Last night, I took the night bus from Flores in the northeast of Guatemala to Antigua in the country's south. The trip involved a sleeper coach from Flores to Guatemala City and then a shuttle to Antigua. All told, I was to leave at 8 pm and arrive at 8 am. At this point, I was really just hoping I hadn't been scammed after several stories I had of regarding disreputable travel agencies in Guatemala.
As instructed, I waited outside some random hotel with a few other passengers and the bus arrived just before 8. It was a double decker Maya de Oro "luxury" bus, with the premium seats downstairs and first class upstairs. Quite relieved that it had arrived, I headed upstairs and was quite impressed with the comfort of the seats and the fact they reclined to maybe 2/3rds flat. By the time we set off from the main terminal the bus was about 60% full and I had a spare seat beside me. The lights dimmed and off we went.
It was soon clear that the driver wasn't going to be cruising along at some slow pace. We took corners with a fare bit of speed and certainly felt the patches of road where the surface was lacking. The LED sign at the front stating we were traveling in excess of 90kph was on so often, I was afraid it would wear out. Despite all this, the trip was more smooth than not.
We made a few stops along the way to drop off locals and a petrol stop, but mostly it was full steam ahead. I maybe managed 2 hours of shut eye, which I suppose could have been worse.
In the end, the driver's haste paid off as we arrived at 4.45 am, roughly 45 min early. Dreading the wait til 6 am when I was meant to be picked up by the shuttle, I sat in the surprisingly full waiting room. Having seen eerie pre-dawn Guatemala City on the way in, I had no desire to wander. As I watched the other tourists going to Antigua slowly disappear as their rides arrived, my special mix of exhaustion and impatience grew.
Thankfully, my shuttle also arrived early and as the lone passenger we were on our way. Flying through the empty streets, we were soon out of the city and climbing into the fog covered hills. Another speedy driver, who later described himself as a 'loco driver' we managed the two hour trip in 45 minutes!
So, I arrived in Antigua at 6.15 am, much earlier than anticipated and had to wait outside the front door of my hotel for 15 minutes while the night staff woke up. When I'm able to check in later, I'm really going to enjoy a nap!
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