hospedaje guatemalteco

well
guatemala, here we are, my sister and I!
so after a 13 hour journey from San Cristobal with lots of reading and a fun border crossing I arrived in Guatemala City at 8:30pm...and after hearing horror stories of the capital, was a little weary about getting a cab to my hotel.
It worked out in the end and I got a cheap cab ride with a nice taxista. My bed and breakfast near the airport was adorable, a nice older very catholic couple who gave me a ride to the airport at 5 am...
but her flight didnt get in till 6:30.
so i met this nice guatemalan couple who were waiting for the same flight
sarah´s luggage was stuck in atlanta...and the nice couple took us in their car to Pollo Campero to have breakfast cause we had to be back to the airport at 12 to find her bag.
had a great time with them and then went back to airport, got a taxi and went downtown...but no one was there due to the fact that they´re all at the beach for semana santa.
Long story short we hung out in deserted Guat city for a while and then met our same taxi man who brought us back to the airport, we found her bag and then he took us to Antigua and set us up with a bus to Panajachel, which was to leave at 4.
Hung out in antigua for 2 hours, its pretty much exactly like san cris and i felt at home, sarah loved it.
then we got the bus to pana and met a nice honeymooner couple, marissa and kyle, from San Francisco. Got to Pana at 6:45 or so to find out that we´ve missed the last boat to Santiago Atitlan, where the rest of my group is, where we have a reservation.
Knowing that its Semana Santa and theres no space anywhere, we think we´re screwed. We were offered private boats to Santiago for 300 quetzales, which is like $40 plus its dark and its aobut 30 mins accross the lake...and we didnt feel safe. Marissa and Kyle suggested that we go with them, saying that we could sleep in their room on the floor...what nice people, even though they´re on their luna de miel!
So we got in a boat to Santa Cruz with Kyle and Marissa...to see if there was space at their hotel - when we got off the boat 3 police officers accompanied us on the long walk on a slippery trail in the rain right beside Lago Atitlan. Got to this hotel and they´ve made space for us to sleep on the floor in the main room...and fed us dinner...and have been all around wonderful.
One of the guys who is working and staying here was living in victoria for a while - and sarah knows him from salt spring last summer where he was for the retreat...tiny tiny world it is.
All in all Sarah has had a very adventurous and eventful first day in latin america...and theres 7 more to come...
Tomorrow to the festivals in Santiago Atitlan!!!