Quetzaltenango (Xela) with Doña Gloria and the Family

We left Antigua, having secured our hotel room for Semana Santa, and took the first chicken bus to Xela, which is also known as Quetzaltenango. It was here that Peter spent a good 6 months of his year in Guatemala--both as a student and then as an intern for the Human Rights Omsbudsman. So, it is a town that is close to his heart and as we got closer, I could feel him becoming more excited and nervous at the possiblity of seeing the town and (hopefully) his host family after all these years. After a somewhat harrowing bus ride, we made it into town around 6:30 p.m. and caught a taxi straight to his host mother´s old address. Peter had not been able to get in touch with the family, either by phone or email, so we were not really sure what we would find. When we got there, though, there was Doña Gloria! And, she was looking not all that surprised to see Peter. . .seems the family had been talking about him at lunch, wondering why they hadn´t had any news in so long! Even better, her last two language school students had moved out at 1 p.m. that day and she was happy to have us stay with her!

It was wonderful to stay in a Guatemalan family, have some good home cooking (excellent tortillas and tamalitos!), and feel taken care of for a bit. The family (pictured above at lunch) was so warm and hospitable to us. Doña Gloria´s memory of Peter´s stay with her, too, was incredible. He was the first student she had ever hosted, so she remembered many tiny details from his stay, which was fun for me! The town of Xela was also fun--not too large, but not too small, and an excellent place from which to take day trips. While there, we went out to the village of Olintepeque, where we saw a Palm Sunday procesion; we visited the town of Zunil and paid our respects to evil San Simon (pictured above); and, we stayed overnight at the Fuentes Georginas hot springs, stopping at the market in Almolonga on the way home. We stayed in Xela for 6 days--long enough to get a taste of the highlands, Mayan culture, and Peter´s experience with his wonderful host family. On the last night, we went out salsa dancing and were glad to discover that we could more or less hold our own. We weren´t as good as the Guatemaltecos, but were some of the best gringos, by far! The next morning, we were back on the bus for Antigua and Semana Santa. . .

Up into the Montañas!

After our tour through the mangroves on Thursday morning, we packed and went to the beach one more time before checking out of our hotel. Our shuttle to the city of Antigua was scheduled to leave at one, so we decided to eat lunch in town at a place called the Taberna del Pelicano--little did we know that they had an actual pelican as a pet! Throughout our meal (which was delicious), we were entertained as the pelican, whose name was Pancho, attempted to enter the kitchen and was repeatedly rebuffed. His persistence was finally rewarded, though, when the señor who owned the place came out and fed him by hand out of a bucket of live fish. . . .

This was all so entertaining that we barely made our shuttle to Antigua--the oldest town in Guatemala. We found a very nice place to stay that night, but then spent most of the rest of the afternoon trying to secure a reservation for Good Thursday and Friday, which is the height of holy week celebrations here in Guatemala. Everyone says that the Antigueños do holy week in a way that is not to be missed! Finally, we found a spot--a little guest house run by a man who reminds us very much of our asylum clinic professor, which we took to be a good sign. Before dinner, we toured the largest church in town--La Merced, which is beautiful and different from most churches in the US in that it is painted a vibrant marigold shade.

Friday morning, we woke up and toured an old convent name La Capucina, and the San Francisco Cathedral, which dates from 1589--I was so surprised to find such old architecture here. Afterwards, we toured the market briefly, had lunch, and hopped on a chicken bus going even further up into the mountains to Xela (or Quetzaltenango), where Peter spent most of his time when he lived in Guatemala. Through a serendipitous turn of events, we found Peter´s host mom--La Doña Gloria--and her most recent homestay students had just left, so she had room for us to stay! So, now we are here with her until Thursday, when we will return to Antigua for the pre-Easter festivities. .

Monterrico--The Beach!

