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We read a lot about borders, and we knew that Central America had some of the worst. In this case, it took us three hours to travel from Belize to Guatemala, but this was largely our fault.
To leave Belize we had to park the car, stamp the passport, pay a fee of almost 20 dollars per person and also leave the car. It was easy, they didn't even want to see the car. I was playing Portugal, winning 2-0 and they were so happy that we were Portuguese that they stamped it and didn't even look. But we were short on money, we switched to Quetzales, the official currency of Guatemala, and we were left with 80, close to 8 euros. We knew we were going to be screwed.
Then we just pass a guard and we're already in Guatemala. About 10 kids start running towards the car right away. We had to smoke the car once more. We have already explained what this is here . We pay and the vet comes soon to see Dune. We deliver the papers, ask us for copies. We say we don't. He gets upset but there he gives in to scan the documents, while we're going to pay 25 quetzales. Our money still did. we stamped the passport, and then moved on to the car papers. We need copies. We do not have. All this while we are followed by Daniel.
Daniel must not be more than 12 years old. He says he's helping us, he's going with us to make copies. Thanks, we say we can't give you any money. He doesn't give up. Get us to make copies. We arrived at the place, there is no light, they cannot take it out. It says that in the village it does. But we have to walk, it's 20 minutes, we don't want to leave the Dune. We go back to the vet, he offers to make copies for the car papers and even gives us some tips about Guatemala. Meanwhile, Daniel disappears. We go back to the counter with the copies, they give us a piece of paper to pay 160 quetzales. Okay, we don't have any money anymore. We tried to pay by card. It does not give. We have to go to the village to get up. We ask where it is, they explain to us. Daniel appears as if by magic. Ivo will raise the money, always with Daniel accompanying us and telling us stories. Says he's 16, legal working age we assume. That you have to pay to be there and that if you don't make any money you have to ask your mother. We ask how much you can do in a day. He doesn't tell us, he asks us how much we earn per day in Portugal.
Ivo returns, and I'm going to pay and get the documents. Once again followed by Daniel. We give him some Canadian coins, we take a picture of him with Fujifilm Instax, which we give him, and he is overjoyed.
We continue our journey, the destination is a village before Tikal. You can really see that we will arrive at night.
