After a long, but mostly uneventful day of traveling, I'm safely in Antigua, Guatemala. Starting the day at 3:30am and getting to my hotel at 3:30pm Ohio time makes for a tiring day, but I guess as far as travel days go, it could be worse. Aside from the chaos and anger at 4:30 in the morning when Spirit Airlines had to downsize their full flight to a plane that holds 70 fewer passengers because of maintenance problems, the day went smoothly with a quick layover in Miami.
Melvin and his wife Kristina, local Guatemalans hired by GVI to do airport pickups, met me at the airport. Melvin was sporting a green Cabela's cap. Cabela's is a massive outdoors store with locations in many states that my friend John would refer to as "Hunt, Fish, Kill." Marty and I actually dropped in at the local Cabela's in Dundee, MI just two days ago. As they have gigantic acquariams with a variety of fish, I was schooled in the difference in large and small mouth bass and got to see sheepshead fish (my catches from 2 weeks ago- see below) swimming around. My first (and only other) Cabela's experience was with my friend Leah a few years ago in West Virginia. We were aweed with the lifesize stuffed animals representing North America, and we ate in the cafe that offered bison, elk, and other interesting meat options. This was all very appealing to my vegetarian friend!
I was driven from Guatemala City to Antigua, about a 30-minute ride, listening to Foreigner and Frankie J. Perhaps the Guatemalans thought I would appreciate this. I surprised myself a bit with my "okay" Spanish speaking with them. I was using sentences and everything! Knock on wood... hopefully this will continue.
I am passing a few hours this afternoon walking around the central park square and sitting in a coffee shop with wi-fi, waiting to meet with the local GVI director to find out what is happening next. I know very soon I am heading to Honduras to stay until Christmas.
In addition to our outing to Cabela's, Marty and I had a good four days in Michigan. Going out with friends to watch the Brownies BEAT the Giants was a nice surprise. The weather kept us from getting in any mountain biking, but we enjoyed a night out for Sushi and dinner with Wei last night. Amber, sorry we couldn't meet up! Being a good sport, Marty took me to the airport around 4am, and has to drive to Ohio tonight.
more later...
Free Jessica Rabbit
9 years ago
2 comments:
Yeah, the Browns game was amazing! We got to watch to watch it through seriousfans.org, who have some entertaining commentary to say the least. Glad to know you have arrived safely and can now rest after a long day.
It's good you get to keep up with the games out there. And I did crash last night (after going out for dinner and a few cervezas) and slept very well until the almost daily fireworks woke me at 5am!
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