So, finally, Peter and I arrived in Guatemala City around noon on the 10th and had the good chance to almost immediately find a chicken bus that was going (almost!)directly to the beach town of Monterrico. We got into town and found a hotel, just as the sun was setting over the Pacific ocean. We spent three days in Monterrico--mostly just sunning ourselves, playing in the water, taking walks on the beach, swinging in hammocks, and eating well. As a result, we are somewhat tanner and much more relaxed than we were when we arrived!

Two highlights of the Monterrico part of the trip for me was the entirely coincidental chance we had to see the last sea turtle hatchlings (so tiny!) of the year be released into the ocean by a local environmental project. Second, we got to take a sunrise tour of the canals through the mangroves by canoe on our last morning in Monterrico. Unfortunately, I didn´t have my camera with me when we came upon the sea turtle release party, but I do have pictures of the mangroves, which I´m attaching here with some others. . . .

Schedule Changes and False Starts!

Day one of our trip and we are getting a taste of chaos already! Yesterday afternoon, we received news of some pretty massive changes to our itinerary (due to Air Madagascar's decision to no longer fly to Kenya) and spent the latter part of the day working with our travel agent to readjust things so that our time in Madagascar and Tanzania wasn't shortened. We will now be returning from our adventures on June 10, instead of June 7. The other changes are reflected in our schedule on the right side of the blog. The good news, though, was that both of our cars arrived intact on the car carrier from Seattle, so we were delighted that Nelly and Gus actually made it safely to Peachtree City before we took off! Another good thing is that last night, on what we expected to be our last night in the country for a good while, we met Peter's ex-colleague Don in Atlanta. He is in Atlanta for his first time from Seattle attending a death-penalty conference, so we went to Mary Mac's Tearoom together to sample some authentic southern cooking. We had a great time with him, reminiscing about not-so-old times.

One of the major schedule changes was that the flight out to Guatemala moved from 10:10 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. this morning. My very patient parents agreed to wake up at the crack of dawn and still take us to the airport, so with very little sleep (I think I got none because I was so excited!)we set out at 5:30 a.m. for the Atlanta airport. When we got there, though, we ended up standing in an excruciatingly-slow line for an hour and a half while the surly attendant waited on the six people in front of us (yes, that's right--she was processing people at a rate of one every 20 minutes!). During our wait, we learned from other travellers that our 7:30 flight was cancelled, but that there was a possiblility of getting on our original 10:10 flight. We were frustrated to say the least. I took some solace in the little six-year old girl in front of us playing with her dog. But then, the dog climbed onto my backpack (holding all of my possessions for the next 3 months) and peed! That's pretty much how the morning went.

When we finally got up to the counter, the surly attendant informed us that we would be missing the only flight to Guatemala for the day, which left Fort Lauderdale, FL at 10:40 and that there would not be another until Monday. We resigned ourselves to flying to Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday, so that this same scenario would not repeat itself on Monday (and to save my parents another early trek to the airport). We then came back to Peachtree City, drowned our sorrows in fried chicken breakfast biscuits and went back to bed.

Keep your fingers crossed that we get to Guatemala on Monday!

Winding up the Details

Well, no pictures to post this time. Since we took the bar, Peter and I have been busily preparing for our trip and trying to lay the groundwork to really settle in Atlanta once we get back. This process has seen us touring homes, sending out job feelers, getting travelers' checks, buying sunscreen, re-packing, and finalizing hotel and plane reservations. . .so much to do! We really thought that after the bar, we would have more of a break, but it's been more hectic than we thought. It's been really nice, though, to be with my mom and dad and their dog Cokie during this time! Tonight, we are going out to meet a friend of a friend and start the process of making new friends in Atlanta. The rest of the week, we'll just be finishing stuff up and then on Friday, we fly to Guatemala! Peter and I have been talking and dreaming of this trip for almost three years. . .it's amazing that it's actually happening.

We will try to post here as often as we can to keep everyone apprised of our adventures. And, we'll look for your comments, as well, when we have internet access. When the connection is good, we will post pictures, so you can see what we're up to. Thanks so much for all of your support and well-wishes! We're so excited about our trip and will be very excited to visit and share pictures and stories once we're back!

Love,
P&R