Rough Day to Good Night

With a need to close out one project and possibly interview for a second, Ken booked a quick trip to the states...it happened to coordinate well with my good friend Liz coming to Guatemala, so just one trip to the city! We decided to go up the night before Ken and Liz's flights to make it easy.

We woke up and had some wonderful local granola and decided to get a fairly early start so we could reach the city with enough time to put the finishing touches on a proposal due the next day. Good plan at least.

Ken went up to the FJ to separate it from our trailer while I finished packing some things to stay overnight. When I got up to the FJ, we opened the back gate and started loading when I noticed a stinging sensation on my foot...I looked down to see that I was standing on an ant hill and they were pissed. I jumped a few feet away and started swiping them off my feet when I heard a thud and groan from the front of the FJ.

Ken wasn't making a sound, bent over in silent agony but I could see a nasty bruise, bump and gash on his shin. He had slipped on the sidestep of the FJ and fell with the full weight of his shin into the side of it...leaving a disgusting amount of skin behind.

I felt nauseated and pretty powerless to do anything about his intense pain. I suggested we put off leaving and go back to our place to clean it up but he wouldn't have it. He wanted to press on.

I offered to drive, not just because he was hurt, but because I wanted to be confident in the route when I drove back with Liz the next day.

The first 30 miles or so until you get to the Panamerica Highway is rough...not as rough as our all-night drive, but has its fair share of potholes, hairpin turns, and narrow passageways. I was glad I would have some practice at it.

We stopped briefly for lunch along the way, and found ourselves entering the outskirts of the city about 2:30. The traffic coming out was very slow and I took note that the next day I wanted to grab Liz and get out of there as quickly as possible!

It was relatively easy to find our hotel, La Inmaculada, with our Google directions (yes, we still use it, but we skipped one of the steps using our own logic and local signage.) We found a parking spot about a block away assuming we would come back out and re-park once we found out how the parking worked.

Bad news...the website said parking available...but all the spots were taken so we would need to park on the street. Not a good idea, even in Zone 10. We decided to head out on foot and look for a nearby hotel with parking. Great idea...until 4 blocks out the sky opened up and we got hammered with a thunderstorm. We tried for a couple blocks to push through, but eventually sought the refuge of a hair salon overhang. While waiting out the rain, we realized we were just a block from a shopping center we visited last time we were here, so we decided to make a run for it.

We made it to a coffee shop, logged into their wifi, and continued our hotel search online. We found one we liked and tried to book, but it didn't go through. Meanwhile, the rain slowed so we decided to make a run back to our car and drive to finish the booking in person.

On the way to the car, we spotted a parking lot advertising night parking for about $3.That was our answer. Great idea but they had no extra spots. They did have another lot, not far away but the exact location was muddled in translation.

When we got to the FJ, we went out to hunt for it. It was now 4 p.m. and the city streets were beyond busy. We pushed our way into the slow crawl of vehicles and hoped for the best. We eventually ended up back at the original parking place. This time the directions were much more clear. We found the other place just as the sky opened up again. I recalled seeing a person along the street in the earlier storm that was holding a simple trash bag overhead to keep dry... and we happened to have a box of huge sturdy trash bags in the back of the FJ. Wish I had taken a photo of our self-designed trash bag raincoats, but you'll have to just imagine.

Ken went with a simple cutout at the top for his head because he didn't mind getting his hair wet. I opened up one of the seams and went with a hood approach. I'm sure we both looked ridiculous, and I'm equally sure we were too dry to care. We did happen upon a couple other people doing the same thing and we all nodded with smiles as we passed.

We half jogged the 8 or so blocks back to the hotel, thinking nothing of running through deep puddles by this point and sheepishly announced that we would take the room after all.

We got in, got warm in a luxurious modern shower, and grabbed some yummy food from a restaurant practically across the street. Then the real treat of the night...the place is known for it's coffee bar, so of course we stopped in for some fuel to attack that proposal, but maybe one of us got wine instead. The fruit and chocolate...amazing. Not a bad way to wind down Ken's last night in Guate for a week or so.