Guatemala and the Taking the Long Way Home

We  woke up to overcast skies. We went to get breakfast at a place called the Bagel Barn. It wasn't great. The bagels were very dry, and despite asking for chocolate chip, tragedy struck when I received raisin. After this, we walked briefly around Parque Central, where they have a fountain of mermaids shooting water from their breasts. That's just what mermaids do. From there, we walked up Cerro de la Cruz, a hill overlooking the city. From above, we could see that the town of Antigua is in a grid, something that made Antigua unique in its day.  The peak of the volcano was still obscured by cloud cover, and though the weather reports predicted a clearing around 11, this would never happen.

After walking back down hill, we went down by the Arco de Santa Catalina, which is like "Main Street," Antigua. On weekends, it also becomes a pedestrian-only zone. Other historic walled cities should take note. This is how it should be. The sidewalks are too small. We did a bit of shopping and I tried to get a decent shot of the arch. I guess back in the day, it acted as a pedestrian bridge to allow nuns to cross the street without being seen. Previously they had ordered the street closed so nobody would see them when they left the convent. The bridge was a compromise. Like most things in Antigua, however, it was destroyed in an earthquake, and a clock was added later on.

We explored the streets a bit more after dropping off our purchases at the hotel. We went to a place called Convento de Santa Clara. It's not a working convent, evidenced by the lack of a roof, as well as steps leading to nowhere, but that is what made it interesting. It had a large courtyard area, and we could see that people were setting up for a wedding in a chapel also missing its roof. Rain could be an issue.

We were able to climb up into the choral area above the chapel for a good view over the ruins and courtyard with the mountains in the background. After our self-guided exploration of the convent and grounds, we went to go get some lunch. We went to a place called Cafe Sky, so we could be on the roof and look out. I got a massive tortilla soup with avocado and onion. Antigua was historically known for its usage of avocados, and the variant they most often consumed was brought to California, and is said to have cultivated the entire avocado industry in California. That's big doings. No Antigua, no avocado toast.

We walked the streets a bit more before returning to our hotel to gather our belongings and catch an uber to the airport. The ride was about an hour and we discovered that the morning Delta flight must have transferred some of its paying passengers to our flight, which made our chances of getting on seem a bit dicey. We switched to Avianca, which left an hour earlier, and went through customs and security. Avianca boarded, Avianca had seats up front, but those cannot be awarded to the likes of us. Avianca left. We did not. We went over to Delta. Delta awarded us seats. We sat down. We got ready to depart. A gate agent came on board and informed us of a miscount and that there was now just one seat. I can't jumpseat on Delta internationally, so that was that. We took a walk of shame off the plane and tried to figure out a plan C.

We were starving and got some baked goods from a store and then slumped into depression. A Delta gate agent, named Isabel, found us and offered suggestions. She would become our best friend over the next several hours. She kept finding us at different places in the airport and was the conduit with the United agents in trying to figure out our best bets. They were pushing Newark. Our options were to go to Newark and change planes there to LA. This added about 7 hours of flying to our initial plans, and also included Newark which is undesirable. A stop in Houston was more direct, but would require waiting another two hours and the flight from Houston to LAX was anything but guaranteed. Lastly, we could get a hotel near the airport, attempt the morning flight on Delta direct to LA. While there are no guarantees in standby travel, Houston and a direct flight the next morning were a bit dicey. Newark to LAX had a surprising amount of seats as long as we arrived close to on time. After already spending seven hours in the airport, we willingly chose to make our day even longer. Isabel asked us to update her if we got on.

We got middle seats to Newark and did the headbob for a few hours until we landed at a timely 5:15am. Our flight to LAX was leaving at 6:00am. As we had arrived on an international flight, we had to go through customs and security. Things weren't looking great, as the "efficiency" of the Newark airport has broken the likes of even the calmest traveler. Like some kind of miracle, though, we were the last people to arrive at gate C92, were awarded business class seats, and the door closed a few minutes after we got settled. Thanks to the nice seats, we were able to at least rest, albeit sometimes fitful. Around 10am, we finally landed in LAX, a bit burned out, but home, and with a new instagram follower named Isabel.

