First Days In Guatemala
Guatemala - February 19, 2006
We arrived to Guatemala City late Thursday night after a long day of travel. Our expected 4 hour layover in Dallas was nearly non-existent due to a late arrival from London and near-comical delays in customs and every security check point we passed.
Our initial plans were to capitalize on the four hour layover by posting a couple of blogs. Instead, the one and a half hour delay on our flight coupled with our customs and security checks caused us to delay our Guatemala flight by nearly 30 minutes (and when we say "us," we mean we were the sole reason the plane had a late departure). Apparently it's not a good idea to have two bags on a plane with 2 unaccounted passengers. As we were going through the second security check we heard our names called numerous times on the loudspeaker for the entire airport. And wouldn't you know it, our departure gate (46) happened to be the farthest distance in the airport from the security check. When we finally reached our plane (out of breath), we were then humiliated as the pilot announced "Ladies and gentlemen, the two men that have delayed our flight have now just gotten on board." Then, just as we were about to sit down, the flight attendant stopped us and began to aggressively reprimand us for being late. It was one of those times that however much you tried, you couldn't sink any deeper in your seat. We were both so exhausted mentally and physically from the past several days that we were asleep before the plane was airborne.
We arrived Thursday night to Guatemala City and were able to find a fair-priced hostile (approx. $5 US) in the middle of the business district of Guatemala City. Neither of us thought that an old, rickety bed with a 1-inch thick pillow would look as appealing as it did to us that night (in fact, anything horizontal to lay on would have been more appealing than the rigid, sterile airport seats we became accustomed to sleeping in the last 2 nights). After a restful night in the hostile we hit up some authentic Guatemalan food and even had a chance to mail some of our items home. Word to the wise...Do not mail anything from Guatemala unless you plan on spending close to five times the average shipping cost. We were told by a postal worker that the prices skyrocketed after a Canadian company took over the mail system from the Government a few years ago.
We decided to head to Antigua that night to get a jump on being prepared for the well project. The station in Guatemala City is more like a circus, with literally hundreds of people and buses in every direction. After a few minutes on our first bus, we were told we needed to take a transfer to get to Antigua. We spotted our transfer bus at the opposite end of a fairly dark park. Apparently, this park was not the best spot for two gringos to be at this time of night (according to a few locals), which we quickly believed as we caught several people following us within a minute of walking into the park. Once we got through the park, we spotted the bus appropriately called a "chicken bus," (since they are known to pack people like chickens on these buses). The drive was a long hour, with extremely sharp turns and a driver that seemingly enjoyed taking the corners as fast as his chicken bus would allow him to.
We arrived to Antigua around 10pm and were greeted by Jaime and his wife LiLianne. Jaime is one of the key individuals that we were put in contact by Living Water. Within spending a few minutes with this couple, we knew we were supposed to be in Antigua a day early. We were amazed by the humility of Jaime, who wouldn't call himself anything more than a helper for the team (he's a lot more, by the way). Jaime is the go-to man when it comes to digging wells in Guatemala. His house was Living Water's compound; and Jaime and Lilian seemed to utilize every square foot in their house to accommodate the teams of up to 18 people staying there (showers, kitchen and food). Outside, we were able to see endless amounts of drilling equipment such as the necessary parts, trucks and tools that is required to drill a well.
-Lee
jenny said...I'm glad to hear from you guys, and glad things are going well. Love ya, jen