First Night in Guatemala

No internet tonight! And so much to tell! We didn’t make it to IHOP after all, but we did make it to the airport in time to scarf some airport omelet and get on our plane. There was a new security x-ray machine that the people in the line next to ours had to go through. We just got the standard: take off your shoes, belts, whatever and empty your pockets. The first flight was ok – I made a barf bag puppet and then we all pretty much napped to Houston. For some reason, it became necessary for me to purchase a tie-dyed screaming monkey during our layover in the Houston airport. Then we got some lunch and got on another plane – to Guatemala City! On this flight, there were lots of empty seats, but the attendants wouldn’t let us use them because they were in a more expensive section of the plane. So we settled into our cheap seats, and I made an additional barf bag puppet and Woofie and I read a magazine. The landing runway was super short and the plane had to brake very abruptly – hello! Our plane was out of the forms for customs so everyone from our flight had to fill them out just before customs. We stopped to exchange some dollars for Guatemalan quetzales. Our exchange rate was about 6.6 quetzales per dollar, but I’m not sure how that relates to rates from a bank instead of an airport money changing place. We were stopped in customs and the agents opened Sandy’s box and suitcase full of supplies. We got to explain about flea, tick, and heartworm prevention to several airport workers while they read the Heartgard and BioSpot labels from the donations. Once they were satisfied that we weren’t carrying anything illegal, they packed us back up and sent us on our way to meet the group. Everyone else had already arrived and were mostly loaded onto our bus by the time we got outside the airport. We’ve travelled with Colleen, Andrea, and Randy before, but it’s been fun getting to know the new folks as well. I’m sure we’ll post about everyone. We had about an hour’s bus ride to Antigua, and our first hotel. There is a really nice courtyard with some tables and chairs, where we spent the rest of the evening catching up, making new friends, and talking about our plans for the trip. Then the adventure of the beetle happened in our room, and Dr. Steele very deftly (and bravely) caught him to put outside. Which was great, but since the window is open (the weather is lovely!) he may very well venture back in during the night. Tonight’s rumor is that the hotel will serve us breakfast at 9am and that maybe there will be WiFi so I can post this – it’s not working tonight. ‘Night all!