Crossing a border that was agreed in 1930

Yes, after only four short days in Honduras we were heading to Guatemala! The border between the two countries was agreed by a treaty that both countries signed in the USA in 1930. It’s a pretty arbitrary line – no rivers or mountain ranges at this border….

Unfortunately I have to admit that once again we took the ‘soft’ option of a backpacker shuttle. We were heading for Antigua, and the public transport way was long and arduous and involved multiple changes of buses – including in big bad Guatemala City…. the trip was probably not even do-able in one day. Yes, any excuse…. 🙂

So, we booked the backpacker shuttle which leaves at 12pm every day – and in theory takes about 6 hours – although nobody had ever heard of it taking less than 8 hours because of traffic in Guatemala City…

The shuttle left more or less on time, but spent the first 30 minutes driving around the town to pick up other backpackers – and also so that the driver could drop by where his wife was working and give her a kiss goodbye! 🙂

Twenty minutes or so after leaving town we arrived at the border – the same border that we had crossed when we arrived in Honduras. It was just as quiet and peaceful as the last time we crossed.

At the border we changed money, and after that there was one stop for petrol, a toilet break, and to buy snacks.

Yes, these shuttle border crossings are SO uneventful there’s not actually anything interesting for me to tell you!

What I will say is that because the shuttle was quite empty and there were no passengers to pick up or drop off in Guatemala City, then we travelled a ‘new way’ that the driver had never tried before – which went around Guatemala City instead of going through it. To say that the driver was delighted when we arrived in Antigua was a bit of an understatement! He was ecstatic! 🙂 ‘It’s a RECORD, a NEW RECORD!!’, he shouted – only five and a half hours in total.

Whilst not quite so excited as the driver, we were still pretty pleased to get to Antigua at 6pm instead of 9pm or 10pm… yes, we could get used to these easy shuttles…. 🙂