Trip to Antigua

As we boarded the pack shuttle to Antigua, we enjoyed taking one last look at the city we lived in for three weeks as well as the beautiful surrounds of Guatemala. We then made ourselves comfortable for the five hour drive.
Our first stop was in Panajachel (Lake Atitlan). We had to get out of the shuttle to let the people out who were getting off. As the driver was on top of the shuttle getting their bags off Kathy and I decided that we needed a snack. We walked a few feet away to the little stands and bought a couple bags of chips. As we turned around we noticed that no one was outside of the shuttle any more and then it started to take off. I ran after it so they would not leave us. After flagging it down we boarded. We could not believe that the people on the shuttle did not tell the driver to wait for us!!!

We then started our journey to Antigua. The driver took through some very steep mountains that had were absolutely amazing. Along the trip we saw people working on their crops, hauling their goods and walking their cows. We even saw some small little caves on the side of the mountains on the road. The driver told us that during the week when the workers are working on the road they use that for shelter in case it rains or if it gets to hot they can sit in the shade. What a wonderful idea and how creative.

When we were about an hour away from Antigua it started to rain really really hard. The driver was kind enough to pull into a gas station to retrieve our luggage from the top (even though it was covered with a tarp he did not want our stuff to get wet) so we could put inside of the shuttle. Since we had dropped a lot of people off we now had room for it. The rain did not give up, it started to come down harder and the streets were flooded. At times it felt like we were in a boat floating along. That is when I realized why the sidewalks are so high in Guatemala, it could be to keep the rain out of the houses and stores.

Our drive got us to our hotel safe and sound. We were excited to stay in a hotel that had HOT water since where we lived did not have hot water all of the time. We learned to shower really really quick.

When we checked in, they told us that they only had a room for us for Friday and not Saturday so we would have to find another hotel. We thought we would deal with that in the morning. We decided to explore our new surroundings and find a place to eat. We ended up a couple streets away from our hotel on 5 Calle. That was the happening stop. There were a ton of restaurants, bars and clubs. We decided that we would eat at Frida's and enjoy a couple of cocktails before calling it a night.