Reality Sets In
Whilst I layed in bed, restless with anticipation of the day to come, I managed to score a few brief moments of sleep before being jolted awake by the droning of my alarm. Though I should’ve been tired, being that it was 3:15a.m, I was rather exhilarated. Having triple checked my bags the prior night, I downed a mug of coffee, ate a delicious cream horn(thanks mom), and was ready to rock.
My dad, our dog Zeus and I loaded into the car, and began the trek to the airport, with the entire ride feeling like passing through a ghost town. Somehow, even though I had driven that route hundreds of times in my life, this time felt different. My subconscious was telling me that would be the last time I’d see those familiar streets, or even my country for that matter, for the foreseeable future.
As we pulled into the airport, I felt emotions creeping up through me, for until this trip, I hadn’t gone more than a couple months without seeing my immediate family or pets, even in my 2 years away at University. Since I only had one carry-on bag and a personal item, and pre-checked-in my ticket online, I managed to avoid talking with anyone from spirit airlines. This was a relief, because when buying my one way ticket online, the airline said I may need to require proof of onward travel. That being the case, I still had butterflies in my stomach about whether or not the person scanning the ticket would give me a hard time, but fortunately I managed to board the plane without any questions.
First Flight
The plane began its ascent, and I got to have one last incredible look at my city while the sun crept up over the horizon. Fading in and out of consciousness from exhaustion, there was no real sense of how much time had elapsed during the flight. Eventually though, I woke up and peered out the window to see that there was nothing below us except the vast Atlantic ocean below. I had flown over the ocean before, but unless my memory failed me, this time it looked as if the ocean below was stagnant, like water in a video game when you are not close enough to see its movement(we are in a simulation??). As we descended into Fort Lauderdale though, the waves began their recognizable perpetual rolling pattern.
Second Flight
A brief layover later, and I took my last glance at the United States before heading onward towards Guate. During the plane’s passing over Mexico, I realized two things:
1. How massive the country is
2. The variety of its landscape.
We floated over everything from forests, to lagoons, to mountains, to beautiful, seemingly uninhabited coastal places.
Some time later, we entered Guatemala’s airspace, and were met by massive mountains, dense jungle, and something I had never seen before, volcanoes. During the final stretch into Guatemala City, I also noticed what I thought were plumes of ash from volcanoes, at least a half dozen of them, strewn throughout just a couple dozen miles of land, but later I found out the contrary(more on that later). Shortly after these plumes of grayish-black smoke, I got a glimpse at nearly the entirety of Guatemala City, and couldn’t help but compare it to the United States.
One of the first things I noticed about the city was that there were huge sections of it on the perimeter that I could only describe as slums, with houses constructed from cinder blocks and random sheets of metal that were seemingly stacked on top of each other with no room in between. What also caught my attention was the seemingly massive separation in income, with giant high-rises taking up entire sections of the city, but surrounded by extreme poverty.
Getting from Airport to Antigua
Departing the plane and going through customs was fairly simple, with yet again no questions about my leaving the country. A wave of relief passed over me as my passport was stamped, and I was free to travel around the country as I pleased. Since the airport had wifi, I went online and purchased a ticket for a shuttle(Guatego) from Guate to Antigua, for about $20.
Waiting outside the airport cafe meeting point, I was approached by a French guy around my age named Emryk, who I found out would be taking the same shuttle as me to Antigua. Shortly after me and Emryk had been talking about our home countries, the shuttle driver came up to us, asking to see our tickets. We told him our names, after which he expressed a worried look on his face. Apparently since we had purchased our tickets only 15 minutes before, our names did not show up in the system, and the driver said the shuttle was overbooked. Fortunately for us, a few people on the shuttle ended up being no-shows, and we were off to Antigua.
During the ride, me and Emryk became acquainted with our co-passengers; Colette from London, Natela from Russia(now living in Florida), and a slightly crazy woman who’s name I frankly don’t remember. Most of the conversation during the 2 hour ride was dominated by this crazy woman, who was from Nasheville, and had been to Guatemala several times before, so she felt as if she was an expert on the country. Every chance she got she explained to us some random nuance of Guatemala from her perspective, such as how people ride scooters and motorcycles everywhere without any helmets and weave in-and-out of traffic.
