Back on the Road with Aña's Brother

Two days ago we drove to Guatemala city from Xela. What a drive it was! Under normal conditions the drive would be scary enough. In addition to steep winding mountains roads, there is now debris scattered on the highway from Tropical Storm Agatha. There must have been close to forty (yes that's 40) landslides that had covered the highway to various degrees. In most places only half the highway had been excavated necessitating a reduction to two lanes. Many sites were being worked on with bulldozers and backhoes. In one place half of the highway was gone. It had slide down the mountain side. Another place was still flooded with half a meter of standing water. Glad to be driving a truck.

We made it to Guatemala City after four hours of crazy driving. Unfortunately the craziness level only exponentiated. The first part of our Guatemalan City mission entailed researching a way to extend permission to keep our truck here. We became lost a couple of times on busy one way streets with chaotic drivers. Eventually we landed in a secure parqueo near two of the official buildings we needed to visit. After confused officials tried to find loopholes in confusing policies we decided to retreat. We will have to try talking with some folks in Xela when we return in a few weeks.

The second part of the mission involved finding a recommended Korean restaurant. With more driving in circles, cars cutting us off, and blind buses almost pulling out into us this didn't go much better. We decided to abandon yet another part of the mission.

Luckily the third, and most important part of the mission, was completed with style and panache. We mainly went to Guate. to pick up Aña's brother, Matt at the airport. We arrived a few hours early. We were not allowed into the airport and had no idea to check the flight status. Luckily the vagabondgoddess is on our side. The first gentlemen we asked about this conundrum had a spiffy iPhone. With this he quickly navigated to the airline's website and confirmed the arrival time for us. We spent most of the time across the street at an outdoor food stand eating barbecued chicken tacos and sipping coffee. We were eating amongst airline workers, waiting Guatemalans, and motorcycle police with Uzis and other toys. I also spent some time sleeping in the back of the truck while Aña serenaded me playing Guitar.

Matt arrived safely and on time bringing tons of goodies we'd requested. The most prized goody is a wheel of our favorite goat cheese. Aña had thought the wheels were smaller than the massive one we're now travelling with. It ended up being a $100 5lb. wheel of our Humboldt County Humboldt Fog goat cheese. Just a little more expensive than we had counted on, but it's hard to complain.

We promptly drove out of the insanity that is Guatemala City. Driving at night here isn't the best idea, but neither is staying in Guate. Our plan was to head to the Earth Lodge in the mountains north of Antigua. The drive to Antigua was mostly fine. The only scary part was running into an unmarked flooded stretch of highway. This quickly slowed the truck down from about 50mph to a near stop. At least now I have a better idea of what it must be like to drive into a lake.

We reached Antigua around 10:15pm. We had to stop and ask several times to find a small unmarked road out of town. This road took us up about 300m (1000') to a tiny village. As per instructions we had to locate the pilas (community wash area) and park there. Then a step decent down a dirt path and we had arrived at the Earth Lodge. A remote hippy hostel. We threw some stuff in small dormitory cabin and began work on the cheese wheel. Waking up we realized that the site offered one of teh most incredible views in Guatemala. Three volcanic peaks nearby with one erupting every half hour or so. We'll spend three nights here since the third night is free. Then off to exploring the rest of Guatemala.

Stay tuned for more pictures and vagabond rambling.