Tuesday 17 March 2009

No buck

(Friday, 13 March 2009)

Hum, now that I look at the date when this happened, I guess things can be explained by pure bad luck…

Nah – forget what I said. Superstitious – that’s something I’m definitely not.

I have to leave UPAVIM in a rush, at around 3pm, so that I can get the last bus to lake Atitlán. It leaves at 4pm. Ok, 4pm-ish. It’s Guatemalan time, after all.

I’m short of money – I’ve on my pocket something like 60 quetzales (worth around €6). The ticket to the 4-hour chicken-bus ride takes half of it. Then, a couple of bottles of water leave me with around 20 quetzales left. Enough for a cheap meal, not enough to spend the night – not even in a clunked dorm in a youth hostel.

I didn’t have time to withdraw money on my way to Trebol, the transportation hub in the city centre where buses to the west of the country departure. It’s cool, I think. Plenty of cash machines in Panajachel, by the lake, where I plan to spend the night.

I’m travelling with Ma. We’re both going to the lake but she’ll go to a festival in Santiago Atitlán while I’m going to the more secluded and laid back San Marcos de la Laguna. We step out at Los Encuentros, to change buses. We’re taking different directions there, but I’m convinced by her last-minute argument that San Pedro de la Laguna is a less touristy place than Panajachel where to spend the night. I confirm there are ATMs there too: "yep, two". OK, to San Pedro we go.

We arrive around 8pm. I try the first cash machine. Machine, yes; but cash, no. “It's not possible to complete this transaction”. Same message at the second and last cash machine. I’m worried that they might have blocked my card for security reasons, finding suspicious my transactions in Guatemala. It happened before, while travelling abroad.

I try again and again during the night. Same message. We visit several restaurants, cafes, youth hostels and travel agencies. No-one is able to cash-back a card transaction – not since a while ago they stopped accepting cards due to the exorbitant fees charged by the merchants.

There is no bus or boat leaving San Pedro at this hour of the night. No place where to get cash. Ma. has her money counted to spend the weekend at the festival. She insists on lending me some, but it doesn’t make sense that she runs short of it so that I may well too, halfway through the weekend. The plan is to ask her for just enough to get a boat early tomorrow to Panajachel – where there are plenty of ATMs and I might be luckier – and then a bus back to Guatemala City, in case things go south and I still can’t cash any buck.

Great weekend, hein? a 4-hour ride to lake Atitlán, only to go back the next morning.

I’m lucky I decided to come with Ma. to San Pedro tonight - I could be at Panajachel, with no money on my pocket and alone. I'm left thinking – what do you do in a situation like this if you're alone? Do you sing the old song of “hey, I just need some change for my bus back home?”. Do you ask for charity from the bus driver? Do you have neither dinner nor breakfast, and you starve your way back to Guatemala City?

Come on, Gustavo. Travelling alone like that, with just €6 on your pocket – you should know better…


But hey, you live to learn. And you learn to live…

I’ve dinner, paid by Ma. I get a place to sleep, paid by Ma. I play some pool and have a beer, paid by Ma.

It’s late. One last desperate attempt at the ATM before I go to sleep. It works. My weekend is saved!!

It was just a few stressful hours. No big deal. But it left me thinking about the people who really have no buck to go through the next day. What options do they have? Beg? Steal?

I should know better. But you live to learn. And you learn to live…

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