Playa Del Carmen to Lake Atitlan

When I initially went online for information about the best way to get from Playa Del Carmen, Mexico to Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, I found very little to help me map out the trip. Crossing the border at Cuidad Hedalgo which is close to Tapachula in the State of Chiapas seemed the most likely route. Hopefully this account of my trip will help anyone covering this journey to "The second most beautiful lake in the world". The entire journey took 50 hours from door to door which includes a couple of stops, a bus detour, and getting lost in the dark on the side of a mountain.

From our apartment we took a cab to the ADO Bus Terminal on Calle 12 and 20 Av. in Playa Del Carmen. There is only one bus per day to Tapachula at 10:00pm and it costs $1,404 MX. For the uninitiated of travelling by ADO, they are large, comfortable buses that have a toilet and show movies in Spanish. They are also freezing. No matter the temperature outside, bring a hoodie and a blanket and wear long pants. You will be so glad you did.

We had a few hours to kill before the bus was due to leave, so we checked our luggage at the bus station baggage check - 4 boxes and 2 large duffel bags. It cost $240 MX.  for 4 hours which was well worth the money.  I wanted to go out for something to eat and then to Fusion Bar - my favorite watering hole, for one last Mojito and to sit by the water and listen to the band and say "Adios" to Playa Del Carmen,  which I did thanks to baggage check!

Tapachula is about 20km from the Guatemala border and the journey from Playa is supposed to take roughly 24 hours. Our bus took a detour at San Christobal for some unknown reason. (I don't speak Spanish so I couldn't find out) and the trip took 29 hours. We arrived at the OCC Bus Terminal in Tapachula at 3:00am. It was too late to get a hotel room and too early to go anywhere so we drank OXXO coffee and ate a couple of not-so-dreadful hamburgers and waited until light to make a move. Had the bus arrived on time we would have spent the night in one of the inexpensive hotels that surround the bus terminal. Apparently a room could be had for $250 MX.

There are two ways to get to Lake Atitlan from Tapachula - the cheaper bus route or the more expensive bus route. Cheaper is also quicker in this case and much more colorful. The more expensive route takes you straight from the OCC Bus Terminal on a TICA Bus to Guatemala City and from there you catch another bus to Panajachel. You go miles out of the way by going to the Capital and backtracking to Panajachel. The only advantage I can think of is that the TICA Bus is much like the ADO bus - large and comfortable. Anyway, I chose the other way.

At 6:30am we got a cab to the border which cost $200 MX. I was under the impression that the Cabbie would drop us on the Guatemalan side but I was mistaken. We got dropped at the Mexican border and from there we got into a bicycle cab to actually cross the border into Guatemala and then another to take us to the bus terminal. Cost 30 Quetzales for each cab. I saw many people walking over the bridge from Guatemala  to Mexico. It's only a few hundred yards or so and it's free.

Crossing the border was no problem. $295 MX. will get a person out of Mexico and the only question that was asked on the Guatemalan side was "Where are you staying"? No one searched our baggage.

Once we got to the bus terminal at the border things went by in a blur. Guys were grabbing our luggage screaming "Follow me, quick, quick. Your bus leaves now" and we were literally pushed onto a "B" bus en route to Quetzeltenango. Our luggage was put somewhere under the bus and away we went. All's good, except we weren't on the right bus. We'd told our bicycle cab guys where we were going and they in turn told the porters at the bus terminal and in a flash we were on another bus going somewhere else. We found this out when the conductor came to us for the fare about ten minutes later. "No problem", he says. He'll find us a bus to Quetzeltenango up the road some. "Just sit back and relax", he says! "This bus ride will cost you Q50" (Q25 each). His English was impeccable. My partner is about to have a conniption fit at this point and when a pastor of some sort stands up in aisle of the bus and starts preaching the gospel at thirty decibels in Spanish, I decide it's time for me to get some shut eye and zone out from the madness.

I managed to sleep for about an hour and a half which is a minor miracle on one of those old school buses and no sooner had I opened my eyes we were stopping in a small town and our conductor told us our bus (correct bus) was waiting. "Follow me, quick, quick. Your bus leaves now". I know I heard the exact phrase just a couple of hours ago and it occurred to me that we'd just been railroaded. Then our cheerful "no problem" conductor wants Q100 for finding us the correct bus. Great! We pay, of course and then we tip the porters of the correct bus for putting our luggage on top of the correct bus. Now I see how this is going to go.

