Bienvenido a Mexico!!

As a U.S. citizen I automatically receive a 90-day traveler's visa when I enter Guatemala. The problem is when I want to stay here for 11 months...I have to make a few visa runs. Apparently it's super common and there are U.S. citizens who have lived here for years (like 10-15) and have been making a run to Mexico every 90 days that whole time (apparently it's a lot easier than getting residency). Well, my first 90-day stint happened to fit almost perfectly with my trip back home for my mom's wedding (I stayed for 98 days so I had to pay a fee of Q.80...about $10, when I left), but this time I was not so lucky. My 90 days were coming to a close and I figured I might as well hop over to Mexico while I was already practically on the border for my weekend classes in Malacatan.
Getting to the border was a piece of cake. I got into a taxi with a few other people and we each paid Q.5 for the 20-minute ride (that's less than $1!). Once we arrived at the border, however, I had no idea what I was supposed to do or where I was supposed to go. So I started walking towards something that looked very border-like and asked someone where I go to get my passport stamped. She pointed out the immigration window to me and I started to make my way over. On my way there were a few guys asking me if I needed to change any Guatemalan Quetzales to Mexican Pesos...so I changed Q.400 and got super ripped off on the exchange rate (I really should have researched more thoroughly the current rate and had a better idea of how much I should be getting...my bad), but got to the window and had an exit stamp added to my passport. Before I knew it, there was this guy showing me where to go to get all the way through the border and where to catch another taxi to Tapachula (apparently it's a great city...I didn't receive quite the same impression). When I got into the cab the guy asked me for a tip. This was fair because I really had no idea where I was supposed to be going and he really helped me out, so I gave him a tip. But then there was this other guy telling me that I should also be giving him a tip because he was the owner of the taxi or something like that....I gave him nothing because the first time I'd seen him was about 45 seconds earlier, what was I supposed to tip him for?!
Anyways, as we got into Tapachula the driver asked me where I was going and I told him the address of a hotel that I'd read about on a forum about visa runs to Tapachula. He told me that hotel was on the other side of town and that he'd help me find a place closer to the center. It really made no difference to me, as long as I wasn't charged an arm and a leg for a hotel room. The first place we stopped wanted MX$400 a night (that's about $30US or Q.250...I make Q.25 an hour, so no way, especially after getting gyped on  the exchange at the border). So we headed to another place. The driver told me he thought this other place charged MX$150 a night, but he wasn't sure. So we went in and I asked how much a room cost. The guy asked me if I wanted the price per night or per hour. Gross. Per night. MX$150. Great, so I asked if they had space available. He said no, but they'd have a free room at 6pm. Gross. I really didn't want to stay in a hotel room that had just been rented out for a couple hours. But I really didn't have any other options so I said I'd be back at 6. I headed to the central park to walk around and find some food. I went into a little torta restaurant (tortas are delicious Mexican grilled sandwiches...if you haven't had one, you need to go find the nearest taco truck and get one) and read my book for a while and ate, of course. Eventually I got tired of just sitting there and toting my backpack full of heavy books that I had to bring for my classes, so I decided to walk around in search of a different hotel nearby. I found one for only MX$60 a night and decided that for that price, it really didn't matter how gross it was and it was only one night. I don't know what was going on with the manager though because I asked how much they charged per night, he told me, then he asked "is that all you wanted?" So I said, "No, do you have space?" And he looked super confused and said, "space?" Apparently I wasn't clear enough or something so I asked "do you have a room available that I could stay in?" So he let me in and showed me a super ghetto room (pictures below), but I really didn't care so I went into the office to "check in." Check-in at that hotel means writing down the occupant's name and how many nights they're staying. No I.D. check, nothing. Also, he asked me for my name and he thought I said Yulisa and so that's what he wrote.

My light switch and who knows what kind of outlet!

