Acapulco to Guatemala, Goodbye Mexico

We charged out of Acapulco early, but not as early as we thought we might. We immediately hit grade and curves and again were slowed to an impossibly ridiculous mph. We lunched in our favorite Mexican site to date Puerto Escondido,

rather late and then shot out to try to get to the Mexican/Guatemalan border. Luckily we didn't make it and spent the night in Salina Cruz which was dicey and seedy enough. The next day we hit the border mid-morning. And we were hit by a gauntlet. First two boys, almost in uniform waving official looking id had a pull over and said we had to have certain documentation and they needed to take care of this for us. At some point we realized they were not official and literally had to push them out and away from the car. When we got to the border it was worse. At least a dozen people waving id's, slapping the car, yelling, waving their arms accosted/assaulted us, telling us what we needed. I found the most reliable official ID was someone wielding serious firearms. Well the process of crossing borders with a vehichle has one going back and forth between borders, getting the proper stamps and stickers from both borders, one recieving the vehichle, one canceling the previous countries admission. Each wanting to see proper ID, registration and title, which as you may recall was in the interum process in the States. So I basically had to play stupid and somehow convince them that the registration was both registration and title. Having the Mexican permission helped and we got through the Guatemalan border. Guatemala was stunning. The roads were in good condition although the drivers were absolutely mad. Let me add that they we mad in Mexico as well. What I had not imagined were there ridiculous number of big trucks we would be dueling with all the way down to Nicaragua. We made it half way through Guatemala and found a really OK hotel. Guatemala was very nice. I don't have photos to do it justice. Charles does. I may publish them in a later blog. For now believe me it was beautiful.