Being the conversationalist I am, I accidentally got her started on spiritualism, which was a terrible mistake. Initially I asked everyone what type of music they liked, after which she started explaining niche genres of yoga music that I had never heard of, and she started talking about some sort of pre-piano instrument that she plays with a group of yogis. Long story short she then talked half of the rest of the ride about various instruments such as healing bowls, and described how they’re SO healing because they match the frequency of the sun, planets, blah, blah, blah.
Entering ANTIGUA
As we entered the perimeter of Antigua, Colette, Emryk, Natela and I exchanged contact info, and planned on meeting up later once we all got settled in. An hour later, we all headed to Parque Central to begin exploring the city.
We wandered the streets, taking note of the differences in architecture of the buildings, the beauty of the churches, and the interesting sounds and smells engulfing us. Whilst walking, we entered various stores with all sorts of trinkets, and even accidentally stumbled upon perhaps the most famous spot in Antigua, the Santa Catalina Arch. Shortly after leaving the Arch, we stopped for a group photo at Iglesia La Merced, and ventured onwards towards Cerro De La Cruz.
Cerro De La Cruz
On the way to the Cerro, we made our way through beautiful little streets of houses with flowers and plants hanging everywhere, mixed in with groupings of cinder block and brick houses that reminded me of Guatemala City. A brief walk later and we made our way to the head of the trail. Weaving our way up dirt switchback trails through trees, we all immediately noticed that our bodies and lungs were not accustomed to the altitude, with our breathing becoming increasingly strained as we climbed.
Minutes later, we made it to the top of the hill, and to quite possibly the best view of Antigua you can get. Cerro De La Cruz directly translates to: “Hill of the Cross”, which is a fitting description, as it is quite literally a giant cross that is situated atop a hill that overlooks the entirety of the town of Antigua. Aside from the cross itself, there is a tranquil little park at the top of the hill, with places to sit and relax, as well as vendors that you can purchase food, hats, or drinks from. We took a few minutes to soak in the beauty of this new place, viewed Vulcan Fuego erupting in the distance, the sun setting in the distance, and then began our descent back down to town.
Bidding Fairwell to New Friends
As we walked back down towards the town center, we briefly stopped at the Parque Central(which surprisingly has wifi) and got directions to check out the central market, where we hoped to find some food for our starving bellies. When we did come across the market, we noticed that there were very few vendors there, and were honestly a little disappointed, but I now know that it was because we were only on the outskirts of the market, and because many of the vendor’s close their stalls after dark.
Since that option for food wasn’t available, we strolled down the street in search of a restaurant, or pretty much anything at this point, and happened upon the Iglesia De La Merced that we had visited earlier, and were pleased to find that this opposite side of the large church had a few different stands selling food. After viewing our options, I decided to go with a pupusa filled with chicharron and topped with guacamole and shredded veggies for 15Q(~$1.92).
My newfound friends followed my lead and ordered the same, and as we ate, me and Colette discussed some of the differences in what we call various things(for example, in London people call the trunk of a car the “boot”, strange). Upon finishing our food, we said our farewells and started making our ways back to our places we were staying.
Getting Lost in the Night
Departing from the group, I made my way back in the night to the central park, where I could hopefully pull up directions to my airbnb(since I didn’t have phone service). I plugged in the directions, felt fairly sure I knew where I was going, and began the final stretch to a bed. As I walked the streets, I passed many streets that all seemed the same to me, and quickly realized I had no idea where I was going.
I asked many locals in broken Spanish “Donde es la calle de los pasos”, and while all of them were very helpful, my poor understanding of Spanish kept me from easily following their instructions. About 4 or 5 people later, as I had attempted to follow the last person’s directions, I felt as though I would never find the airbnb. Just when all hope was lost, and I wandered aimlessly through the streets, I passed two people who were staring at me. I couldn’t make out their faces, so I continued on down the street. “Frank? Senor Frank!?” I quickly turned around and saw that the people I had just passed were waving me down, and as I grew near, I recognized that it was the owner’s of the house I was staying in.
I apologized for not recognizing them, to which they said no problem, and that they just wanted to make sure I found my way back safely. Feeling relieved that I had nothing else to worry about, I made my way to my room, undressed, and crawled into the sheets. Within about 30 seconds, I was out cold.