Postcard :: Day 1

We left home at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Friday night and our adventure began. Our adventure, also known as "The Honeymoon", took us through Guatemala for 8 days and then onto Belize for another 8 days. Each and every stop was different from the one before... Here's how it all got started.

I was treated to a pat-down at SFO. We killed 4 boring hours in LAX with card games. And at midnight we hopped on the plane for Guatemala. I slept, Lukas didn't - the story of all our travels.

Our plan to get quetzales at an ATM upon arrival quickly went out the window when, after passing through customs, there weren't any ATMs in site. Instead there was an empty room save one guy behind a taxi counter. On the other side of the sliding doors was a "mob" of waiting Guatemalans. We were overwhelmed. Just a bit.

So instead of getting cash we bargained ourselves a taxi ride to Antigua. Luis, our driver, got a kick out of showing us collegio Berkeley. "You have a university with the same name?" he asked with a smile. In my broken Spanish I tried to tell him that it is actually very close to our home.

The view across the street in Antigua when we were waiting for the shuttle.

After 4 hours in Antigua we boarded a shuttle to Panajachel. We were in for a crazy ride. Neither of us could keep our eyes open. Every time our eye lids would droop they would spring back open as the driver slammed on the breaks to avoid a chicken bus or motor cycle or person at the edge of the road. One time I woke up and we were just inches from a bus.

A boat ride and 103 stairs stairs later we were at Casa del Mundo.

{picture at top - travel-weary Megan amid the ONE big backpack we took for the trip, our other two little packs, and the one-eyed cat that made itself right at home on my lap while we waited for the shuttle}

*Note: I know when we were planning this trip we were hunting down any details we could find. So, if someone doing the same thing happens on this little blog of mine and would like more information and specific details shoot me an email. I may not have the answer, but I can tell you what we did. megan{dot}a{dot}wenger{at}gmail{dot}com