Thanks to Google we drove all night

This post is not in order and covers the last day of our trip to Guatemala, but I wanted to write this one so I didn't forget a thing. Sorry it's so long.

It's Friday the 13th on a rare full moon and we wake up early in Arriaga, in the Chiapas region of Mexico so that Ken can get a few things done for a client before we head out. We talked the night before about how close we are to Lake Atitlan and how we just need to make it happen the next day.

As the morning went on, it was clear the client work was going to take longer than expected. I went down to the restaurant in our hotel hoping to catch the Mexico v Cameroon World Cup match. It was so exciting to watch it in a room full of people who love the game. The place erupted with Mexico's goal, which turned out to be the only goal of the game. It was awesome.

About 2 p.m. we set out on the road to the border, expecting about a 4 1/2 hour drive. About 40 kilometers from the border, we ran into a speed bump/check point and a man named Roberto who had official ID from a Mexican bank approach the car. He explained that we needed to go back about 5 km and check in at the immigration building to get our vehicle deposits back. He offered to get in our vehicle and help us get through all the paperwork.

After interacting with two different groups of Mexican immigration officials and a lot of questions about our quad, we were on our way about 7 p.m. When we got back to where we picked him up, Roberto mentioned going with us through the Guatemalan border to ensure we didn't have any problems and he happened to live in the border town on the Guatemalan side so we could drop him off after. Because our FJ was literally packed to the roof in the back, he offered to ride sitting on the arm rests between our seats in the front. Sounded fine to me, Ken was dubious about his intentions and they way he talked his way into our vehicle.

When we got to the border at Tailsman, I was so glad we had Roberto with us. Like characters in zombie movie, the car was literally surrounded by people wanting something from us, very intimidating. Roberto waived them off and yelled at me to keep going, so I did, nervous that someone was so close I would hurt them as we drove past.

As we approached the border, Roberto motioned for us to drive into a large gravel lot filled with vehicles. He then motioned for Ken to go with him to fill out the paperwork. By this point, another group of men had crowded our car where we were parked. As Ken opened the door and they saw one of our cats, they started meowing loudly, trying to get our attention - pretty annoying. As he and Roberto walked out past them, Ken spoke gruffly to them, not to touch the car and to move away. Ken looked back at me one more time..."are you sure you're okay with this? If you feel threatened AT ALL, just honk." I reassured him more strongly than I felt it that I was fine.

I was somewhat relieved to see that the men assumed Ken was the only one worth talking to and followed he and Roberto out of the lot. I was there sitting in the car with the cats while the sky got darker and darker. Paranoid that someone might be getting into the items on our trailer, I kept checking the side mirrors. A teenaged boy approached and motioned authoritatively to me that I was to move my car into a parking spot - which would have left me pretty vulnerable and trapped if someone were to pull up behind the spot.

So I pulled up my big girl panties, summoned my North Highlands grit, and forcefully shook my head "No!" while making direct eye contact and looking as tough as I know how to look. I was pretty shocked to see that he quickly gave up on me, deciding I wasn't worth the effort for whatever he was trying to pull.

It was 9 p.m. before we finally got through, with Ken almost physically fighting with the man operating the gate at the lot when he tried to lock me in, and Roberto running back and forth to each office to get us okayed, even riding with a friend on his motorcycle back to Mexico to get some things photocopied - yeah, I guess they didn't have any copiers on the Guatemala side. SOOOO worth having him along with us, even with the $100 "donation" he suggested.

As we dropped him off, he and Ken reviewed the route Google suggested and it seemed we were on our way, expecting to be there in 2-3 hours. For the next hour driving in the dark, the Google Map woman's voice telling us to turn left in 800 meters or to continue straight (we always correct her and say "forward, not straight") was comforting.That was when we liked Google Maps. Here's the map:

Soon, the Google Map lady told us to turn off the main highway, which seemed strange. It was a much smaller road - but maybe Google was sending us on a shortcut and we would get there even quicker!

A couple of miles into the new road, the foliage on either side seemed like it was moving in, creating less and less space to drive. The road started to get very steep, and then the "road" turned into dirt...very rough, washed out, canyon-like dirt. We had a choice to make. We didn't make the right one and I went back to that moment many, many times throughout the night.

We kept going. It was narrow, it was steep, it was difficult to turn around with a trailer, and we are optimists. We kept thinking, it's just this part of the road, it will get better.

Ken was amazing. Even after the long, crazy day he had, he was aggressively but carefully attacking the road ahead. At each point, our mood about the journey became more negative. The road was horrible - worse than any that we've driven before and we drove some crazy roads in Costa Rica before their recent investment in infrastructure. As we slowed to get through each hazard as gently as possible, we cringed to hear the creaking of our trailer, imagining the tongue finally taking too much stress and cracking.

It got more and more rural, varying between steep canyon-like dirt roads, rocky roads (!) and roads that were more pothole than road. It was taking MUCH longer than we or Google expected. Their 3 hour prediction never changed. It felt like we were never getting any credit, never moving the dial despite the challenging progress we felt we were making.

At about 3 a.m., we were still moving along the road and some Guatemalans were beginning to start their day. One driver who came up from behind us fairly aggressively in a mini-truck with the back filled with kids on their way to school warned us that the road ahead was very dangerous. That part we knew. Not 10 minutes went by that we weren't wondering at the horrific conditions ahead of us.

But we had come pretty far and wanted to get to our place so badly, so we pushed on. At 4 a.m., we came to an intersection we were having trouble turning into, and two more people pulled over to tell us that we shouldn't go any further. We decided that was too much to ignore but we weren't sure what to do. We could take the quad the rest of the way, un-hitch the trailer and come back for it, go forward anyway or turn around and go back the way we came.

We decided to take a nap. On the side of the "road." In our car. Perhaps with a little sleep our brains might come up with a new idea. Unfortunately, I was again paranoid about our trailer and spent the time checking in mirrors and windows. Luckily, Ken went to sleeep immediately. I can't convey enough how exhausted we both were and how many times I tried to re-arrange myself in the confines of the passenger seat to try to find a position comfortable enough to sleep. Not sleeping for so long was literally painful - my body was aching and it seemed like I was having trouble regulating my temperature - swings of cold to hot and back again. I would have given anything to sleep.

When Ken woke close to 5: 30 am, we came to the realization the only smart thing to do was go all the way back and we were going to, except when we tried to turn around, our FJ got stuck....very stuck. We were literally spinning our wheels as the village men in the area started to gather. It was embarrassing, and with the lack of sleep and a night filled with anxious driving, it would have been easy to assume the worst about their intentions. But Ken got out of the car and using all the Spanish he could muster after the lack of sleep, he and the men were able to work together and get us going again.

Here's a look at our speed of progress on the Google route:

Here are some photos along the route that we were taking for a second time to get back to the highway.

When we got into a town large enough that it had a restaurant and we knew we were in the clear, I had the best breakfast of my life. I love the traditional Mayan breakfast of eggs, black beans, queso fresco, plantains and tortillas - the best! Especially after the night we had.