I started very early this morning with a 6 am flight to Miami to catch a connection to Guatemala arriving there a bit after noon. I have wanted to visit Lake Atitlan in Guatemala but never managed to fit it in. This time, I have my friend Margaret traveling with me. We are going first to Lake Atitlan for 5 days. Our 4am pickup got us to LaGuardia at 4:25. Zero traffic makes for a quick trip. We had time for a stop at the lounge and a cup of cappuccino. Breakfast was served in flight. We landed early in Miami.
After a short time in the lounge, we walked to the gate to board just as passengers were deplaning. There was a short delay, and then we took off for Guatemala…until the captain announced that there was a banging on the side of the plane that required us to return to Miami. It’s always a bit nerve wracking to return for an unknown problem and be told we will be surrounded by emergency equipment as we land. I have experienced this once before. It’s scary.
We stayed on board briefly. We were asked to deplane with luggage in case we needed a different aircraft to take us to Guatemala. Being in row 2, Margaret and I got off the plane and walked straight across the hall to the bar. I received a text that the airline would give us a $12 voucher to spend on food but not alcohol while we waited. Coconut shrimp was an easy choice. We reboarded the plane after about 45 minutes and were back on our way.
We landed in Guatemala City and finally met our taxi driver outside the airport around 4pm which is 6pm east coast time. It’s a 3 plus hour drive to the lake. But it’s Sunday and traffic is amazingly light. As we drove into the mountains it became quite foggy. We stopped briefly to get some food since our hotel said no restaurants would be open by the time we arrived.
We climbed up some mountain roads then down towards the lake. Street lights are not typical here. It was dark and quite foggy by 6pm. When we turned off the main road towards the lake we were on a narrow dark road filled with speed bumps and switchbacks. I kept looking for evidence of a town but the only lights were from tiny restaurants along the road. We finally saw a cloud of little lights below us. The driver said it was San Marco. Twenty minutes later we stopped by the road and were told we had arrived. No hotel was visible. A young local took our bags asking us to follow him. We walked down narrow streets filled with restaurants that were closing. The streets all had large bore holes in the stones undoubtedly for drainage. It rains suddenly and very hard most afternoons. When we finally arrived at our hotel it was clearly a beautiful spot overlooking the lake. Tomorrow it will be gorgeous. Our room has floor to ceiling windows looking out on the lake.
Time to rest now after a very long travel day.
The Adventures of Anne 