And then Antigua

It was a rather unexpected and fateful day. You see, there seems to be an issue with either Avianca’s ticketing system and/or the website that I use to list for flights because when I want to change to a flight at a different time or go somewhere else, it keeps giving me an error when I try and cancel my previous listing. It came up when we took an earlier flight to Cartagena. I told the ticket agent that there were probably two that were showing up in the system, and to cancel the later one if it was possible. (She wasn’t able to do it either, but that’s beside the point). I had created two listings for today. We had to fly from Cartagena to Bogotà regardless, but the next leg was a bit different. One went from Bogotà to Los Angeles direct on Avianca. The other went to Guatemala City, a holdover from when we thought we would be spending the night in Bogotà and the direct flights for tomorrow didn’t look good. From my research, I discovered that there were seats to Guatemala City and then a direct from there on Delta to LAX. You follow all that?

  To get to the point, I had two listings to two very different places. In my research I discovered a small colonial town called Antigua, a UNESCO heritage site, an hour or so drive outside Guatemala city. It looked very nice in the pictures, so I was a bit intrigued. On the flip side, we had been on the road for the last two weeks dealing with holiday stress and a suitcase that had both winter garments and bathings suits. There was a certain appeal to getting home and going back to our lives.   

  The Avianca counter in Cartagena was out of control. For some reason they have scheduled three flights to Bogotà all within the hour plus a flight to Medellin, so the line extended well beyond the ropes. Luckily our rudimentary knowledge of Spanish let us know that an Avianca employee was motioning people on the 9:11 am flight (us) to go to a separate line. From there, we were quickly called to the counter. It was at this point that I asked Nicole what she wanted to do. She was noncommittal, so it was up to me, except I didn’t say anything and the ticket agent never asked. Eventually we were handed four tickets, with only the Cartagena-Bogotà leg visible in the stack. I had my hands full with other things, so I couldn’t flip through to see where we were going next until we got to security. I looked at Nicole, “You ok with going to Guatemala?” Sure.

  After a somewhat confusing situation where we were given seats on an earlier delayed flight, which had already boarded by the time we got into the terminal. We were transferred back to our originally scheduled flight once we realized what had happened. Once in Bogotà we worked at a brisk pace to exit the domestic terminal, enter the international terminal, process through customs, go through security, and walk to our gate just prior to boarding. About three hours later, we were in Guatemala. We got an Uber to take us to Antigua. With traffic, it took about 90 minutes due to some slow trucks climbing through the hills. The town of Antigua looks substantially different than the views from the car leading up to it. We made a turn and all of a sudden went back 500 years. The streets were cobblestone and we saw our first white people, who appeared to be involved in some kind of yoga retreat. Figures. Our hotel was an old mansion built for some conquistador. It would have been quite the house. It has a large courtyard and fountain. I’m not sure if it’s the wood or what they’re cleaning with, but the place has an aroma of something that’s 500 years old.  

  After settling in, we walked around briefly. The clouds had moved in, obscuring the usually photogenic volcano and dulling some of the colors of the buildings, so I didn’t take any pictures. Uncharacteristically, we were able to get an ornament for our tree at the first shop we entered. It is a grouping of “worry” dolls stitched on a wreath. The worry dolls were/are a tradition for Guatemalan kids, who place them under their pillows and by morning, their worries have gone away. Perhaps they should make worry dolls for adults too. We walked a bit more and got dinner at a place called Angie Angie. They also had a large courtyard, where they had strung lights and started a fire. It was a very nice atmosphere. Worth noting is that we were wearing jackets because despite how one might picture Guatemala, we are currently more than 5000 feet above sea level and the temperature dropped quite rapidly after the sun went down. After dinner, we returned to our hotel to sit in the courtyard and relax after a long day of unexpected travels. Tomorrow we hope the sun shines down once again on Antigua so we may see it in its glory.