This bus is indeed going to Quetzeltenango and what a ride it is. We spent the next two and a half hours rushing at breakneck speed higher and higher up into the mountains and then careening down through lush valleys. It really is quite beautiful. It looked like rain and I started to worry about my computer and all my paper mache bowls sitting on top of the bus but the weather rolled out as quickly as it rolled in and all is fine. The bus was packed three to a seat for quite a bit of the time. Most people were only going a short distance and the bus stopped a lot to let people on and off. No, no one was carting chickens around! I haven't seen a chicken on one of these "chicken buses" yet. That trip also cost Q50. Oh yes, plus a tip for the porters. I gave the guy Q10 which he didn't like. But I had no more quetzales. We had to find a money exchange in Quetzeltenango or we weren't going anywhere. All we had on us were pesos.

All the buses pull up beside the market in Quetzeltenango. It was the perfect place to stop and get a bite to eat, use a washroom and find a bank or money exchange place.  I found a little eatery with stools at the counter and enough room beside me to put the baggage without being in the way while my partner Randy went off to get the pesos changed to quetzales. We were going to exchange the money once we got to the Mexico/Guatemala border - and we did change some of it but the rate the guy was giving us was so low that we decided to wait and find a proper money exchange store (whatever that means)but because things went so quickly, that never happened. When Randy came back we ordered a pork, rice and bean meal which we shared and a couple of much needed beers - all for Q30. The exchange rate we got for the money, by the way, was abysmal. I still don't know the best way to get money exchanged.

When we were ready to get on the bus to Panajachel  I hailed a porter with a dollie to take our luggage to the bus instead of lugging it one box at a time (one person had to stay and guard said luggage while the other played "Beast Of Burden") Cost Q10. Then another porter put our bags on the top of another bus and out came another Q10. I must say that no one seemed remotely happy with the ten quetzales I was tipping - all I know was we were shelling out bills like it was Monopoly money and this was touted as the less expensive way. In hindsight our downfall was that we were carrying too much luggage with us and we couldn't speak the language. We were at their mercy. Sitting ducks, really. This final leg of our journey to Lake Atitlan cost another Q50, was also about two  and a half hours and was absolutely the bumpiest bus ride I've ever been on. By the time we got close to the lake and the scenery was gorgeous I couldn't even enjoy it because I had to use the bathroom so badly, my eyes were crossing! Note to self: Don't drink a beer before getting on a "B" bus. At last we were dropped off at a bus stop in Panajachel. We'd arrived. Well, not quite.

We still had a 12km ride around the lake to our village of San Antonio Palópo but this was by tuk-tuk not a bus. I flagged one down and explained to the driver that I needed to use a phone to tell the caretaker of our cottage that we had arrived and get him to tell the driver where to go. There is no formal address for our place. I had the phone number and this should have been an easy transition. We piled into his tuk-tuk and drove the 12km to San Antonio. There was only one problem. The tuk-tuk couldn't make the grade of the San Antonio streets with the two of us and the luggage at the same time. I got my initiation of walking up practically vertical mountain roads within the first five minutes of being in town while my luggage sailed up in a tuk-tuk. Down in the next valley we used the phone from a local store to call Bartollo, our caretaker. Lo and behold the number wasn't working. Imagine that! Apparently this happens frequently in the mountains. I had no idea what to do. I didn't know where we were going. It was dark and we were on the side of a mountain. I was speechless and my partner was about to have another conniption fit! Fortunately our driver was thinking. He told the three guys who were sitting outside the store sipping coffee our predicament and as it happens one of them knew Bartollo. It's a very small town. He promptly got on his cell phone and told Bartollo to meet us at the cottage. We all piled into the tuk-tuk and in two minutes a smiling Bartollo was opening up the front door to a very pretty stone cottage that sits on the edge of a very pretty mountain on a very pretty lake (world's second most beautiful, actually). Cost for that leg - priceless! Actually, it cost Q150. "No problem".

Oh, and my apologies for the lateness of this blog. For the past two weeks I have had no internet access. It's all sorted now (I hope).