An online acquaintance recommended a dentist in Guatemala City and he proved to be superb.
He speaks some English, shyly but we communicated fine in Spanglish and the news was not good. In fact it was terrible.
The office is located in a fancy neighborhood and we arrived early yesterday morning to make sure we found a parking spot. Latin Americans always put low hanging obstructions across the entrance to their parking lots so a 2.8 meter tall (9 foot high) van is a problem.
We found easy parking a couple of blocks up the street and we settled in for a few hours. It’s lovely traveling in your home, as I could walk Rusty and we made lunch and layne washed her teeth. Her appointment at 1:30 was to see about installing two implants into the bases already inserted three months ago in Los Algodones, the Mexican town on the border with California.
The dentist cut open one implant base and tried all his own implants to see if one would fit. None did, but he said the work was excellent and her jaw had healed perfectly. The trouble is the Mexican dentist used a Pakistani implant unknown to the Guatemalan dentist who uses US made implants. He is now talking to his supplier to see if he can get the necessary parts. If not we can proceed and hope for the best or drive back to Los Algodones and get the two teeth implanted. Layne wants the holes in her jaw filled. We don’t want to drive around at random asking dentists if they use her implants. It turns out, and I had no idea, there are 150 different implant types in the world of dentistry.
Our heads spinning we walked out into a stormy Monday afternoon in the capital of Guatemala. I walked Rusty before the rain started and then we drove. Our planned campsite in Antigua Guatemala was 18 miles away. It took us more than three hours.
We left around three and arrived at dusk driving through endless traffic jams, intense puddles and piles of washed away trash. It was the end of the world. Except it wasn’t.
Weaving through the traffic were a few hardy motorcyclists, most were huddled under bridges sitting out the apocalyptic downpour, but the others were speeding through backed up traffic as though invulnerable.
Most of it was at walking speed and as you can see we crossed paths with everything short of the kitchen sink. Meanwhile we mulled over our options.
Sidewalks and and traffic lights are too sophisticated for street planners here. Pedestrians are everywhere and they think nothing of walking alongside hurrying vehicles. They frighten me half to death with their insouciance.
Children risking their lives without a second thought and car drivers cut them no slack. Guatemalans behind the wheel are notorious for being insanely aggressive and they wore me out.
In the end we decided we would follow the dentists lead as to whether we go forward or back. If he can find the implants we will stay and get it done and then go south. If not, we will go back to the States and get Laynes teeth done in Los Algodones on the border and be back in Guatemala in the fall at the start of the cool season which will give us months to reach Panama before the rains instead of weeks as we find ourselves now. It is all out of our hands but either way the journey will ultimately continue.
Oh yes I forgot: potholes. They are especially intriguing when the road is covered in a few inches of muddy brown water. What if there’s a giant hole hiding underneath..?
Photos don’t show the steep gradients we had to negotiate.
Guatemalan roads lack subtlety. They go up and down the sides of hills with no concessions to grading or contours. The hill goes straight down? Well then the road goes straight down too.
There are no traffic lights outside the capital so when two roads cross or merge all hell breaks loose as cars push and shove with no good manners or concessions allowed. I need to toughen up but I had a few gringo moments marveling at their bad manners.
“Amazing we have seen no accidents,” I said as we rolled downhill trying to picture how soul destroying it might be to have to drive back to the US next week. Sure enough that was Jehovah’s cue to foul everything up beyond all recognition. There was an accident all right and it turned into a massive unscripted Central American goat fuck the like of which I had never seen and hope never to see again.
In short order cars started turning around completely at random. Bear in mind there were no exits for miles behind us, no turn outs and no shoulders. The travel lanes are lined by deep ditches so there was no way out. We sat still and watched a giant traffic snarl form up the hill behind us. Two lanes coming down and two lanes fighting their way up into a giant hairball of cars. It was insane. The freeway uphill and behind us turned into a massive chaotic traffic jam of interlocked cars and trucks. I sipped my tea and waited with a couple of dozen cars ahead of us. Sure enough the cops opened one lane of traffic just as soon as the freeway behind us was empty of impatient confused drivers.
Just a few minutes later the few of us waiting patiently started to move down the hill, around the corner and onto the scene of the accident. The hairball of jammed cars up the hill couldn’t move so the road behind us was completely empty. We were the last car through of course because our neighbors turned into ravening beasts the moment their cars could move and they shoved and pushed to fit in the single lane, but the road above the accident behind remained as empty as if an apocalypse had swept the traffic away. Apparently the giant snarl had turned in on itself. Totally weird but I kept driving.
We ambled into the former capital of Spanish Central America:
It’s a historic city worthy of exploration which we shall do. However the streets are also historically accurate and are made of very uneven cobblestones. Our kidneys were protesting in short order.
No one was speeding on these ghastly streets but they still put speed bumps in from time to time.
I think this will be a pretty town to explore and we met some people we had last seen Oaxaca camping next to us here.
Right in the middle of town Green Events provides a space to hold a wedding or a festivity but also rents space to campers at $13 a night for a couple in a van, dogs welcome of course.
Facilities are sparse, one cold shower and one toilet with a seat but no toilet paper…a trash can and lots of grass to walk. It’s perfect.
