Antigua

Well it always happens once on our trips I hope that this was the leg of our transportation that was the journey to remember(not fondly) We left Semuc Champey at an early 7 in the morning once again in the back of the pick up truck. After an hour we transferred to a mini bus, but shortly after we left the small mountain town the engine died. We should of known this was a prelude as to what was to come. The driver tinkered around with the engine but indicated after 20 minutes that it wasn't going to start. He hoped that maybe another shuttle would come along before the scheduled 2 pm one. But 15 minutes later the engine started. He didn't seem to know why, but we all jumped back in and started off once more. All went smooth; we stopped several times for banking and food and seemed to be hitting Guatemala City at the scheduled time, but as we entered, the city traffic seemed abnormally horrendous. Our driver assured us that it was normal but as the hours ticked away with us all stuffed into a van we knew something was up. . Everyone was hungry and thirsty and had to go to the bathroom. We spotted a shell gas station up the street, we had pretty well been parked for the last hour, so the driver unlocked the side door and sevral people jumped out ran across the 4 lane highway and down the side for about 400 meters. no worries we hadn't even made it as far as them by the time we came back. We know that having been in similar situations aroound the world those you share the journey from hell with can make an unbearable situation bearable.We were lucky once more. Our van was filled with 3 other people from Canada, 2 of them working in guatemala building clean healthy stoves for villagers the other a a nice xrat tech from calgary .An amreican base jumper and his wife, a british interior designer and an urban organic farmer from Brooklyn New York. What a great, and interesting group. We spent our time by discussing what food we were going to eat when we got to Antigua, favorite books and movies, travel stories and what we were going to drink first thing. What the problem turned out to be was a horrific traffic accident that had blocked off acsess to Antigua. We arrived after midnight; Antigua was completely quiet everything was closed. I started watching for safe corners to sleep as we didn't have reservations for accomodations that night. As a collective group we went from place to place looking for rooms. One of the canadians had a place reserved so after checking several we all ended up at that one. Thankfully they could take us all.. We all went out to celebrate and managed to find a bar that opened for as we banged on the door and they even served us food. You gotta love travelling....the journey, the interesting people you meet along the way. When we were finally able to see Antigua by daylight we instantly knew we would be here for several days.What a lovely old colonial town. Cobbled streets, beautiful courtyards all behind big wooden doors. We spent the next few days regrouping, relaxing and taking care of bussiness. Had a yummy cheesecake with Tania(xray tech) and Emilio(Finca Tatin) from Guatemala City came down to see us one night for drinks. He took us to a roof top bar we would never of found ourselves. A spectacular view of Antigua at night. I hope all the wonderful people we meet will look us up if they ever come to B.C. Dale went to cooking school one morning and contrary to what he might tell you I did not get a massage ala South east Asia but rather did the research organization as to where to next. Well it looks like were off to Lake Atitilan then into El Salvador. The journey continues.