Paredon, Guatemala

We wake up with the vendors and get back on the road.  But only after seeking out the cajero (ATM) in town.  Until we are an hour or more out of town we pass small village after small village all littered with tumulos (guatemalan topes) and horrible roads.  I remember having our suspension work done before leaving but you certainly couldn't tell it by riding inside the bus on these roads.  The policia also are sitting tucked away on the side of the road every 10km or so and we worry about our speed since we rarely see speed limit signs.  Guess it wouldn’t matter much as we have no speedometer to gauge our speed anyway... The buses here are fantastic.  Each bus is a retired school bus from somewhere, all look to be handpainted and are vibrant, colorful and often adorned with flames and sparkles.  Jen simply cant get enough of them...i think if we stayed here long enough she would want to paint E to match.  We have read that the insides are similarly adorned and covered with phrases both religious and erotic.  We might have to find somewhere a busride away to visit just for the experience.  We stop roadside for some carnitas and then continue on.  It's amazing how quick travel goes here despite the roads- before we know it we realize half the country is behind us. We eventually turn off towards the beach and follow directions jen had found for Paredon Surf House.  Sounded like our kind of place and we were excited to arrive.  The pavement turns into sandy road, which in turn seemed to go on forever.  Were there not a collectivo in front of us i think we would have turned back at least twice.  We get into the tiny village of paredon but nothing has signs and we walk down each road rather than taking the bus into deeper/softer sand.  Its too late in the day and we are too exhausted to push should we find ourselves stuck.

We eventually stumble upon the surf house and decide to stay after hearing that someone didn't show up and we could have one of the bungalows overlooking the waves.  More than we want to spend, we decide to splurge for one night.  We meet the group staying here at the moment and spend happy hour in our bungalow before learning that the couple showed up after all.  No problem for us as we got the bungalow experience and will save the money.  We pack up our few belongings and watch karma scramble down the ladder and head back to the bus.  They do have a few dorm style beds available upstairs, but we wouldn’t want the bus to get lonely...

We had a great evening talking with the other travelers and with one of the owners about the experience buying land here, setting up a business and some of their learnings in the process.  We do a bit of research for the days ahead (whenever the internet would decide to connect for us), have communal dinner with the group and then call it a night.  We have to be up early with the waves.