I slept rather poorly the night before. I kept waking up, I was cold, and my stomach hurt. The bed only had a sheet on it, so I tried to sleep under my towel, but it still wasn’t warm and the fan was blowing on me. I tried not to toss and turn too much since Amber and I were sharing the double bed. I woke up nearly every hour, and when the alarm went off at 5:30, my stomach was not happy. We got ready and I videoed Amber doing a Tato impersonation and we took a final picture. I took some medicine that Lauren had and went to the bathroom one last time. I was worried about being on buses (without toilets) for most of the day. It would have been better if I could have taken a shuttle at six. We left at 6:15 and we parted ways right outside our hotel. I headed toward the park and after asking a few people, I found the collectivos to the border. There was one waiting to leave, which was nice. I was feeling muy mal and spent the 20 minute trip to the border praying for easy connections for the four buses I was going to have to take and for my stomach to feel better. We arrived at the border at 6:45. I exchanged my meager amount of lempiras for quetzales and got my passport stamped. I walked across the border and found the Guatemalan customs office and paid 10Q to enter Guatemala and get my passport stamped there. While I was paying, a man came up to me and asked if I was going to Guatemala. I said that ultimately I was going to Antigua, but I was willing to take a shuttle to Guatemala. He told me that actually the shuttle was going to Antigua and that there was one seat available! What an answer to prayer and so fast! I climbed in the front middle seat, between the driver and a girl from UT in Austin who is getting her master’s in social work. Her friend was in the back and she is in the program, too. She is interested in working with people with disabilities. I got her email address so Emily can contact her. It was really windy because we had the windows all the way open. I talked to Nancy for about an hour and then she slept. I started feeling better soon after getting into the shuttle (another answer to prayer!) and I didn’t feel horrible again the rest of the day. We stopped at 8:30 for breakfast and bathrooms. I ate my peanut butter sandwich. We drove for another half hour or so and then Nancy and her friend Jennifer got out to take another shuttle to Coban. I now had the advantage of having the whole front seat to myself! I read my Bible and wrote in my journal. Then I worked on school stuff for two hours! I am so thankful that I can read and write in moving vehicles. Poor Amber feels carsick even if she is not reading and I don’t feel sick even if I am reading. There was a lot of traffic in Guatemala City and I think our driver tried to take a detour and got lost. Finally we made it out of Guatemala City and went to Antigua. We arrived about 12:30, which was hours before I would have made it taking four public buses! Our driver only dropped us off at one point, about a block away from the park. We drove right by where I needed to get off (about two blocks away from the house), but as my bag was on the roof, I could not just hop out. I met a family who had been in the back of the shuttle. Then I lugged my stuff to Elvira’s house.
Enrique opened the door for me and I went in and chatted with him and Elvira for fifteen minutes. I stayed in the room downstairs next to the kitchen. I put my stuff away and went to the bathroom. The only person who was still at Elvira’s from before was Alex. I met Luis from Quebec and Dexter from Minnesota who works at a school in Guatemala City. Rosa also ate with us. We had guisado de res (beef stew), rice, guacamole, and plantanos with mole. My Spanish was flowing nicely as I talked with the new guys, told Elvira and Enrique about my trip, and discussed recipes with Elvira. We all think that she needs to write a Guatemalan cookbook. After lunch, I stayed and talked for a while before heading out to do my errands. As I was preparing my purse for errands, I found 1,000 lempira in my other wallet! I was surprised that I had nearly run out of money, and now I know why. Ahhh! Why couldn’t I have found that before I crossed the border where you can get a great exchange rate?!
I needed to book a shuttle for the next day to get to the airport, but I had no idea how difficult of a task this would be. I went to an internet café for 15 minutes to make sure I knew what time my flight left (9:45am) and I chatted with Tammy and Laura for a few minutes. I then went hunting for a shuttle. I wanted to find one that left at 6, but there were not any, unless I wanted to pay big bucks for a private shuttle. I then settled on leaving at 5am, but most places only offered a 4am shuttle. The prices had gone up a lot from last year when I paid $5. This year I had to pay $10! After checking in about 12 travel agencies, I finally found one that offered a 5am shuttle (Ash Travel Agency). The woman working there (Maibely) was very friendly and gave me a 24 hour number in case of emergencies.
In between stopping at the travel agencies, I went to the grocery store and bought some unique foods that cannot be easily found in Indiana. I bought two pieces of milk candy from a little shop and a caramel ice cream from Pollo Campero in honor of my last day in Guatemala. I then passed by a Burger King, which I did not know existed in Antigua. In Honduras, I had seen an advertisement for green soft serve ice cream, and I was really curious about it. I wondered it if was lime or pistachio or fig. I went in to investigate, but this Burger King did not have that flavor and the ice cream cones cost nearly 3x the price of Pollo Campero ice cream! I went to the bank to see if it is possible to exchange lempira for dollars or quetzales (it isn’t). I went to the market and bought a few last souvenirs. In one stall, I talked with Tomas for a long time. He is from Chichicastenango and has 7 brothers and sisters. His father died and the three oldest all work in different cities to support the family. He only learned Spanish five years ago when he left his village where only Quiche is spoken. He also speaks two other Mayan languages and a bit of English. His boss is a pastor and Tomas earns $100 a month no matter how much he sells. I gave him the money for my purchase and a little more for him and his education. I bought an oil painting of Antigua for me at the next stall. The boy working there was named Jose. He really wanted me to buy his painting, but I liked his sister’s work better. I got the painting $15 when the asking price was $25. I need to find my oil painting from Hong Kong. I bought a tiny oil painting of Lake Atitlan last year. Too bad I don’t have a piece of art from South America. I guess I will have to go back sometime! I stopped a the Feria de Libros in the park and bought a book of kids’ riddles in Spanish. I headed back to the house to sort the clothes that I was going to donate. Our Spanish school collect donations. I left at 6:12 to walk all the way across town to the school. I got some atol de elote on the way since it was my last day. I needed Amber to share it with me, though, because I could not drink it all. When I got to the school, it was closed for some strange reason. I rang the doorbell, but no one answered. I booked it back toward Elvira’s and stopped in a tienda to spend my coins. I had actually accumulated a lot and bought candy. I got back just a few minutes before dinner, so I washed up and helped Elvira in the kitchen. Enrique did not eat with us because he was at a political meeting (maybe our joke about him running for office is coming true!). Dexter did not eat either. We had elbow macaroni with alfredo sauce and herbs, a hot dog with tomato sauce on it, and broccoli with lime juice on it. We talked about Lyme Disease at dinner. Alex has a friend in New Jersey who has it badly. After dinner, I headed to my room to pack. I say that I hate packing, but really packing up to come home is not too bad because everything must come. Luis had loaned me his travel scale to weigh my suitcase. It is really nice and small, too. Elvira came and said goodnight and asked me to turn off the light when I went to bed. I did a good job using stuff up and leaving stuff behind because my suitcase only weighed 40 pounds when I was finished! I moved some books from my carry-on to my suitcase. When I came, I had about 80 pounds of stuff not counting my backpack and when I weighed my stuff last night, I had about 60 pounds of stuff! I finally finished packing about 9:45. I rinsed off in the shower (good temperature, poor water pressure) and laid out everything I would need for the next day. I went to bed about 11pm.
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