Road Closings

Until this last bus ride to Xela I have had totally smooth trips. I have heard horror stories of people having to leave days early or late because of the roads being blocked, or people having to pay $100 for a taxi instead of $3-9 for a bus, in order to get around the road closings. But I had been lucky. Yesterday, however, my luck ran out.

The roads here seem to close for many reasons. In September there were days when there were closings due to mudslides (very common around here), and bridges being broken. Currently, the theme seems to be protesting. When there are road closings, it doesn't mean you just choose the one in the next town, we are talking about the only road in the area. The alternative route may mean 13 hrs instead of 4 hrs. There's no easy solution when they close the roads.

I arrived in Guatemala city, where a lovely Guatemalan woman named Gilda came to pick me up and take me to the bus station. I was already anxious to know what would happen, because in the airport I started hearing rumblings. People taking a taxi, or traveling at night... Gilda told me that the roads were indeed closed, all around the country. She basically said I could spend the night, not knowing what'd happen tomorrow, or give it a shot now, not sure when I'd arrive. But one of the blockades near Xela was just opened, and there was another nearby that was supposed to open soon. All busses from all the companies were cancelled except for one. And that was in 20 minutes. After a brief discussion, I decided to give it a shot. Gilda said it'd be fine, because I spoke good Spanish. As soon as she said that I started to wonder what this might turn out to be (what exactly would I have to be asking people...?). But she said that she herself would do it, so I felt safe enough.

All was well on the bus until 45 minutes into the ride we stopped. Not just stopped, but parked right there in the middle of the two lane highway. With a gas station on the right and an electronics store on the left that had a loop of bad music including the Titanic theme song. In the end we were stopped there for over 4 hours! There were a few exciting moments when the bus would turn on, and drive 50 feet, but there was no progress. The road was in total chaos. While we sat in our lane, others passed us on the right and left, or turned around, or were on the wrong side of the road. There was no sense. After an hour of being stopped, the driver turned on the news, where we'd here occasional shouts about the protests, but mostly we were updated on the Chilean miners.

About 4 hours after we left the bus station, I started to have to pee. Several people had gotten off of the bus to find food, and presumably bathrooms. But after we'd waited more than 3 hrs at that point, and the bus was turning on and off every 10 minutes in anticipation (we'd heard that the roads were now open...), I didn't want to risk being left behind, with my luggage on the bus. So, I waited another 4 hours until we reached Xela. I laid down to try to cut the urge a bit. Needless to say, it was a VERY long bus ride.

So what was all this protesting about? It took me a while to find out. Even tonight, while writing the blog it took me almost a half hour just to find an article about it. Interestingly, no one on the bus said a thing about the protests. It's apparently not such a hot topic, even when you are affected by it. The people living in the rural areas were protesting for many things. There seems to be almost no voice for these people, in a country where socioeconomic status/race is made painfully obvious, as the differences between the groups are vast. The protesters blocked roads all over the country, asking for more care to be given to the land, better education, resources, etc. And get this, they also were protesting for better healthcare and health resources! Here I sit on the bus with a bag full of medical supplies, waiting. Just waiting. And no one seems to be doing much else.

If you can read Spanish, or you just want to check out the pictures from some of the protests, here's a link to a newspaper article about yesterday's protests. I am happy to be able to say that while I felt a bit uncomfortable, I never once felt unsafe waiting on that bus. I didn't see anything like what was in the photos. All I saw was a bunch of vehicles waiting.
http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/Jornada-bloqueos_0_352764784.html