. Only it was too late; as we had handed over $30 for a visa that we later learnt should cost only $20. The best place to buy your Cambodian visa, if you haven’t got one in advance, is from the visa booth once you have gone through Thai immigration and customs. Cambodian immigration and customs are then a straightforward stamp and enter.

Poipet is an unnerving and unwelcoming entrance to a country. After the relative ease, cleanliness and smiles of Thailand, Cambodia throws dust, ragged children and deformed adults at you. Women pull carts through a cesspool of a road piled high with rubbish and mud. Going through the Angkor towers gate into Cambodia felt like walking through a portal in to another world.

Moving on from Poipet to Siem Reap or anywhere in Cambodia is a chore. The Cambodian authorities claim to have made it easier to avoid scams by providing their own irritating touts and escorts across the border. Whether you like it or not, they’ll accompany you from Aranya Prathet to Poipet and put you on a free bus to the tourist bus terminal (about 200m), where you pay corresponding tourist prices. For a bus terminal there are very few buses. You can wait for the single daily bus to Siem Reap that leaves at 3pm ($10) or share a taxi ($60). There doesn’t appear to be an alternative. The taxi turned out to be a good option (although expensive for a three hour journey) as the road to Siem Reap is dire and you need all the comfort you can get. Rumour has it that Thai Airlines pays the Cambodian government to keep this road in poor condition to encourage more people to fly.

It is a slow roller coaster ride on red mud, about as bumpy as the roads in northern Laos, but it is also a fascinating introduction to Cambodia. Dazzling fields of rice stretch as far as the eye can see with water buffalo wallowing, children playing and men fishing with nets all up to their waists in water. Given the country’s history it feels tropically eerie. These feelings were offset by the surreal as a man on motorbike went by with two rigor-mortised pigs, trotters pointing towards the heavens, strapped on the back.

The last part of the trip is finding your guesthouse in Siem Reap. On the city outskirts the taxi driver passes you over to a tuk tuk for the final leg of the journey. Make sure you have a hostel reservation, or pretend you have one, and insist on being taken there and not to the one where the driver receives commission. The tuk tuk ride is included in the taxi fare. Another irritating ‘official’ rides with you trying to sell tours of the temples. Ignore him too. Once settled Siem Reap is definitely worth the hassle, and the journey there is an unforgettable and unique part of the Cambodian adventure.

Bavet, Cambodia, to Moc Bai, Vietnam
Leaving Cambodia is a doddle in comparison to entry. The road from Phnom Penh to Vietnam is good and there are direct buses from Phnom Penh to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) that take six hours ($12). Most hostels in Phnom Penh will sell you a bus ticket with a ride to the bus terminal included in the price. Many hostels also offer a visa service ($35), perhaps the easiest way to get a visa for Vietnam. British nationals need a Vietnam visa before arriving at the border, but other nationalities, such as the Swedes, may be able to travel visa free for up to 15 days.

There is little more to say about the crossing. It was easy. You give your passport to the bus staff and they get the exit stamp for Cambodia while you are eating lunch and admiring the bling of Bavet‘s casinos. You then get off the bus to go through Vietnamese immigration and your bags are scanned at customs. Back on the bus and you’re in Vietnam.

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