Day 4 : Antigua to Xela

We woke up at about 6am to go for a run with Tom to Cerro de la Cruz. It is a park overlooking Antigua with a big cross – a very popular postcard picture, but this is taken from the city streets. It is quite the uphill run, and after yesterday’s events I had to walk most of it. While sitting at the cross, we saw Frances’ (my puppy!) Guatemalan sister! After the run, we said goodbye to Tom, and he was off to meet the birth mother of his son Alex. (Alex was adopted from Guatemala when he was still baby and is back now to meet his two sisters and birth mother. Quite an experience for the whole family. We are sure it went well and can´t wait to hear about it!)

We ate breakfast at Doña Luisa Xicotencatl in their courtyard. I have to mention it – it was such a nice setting and good food. And it was right by Rain Forest tours, where we had to buy our tickets to Xela.

We did some last minute sight-seeing in Antigua and sat in the central park until getting back to the Hotel in time for the shuttle to pick us up at 2. However, the shuttle must have forgot us, and we were picked up by a jam-packed bus yet again at 3 by a different company.... This was just the beginning. Right before Panchjel, the traffic on the road came to a dead stop. There was some political protesting, and the roads were being blocked by the locals. We sat in the small little bus forever! We were nervous that we weren’t going to make it to Xela, but after a bus switch at a hectic Texaco station, we arrived in Xela around 8pm. Thanks to the delay, we met Tim from the U.K. who gave us some great advice and a couple from Canada whom shared our lack of spanish abilities.

We rented a room at Casa Argentias, which is quite the backpackers’ mecca. However, the last private room that was available was basically a storage room that was pretty shabby. We went with it anyways! For dinner, we navigated the streets to the famous El Sabor de India (obviously some Indian food), and it was very good. I will most definitely be returning for some more Dal and the cucumber yogurt dish! I have to mention that our huge meals, which we could not finish, accompanied by naan and two beers was a total of Q 147 or about US$ 21. Not so bad, eh? I don’t think we will have much trouble at all adjusting to life in Guatemala.