The Last Few Days

The last leg of our trip from Santiago to Panajachel to Antigua to Guatemala City stretched out over two days and was much more relaxing that I expected. It was fun to show Erich some of my favorite restaurants and sites in the cities that I have grown to love over the past three weeks.

Antigua is by far my favorite city in Guatemala and I was happy to be there for one last day and night before we left. While walking around the city, we came across an unmarked shop selling coffee and chocolate.

The owner, who processes everything by hand in small batches was taking a well-deserved rest:

We also found a small place selling pupusas. Pupusas are made by stuffing corn tortillas with cheese and your choice of ingredients. I chose chicken, sweet peppers, and olives for mine. The pupusas were delicious and filling!

We stopped by Tabacos y Vinos to see Ricardo and enjoy one some wine and some delicious espresso.

Ricardo was even nice enough to take us back to Guatemala City on Friday night before our Saturday flight back to Wisconsin. We dropped our bags off at his hotel and then headed out to see Zona 4 where many of the nicer restaurants and bars are located. I had mentioned my love of fondue (which I’ve managed to enjoy three times while in Guatemala!) so we ended up having meat fondue and chocolate fondue for dessert.

We also enjoyed an “obscuro” or dark, Guatemalan beer called Moza that Ricardo assured me was not favored by the locals who drink a lot more lager. Erich and I split the beer, which came in a very strange tall glass:

It was nice to enjoy a stout again, even though it was nothing close to my favorite – Guinness!

One thing I'm definitely going to miss seeing the "Chicken Buses" barreling down the streets that take the locals from one city to another and all over Guatemala City.

I’m writing this entry on our last flight of the trip, Miami to Chicago where we managed to get upgraded to first class, whoo! It was a nice surprise and almost helps me forget that we’ll be spending the night in the airport tonight as our flight is too late to catch the last bus to Madison. We’ll be on the road back home on the 6:00 AM bus after spending the night on a bench near the baggage claim at O’Hare. Ah, luxury….

We've Arrived!

After hours and hours of travel, and three flights, all of which were significantly delayed due to weather, Eva and I are officially in Guatemala!  The trip itself was fairly uneventful, highlights included talking to a man who has been stranded at O'Hare for three days due to a cancelled flight, the standby list being 60 passengers long for our first flight to Atlanta (thank goodness we had a reservation!), and seeing this little monkey get pulled around in style by his parents-

I wish I had a better picture that captured the glee on his face, he was on our first two flights so we kept running into him sprawled out on his dad's carry-on.

Eva was also super excited about her purchase of a neck pillow.  So excited she insisted on wearing it while boarding the flight.  I was embarrassed but decided it was best to let her have her fun....and document it in a photo that will live on for years.

Another highlight was the stewardess on our first flight.  She looked at me like I had a third head when I asked if I could reuse my plastic cup during the beverage service.  She then said something about how adorable I was but that this was unacceptable practice.  I then had to toss my cup into the trash and get a new one when I wanted a refill.  Thanks American Airlines, glad to know you love the environment as much as we do.

We did manage to get an upgrade for our last flight to Guatemala City.  Helloooo first class living!  It was a fun experience but honestly wasn't the luxury we were hoping for.  What do you mean we shouldn't have expected massages and caviar on our two hour flight?  Instead we settled for barely edible "whitefish" and some roasted potatoes.  The highlight was mini bottles of liquor for an after dinner treat....oh, and some champagne to welcome us aboard.  We stashed some mini bottles of Bailey's in our purses which ended up coming in handy later for bribing a guy at the airport for helping us find a cheap taxi to our hotel.  Ah, commerce at its finest.

Now, we're spending the night at El Aeropuerto Guest House, aptly named for its close proximity to the Airport.  Honestly we probably should have held onto the Bailey's and walked, it's that close.

Tomorrow we'll head back to the airport to catch a flight on TACA airlines to Flores.  The ticket was $210 roundtrip but saved us a 10 hour bus ride each way so we figured it was worth the expense.  Flores is the closest city to the Mayan ruins of Tikal.

It's supposed to be 75 degrees here tomorrow!  I'm going for my first run outside in shorts in what feels like forever.  Hooray for escaping Wisconsin winter for three weeks!  And wearing flip flops again!