We had a surprisingly comfortable night at the border. The weather was pleasant and not too hot, our parking place was almost flat, and the noise was not too bad. Fortunately Nina did not hear the nine gun shots in the middle of the night. Norm later heard that the police shot a local gang member - Nina Says Sorry no photos.

Because the customs house would not open till 9:00 am we had the pleasure of sleeping in a bit.

The wait for clearance continued once the office was open, and we passed the time by watching the comings and goings of vehicles, practicing our limited Spanish on each other and the locals and trying our hand at buying the occasional piece of fruit or drink from a local shop.

About 1:00 pm we were finally on our way!!

Immediately a new word entered our vocabulary - tumulos - these are Guatelalan topes, and they seem to be bigger and meaner even that the Mexican variety. Within the first 20 kms of driving we must have passed over 100 of these things.

For the remainder of the day we followed Highway CA-2 - Central America - 2. Turning off towards Guatemala City at Escuintla to stop for the night at Palin.

To say the road was varied and not always good would be an understatement. It is often rough with large pot holes. One section was a series of 4 lane sections with sudden patches of narrow gravel that appeared out of nowhere.

The traffic and driving was also something out of this world. I must be adapting however, as I can now pull out onto the wrong side of the road to pass a truck with another truck coming towards me without any concern certain (or almost certain) that the oncoming vehicle will slow or pull over to make room for me.

Just to add additional spice to the driving for most of the afternoon we were subject to a tropical thunderstorm with patches of very heavy rain. This rain and general poor road conditions made the traffic horrendous in the small towns. In a town called San Bernadino we spent an hour traveling 3 miles. At the start of this traffic jam we passed a broken down gravel truck, the driver was under the truck and had removed the center section of one of the rear axles.

Norm had told us that we would be staying at a place with hot thermal pools and that we would stay there for at least two nights. We were still surprised to find when we got there that this place is in fact a water park. It has hot pools, water slides, steam baths, a really nice place. About the standard of a 1950s Australian resort.

After a soak in the hot pool, we hit the beds after a surprisingly tiring day.