This is how I "locked" my door

My bed, complete with a single sheet and a weird smell

 Needless to say, I thought it would be a good idea to sleep with my mace close by. Thankfully nothing happened, it was just loud and hot and hard to sleep, but nothing dangerous. Haha! Well I got up early to head back to Xela. The weirdo manager was trying to tell me that I should stay another night because it was Sunday and I should wait to travel until Monday....but I'm pretty sure the reason I chose to travel on Saturday/Sunday was so that I could still work Monday. Weirdo!! Anyways, I got back to the border and the same guy was there to "guide" me through the border process again and to show me where to catch a cab back to Malacatan (apparently the fact that I'd just been there the day before and knew where things were didn't seem to cross his mind). I changed my pesos back to quetzales and didn't get as badly ripped off, but still a whacky exchange rate. A little further through the border process there were about 6 guys waving money in my face telling me that I needed to change my pesos to quetzales because I couldn't spend pesos in Guatemala. It didn't matter how many times I told them I didn't have any pesos, they just kept telling me that I needed to change my pesos. Then when we were nearly to the taxis some other guy came up asking me where I was going (also trying to "help" me find a bus/taxi). He started listing places so I just said I was going to Malacatan and he pointed out a microbus (the ones that are basically just vans) I could get onto so I asked him how much it cost and he told me Q.20. I said, "How is it Q.20?! I paid Q.5 for a taxi yesterday!!" (by this point I was really frustrated with everyone trying to "help" me) And right then we just so happened to be right next to a taxi headed to Malacatan for (you guessed it!) Q.5. I peaced out and finally got back to familiar land then took my two buses back to Xela and made it in time for church (p.s. I started going to a different church with Spanish services and I really like it, except I only understand about 75% of what's being said because I have yet to learn all of the church-y Spanish)....kind of. I was half an hour late, but in Guatemalan time that's only like 5 minutes late. Unfortunately I felt super gross during the whole service because I didn't have time to shower and I didn't shower at the hotel because the shower was super gross and they didn't have towels....so, yeah.
Anyways, I have another 90 days here...so basically 90 days to figure out how to not go through all that again. When my friend Matt went to renew his visa he just paid the border officer to stamp him in and out without actually going into Mexico...maybe I'll do that next time. This trip just re-affirmed that I'm not a traveler, at least not by myself. I love seeing new places, but if I'm going to go somewhere by myself it's going to be to do something, not just to visit. It's boring and stressful and stupid traveling alone...at least in my opinion. I would say that this was one of those experiences that I'm glad I had but I hope I'll never have to have again. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for me, there's no way I could've survived that without God watching out for me!!

The rainy season is upon us

Apparently umbrellas aren't just for tourists here

A little rain never stopped people from selling food in the park

When I first arrived in Xela it was winter. At night and in the morning it got incredibly cold...ok fine, it was like 0°C, but it felt really cold because in the afternoons it would warm up to 15-20°C. But during all of this time there was no rain. It snowed in San Marcos (a city about 2 hours away from Xela), and by snowed I mean there was maybe an inch of snow and it was all over the newspapers. Kinda like in western Washington. Anyways, in all the time I'd been here, it'd rained only a handful of times and only for about an hour and then it was done. Well all that has changed now. About 2 weeks ago it just started raining and it's been cloudy and drizzly with big passing thunderstorms ever since. Sure, there have been some sun breaks, but not like before. It's so weird that it will be sunny and then it starts sprinkling and before you know it you can't hear yourself think because the rain is so loud on the roof, not to mention the giant booms of thunder. I absolutely love it! I only wish I had brought my rain boots.
It's almost always drizzly in Tacoma, but there are hardly ever big downpours where it feels like the sky has to run out of water soon. A bright flash of lightning, closely followed by the huge boom of thunder. Here it's an every day occurrence. It's beautiful! Sure, walking to and from work from
where I catch the bus kind of sucks when it's dumping rain....especially when a car drives by just fast enough that the river running through the road decides it'd have more fun all over you, but hey, asi es la vida!
Apparently Guatemalan engineers don't know how to think ahead, however, so the drainage system is pretty non-existent. When it really rains the roads become mini-rivers that are impossible to cross without completely soaking at least one of your feet. But it's kinda fun making crossing the street a game: find the high spot in the road that's not yet submersed in water so you can cross without landing ankle-deep in a puddle.
I don't know why, but it's so beautiful to me how it can be sunny one second and then dumping rain and rolling thunder the next. When I was flying into Guatemala city for the first time by myself in December there was a lightning storm in the distance and I just watched it for the last half hour of my flight. It was amazing to just watch a chunk of the sky light up for a fraction of a second. Now when there's lightning it usually lights up the whole academy where I work, or the power goes out. It's a little alarming to be teaching a class at night and then it's like someone is flashing giant flood lights just outside the window, but it's amazing! Maybe it's that in Tacoma (where I've pretty much spent my entire life up until this point) there's hardly ever lightning. It makes the front page of the Tribune when there is (you know the picture I'm talking about, a big lightning bolt in the sky with the Narrows Bridge in the background...same one every time). So even though it happens every day here, I'm still amazed by it every time. I'm still amazed by how incredible loud the rain can be, especially at my weekend spot in Malacatan.
What about you? Is there something that you encounter frequently but it still manages to sweep you off your feet every time?