Birthday in San Cristobal and Guatemala

Checked into the hostel at San Cristobal, wasn't as nice as the last hostel but I guess we were spoilt with the swimming pool in Puerto Escondido. I spent most of my first day walking around the huge markets looking for presents to send home. It was a relaxed day. In the evening I was invited to a meal with the hostel owners. He made one of the best carbonara's I've ever had. The following morning I was treated to his amazing breakfast as my birthday present. Shortly after breakfast 4 other Aussies from Puerto Escondido came to celebrate my birthday. I skyped most of the family as you do on your birthday, I then went about buying presents for the rest of my family.  The post service for Mexico is hilarious. Everything is done on type writers and they used shoe boxes and scrap paper to make up the finishing package. Had to go get cash for it when my card was declined so sat in HSBC for an hour trying to explain what happened so I could get my card working again.  Later that evening I went to dinner with the Aussies at this really nice restaurant. After 8 quite hot tacos I was pretty done. After that we went to a bar and listened to some great live music.  The following morning we all went our separate ways. I was heading for the Guatemalan border while the others were heading to Belize. The mini van journey to the Guatemalan border was pretty uncomfortable and we got a puncher so were delayed. At the border itself we waited for an hour and half for this women who was suspected of illegally entering Mexico. I finally got to the border crossing which was a hectic scene of people running around and huge market stalls lining the streets. We were transferred to another van which was even smaller. The average height of a Guatemalan person is 5ft 8 so the leg room in these buses was terrible, the American next to me was 6ft 7 and was having a horrible time. You first notice that Guatemala is not as well developed as Mexico. We were on long winding roads through the mountains where locals were just getting by on the side of cliffs.  The journey was very long and I get the impression that its one big game with all the drivers to see who can overtake as many cars as possible on corners. Our driver was tanking it down the straights, making overtakes I never deemed possible.  I met a Swiss guy on the bus called Christophe. He was staying in Panajachel to and he recommended a hostel so on arrival we went there. It's a really cool hostel with a bar and good food. We had drinks and then i crawled into bed. Christophe and I had a plan to go to kayaking today but I got a message from mum saying I had booked my flights from Panama to Ecuador wrong. Turns out instead of booking the flight for the 31st of May I booked it for the 31st of March. I stopped all my plans for the day to get it sorted. I used an Internet cafe's phone which was a terrible line. After 45 mins I managed to almost sort it, all i needed to do was pay for the next booking. I called back again using a guys iPad and after an hour and a half of being on hold and being hung up on I finally sorted it. So have seen very little of Panajachel. I leave for Antigua tomorrow which I have heard is an amazing city.