So in the last few days, I managed to make it successfully with Anna to Antigua, Guatemala! We each got certified in scuba diving, our passport to the ocean! As of 3 days ago we can go anywhere in the world we want to to dive up to 100 feet down into the blue :D We spent one night in San Pedro Sula in Honduras, the first hotel we were gonna stay at had a cockroach on (yes, ON) the bed. I was so tired I wanted to stay ("Please? I'll take the bed with the bug on it!") but thankfully Anna refused to stay there. Quickly found another hotel, which had a gecko on the wall, a very welcome guest compared to our other one.
The next day we explored the city and found it to be quite lovely. Until we walked past a crime scene. We watched the photographer and the few people standing around, and then noticed a man's body on a bench. Covered in a white sheet, with his arm dangling over the edge. A dead body. It put a bit of a somber mood on breakfast.
Trying to leave, we discovered that no one seemed to know where the bus station was. We asked one lady and suddenly were surrounded by four people, all trying to help out. Eventually, one of the guys took us and walked us three blocks, then hailed us a collectivo that would take us straight to the station. He was such a sweetheart, and wouldn't even take a couple of bucks for the effort.
We caught a comfy bus to Agua Caliente at the border. The friendliest border I've ever been to. Where everyone smiled and the Honduran immigration desk had a poster with a picture of Tweety Bird that said "Amigos seremos, pero la ley es la ley!" (basically "We're friends, but the law is still the law")! So cute. We made it through the border with NO problems at all, very efficiently, then caught a taxi to a nearby town whose name I can still not recall (it was long and started with an E). Wandered the market, ate, hung out, hit the sheets early.
Today we were in buses from 10am until 5pm, but we made it to Antigua! In the first bus, every single window was cracked and the driver insisted on going 100 through winding mountains, honking at everything in sight. Made it to Guatemala City, which we discovered probably has its good side but looked really dirty and kind of miserable to us. Onto the next bus, a schoolbus painted bright colors, and finally we were here!
For the next few days, until Semana Santa (the biggest holiday in Guatemala, which is Easter and lasts a whole week) ends, we were so so fortunate to get a place to stay! Usually you need reservations months in advance, and every hotel is booked solid and costs three times as much as normal. BUT it just so happens that Anna went to boarding school with a girl whose mom lives in Antigua, and we are now staying with her friend's mom and brother in a gorgeous house with a courtyard, right in the heart of the city! So basically, I love this whole deal. The mom is out of town today but the brother, in his 20s, is the nicest guy ever and totally cool.
On the weekend we'll be heading over to San Pedro and learning Spanish, then going to ruins and on a jungle riverboat tour after that. And that's the plan. More to come as time progresses :)
Love and peace!
Kirsten
