We woke up at 6:20 and got ready for the day. At 7:15 we ate breakfast with the family. We had two pancakes with maple syrup or blueberry jelly, a tostada (similar to a sugar cookie), and pineapple. We said goodbye to everyone and returned to our house (#59) to wait for the bus. While we waited, we talked with Larry about his testimony. He had to give us the short version, and I wished we had had time to hear it all. The bus arrived a few minutes before 8. We were the first people on the bus and we chose seats near the front of the bus for Amber. I sat behind Amber and Lauren, on the left side of the bus. It was a big, nice bus. When we got on, I noticed that it was the same company that I had used last year when I went (when I had a less than desirable experience). One of the guys on the bus was even the same guy that had been in Coban the year before and sold me my tour package! We drove all over Antigua looking for the other people for more than an hour! We passed our house three times! We saw Enrique and Larry and Dorothy walking through the city. Finally, we left Antigua at 9:15. Again, we were the only Americans on the shuttle out of 19 people! There were people from Holland, Australia, England, Spain, and Italy. We talked to some interesting women from Spain. We asked how long they had been traveling and they said they’ve been traveling since 2008 (if I remember correctly)! We got to Guatemala City at 10:30 and then continued on. We drove for another hour or so and then we stopped by the side of the road so people could answer the call of nature in the bushes. I am not sure why we didn’t stop at a restaurant, like we usually do. A police officer stopped and talked to the driver. I think he was confused about why we were stopping. Later, we stopped at a restaurant at the side of the highway around 11:45. Supposedly we were going to be there 15 minutes, but in reality it was more like 45 minutes. We talked with the Italians, Felippo and Erika. Felippo works at a hostel in Nicaragua. Erika was visiting her boyfriend in New York and then came down to visit Felippo for a bit. Finally we left the restaurant and continued on our journey. We arrived in Cobán at 3:30. I am not sure why the trip took so long because the weather was good the entire trip. In Cobán, lots of people got off the shuttle, including the women from Spain. We got their contact info about their organization. When we asked them when they started traveling, they answered “2006.” We had been expecting an answer of a few weeks or months! They were really funny. Sara read the Spanish words I was copying from Amber’s Spanish notes and she told me that “chistista” is not a word.
We left Cobán at 4. The driver told us that the trip would last two hours to get to Lanquín, but in actuality, it took a bit less than that (for once). When we arrived in Lanquín, we got our backpacks and bags and immediately, a man from Las Marías, a hostel in Semuc Champey, asked us if we wanted to go to Las Marías. We had wanted to stay in Lanquín because it would be easier to leave on Monday, but he kept trying to convince us. We walked most of the way to El Retrato, a hostel in Lanquín, but we discussed it as we went. Transportation was our biggest problem. However, as we went over our options, we decided that it might be better to stay in Semuc Champey because we wouldn´t have to pay for a tour of Semuc Champey and the caves. We sent Lauren back up to find the man and tell him that we wanted to come with him to Las Marías. Amber and I stayed with the bags. We tried to ask several people about the public transportation from Lanquín, but everyone kept telling us that we had to take a shuttle. We were frustrated because we knew that if someone had a relative in Copán or Puerto Barrios, he or she would not be paying to take a shuttle to get there! Lauren arrived in the back of a pickup filled with other people. Amber and I got to sit in the backseat inside the cab. We tried to look at a map in the Guatemala book as we went. Our original plan had been to go to Copán from Semuc Champey, but it didn´t seem to be very possible. For that reason, we thought about going to San Pedro Sula first and then go to Copán at the end of the trip as I headed back to Guatemala. We arrived at Las Marías after a 30 minute bumpy ride. We found it interesting that the guide book described the road from Lanquín to Semuc Champey as “a long, hot walk.” The road was actually quite hilly, rocky, and quite far. I think it would take many hours to walk that distance. I am surprised that Lonely Planet said that it was even walkable!
We settled into the second level of a cabin in a dormitory (35Q/$4.50 per person per night). There were five beds in the room, but we were the only ones up there. We put our passports and money in the safe. We sat with Filippo and Erika. Amber, Lauren, and I shared pollo de la plancha (grilled chicken) and a ham and cheese sandwich. I drank peach juice in a can. After talking with Erika and Felippo, we returned to the cabin. During the dinner, it had started raining and continued raining heavily until we went to bed. Because of this, we had to walk up the hill to our cabin and then to the bathhouse in the rain. I forgot to use the bathroom while I was there and so I had to take an extra trip there in the rain. Also, I had to return to the main area of the hotel to ask Hugo about the light in the cabin. We couldn’t find a light switch anywhere. We had seen a sign down below that said that the generator (and therefore the lights) are turned off each night at 10. Hugo told me that all the lights would go out then, and if we wanted to turn off the light earlier, we could grab the lightbulb with an item of clothing and unscrew it from its socket. Lauren was feeling sick and, for that reason, fell asleep early. Amber and I wrote in our journals until the light turned off at 10.
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