Our non-stop flight to La Aurora airport in Guatemala City should take about 4 1/2 hours. By the way, the round trip tickets for this trip only cost $200 each, about half their normal price. TACA advertises that they have the lowest airfares to Latin America and this time they really came through. I guess they'll tie the crates of chickens to the roof of the aircraft. :0)
At La Aurora airport, we will be met by a private driver in a Mercedes, who will take us to our hotel in Cuidad Vieja (about 7 kilometers or 4.3 miles south of La Antigua). We're staying in a small hotel, La Casa de los Tios (House of the Uncles), that has two apartments for rent. The two apartments are named after nearby volcanoes, Agua (water) and Fuego (fire). We're staying in the Agua apartment. Here's a link to show you what a rough time we're going to have for the first six weeks of our stay: http://www.livinginguatemala.com/Aptb.htm. For all this we're paying the exorbitant rent of $55 per week or about $7.86 per day.
We'll be in the La Antigua area for six weeks working with Child Aid (http://www.child-aid.org/), a nonprofit from Oregon that works with indigenous (Mayan) schools and libraries. We'll be doing computer repair and maintenance and perhaps be helping on a bookmobile chicken bus. I may also be doing some grant writing for them. For most of our projects, which will be in nearby villages, we need to travel by chicken bus. Some projects, like a 16 computer lab in a village near Lake Atitlán, may require that we stay one or more nights in a neighboring town while doing the project. We'll also be studying Spanish with the help of the 25 pounds of instructional material we brought with us.
After we finish our six weeks in the La Antigua, we're planning on traveling to the Petén, the northern-most department (state) of Guatemala. We'll begin by having the driver, who delivered us to our hotel, take us to the Linea Dorada bus station in Guatemala City, where we will take the 9:00 p.m. Pullman bus ($30 each way) to Flores. We should arrive in Flores (an island on Lake Petén Itzá) around 7:00 a.m., after sleeping for most of the trip.
After breakfast, we'll take the 2:00 p.m. bus ($6 each way) to Tikal National Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikal) where we'll probably stay at the Jungle Lodge (http://www.junglelodgetikal.com/). I had thought of renting a hammock under a palapa (thatched roof), but discovered the hotel was cheaper. The hammock rents for about $8-10 per night, but, according to Linda, would require two silk sleep sacks ($40 each) and delivery of our heavier luggage to the bus station when we returned to Guatemala City ($35), since we didn't want to carry it with us to Tikal. Thus, a private hotel room, which can be used to secure our luggage, for $60/night is actually cheaper than sleeping in a hammock! Don't you just love logic?
We're staying two nights at Tikal so that we have enough time to really explore it. We'll use a guide, at least initially, so that we can maximize the experience. They say that sunrise and sunset from on top of the tallest pyramid is quite an experience.
After we leave Tikal on Thursday, we'll return to Flores, where we'll rent space in a hostel ($6.66), so that we have a place to store our luggage prior to our 9:00 p.m. departure for Guatemala City. We should arrive in Guatemala City around 7:00 a.m., so that we can take the 8:00 a.m. Pullman bus to Xela (Quetzaltenango). We should arrive around noon, although we could be delayed, as I've heard that there is major construction on the Central American Highway (part of the Pan American Highway).
After arriving in Xela, we take a taxi to our guest house, Casa Latina (http://casalatinaxela.webs.com/), where we will also stay for six weeks. For these crude accomodations, we'll pay the princely sum of about $42 per week. What's interesting is that the last time we were in Xela (2007), we actually saw Casa Latina being built, although we didn't know what it was. It's actually directly across the street from the home of the family we boarded with on that last trip.
While in Xela, we'll be volunteering with two nonprofits: Partners in Solidarity (http://www.partnersinsolidarity.com/) , for which we will be doing computer support and repair in some of the thirty indigenous villages in which they have installed computer labs, and Primeros Pasos (First Steps - http://www.primerospasos.org/), for which I'll be doing grant writing in support of their health care and health education projects in the Palajunoj Valley outside of Xela. We also be studying Spanish with the help of a private teacher (Q30 or $3.75/hour for the two of us).
At the end of our adventure, we'll return to Guatemala City by Pullman bus and probably take a taxi or shuttle to Antigua for our last night and day in Guatemala. Our flight leaves at 8:30 p.m. and should land in Chicago around 2:00 a.m. After going through customs, we'll take the subway to the Chicago Loop and walk the short distance to Union Station, where we will take the 7:30 a.m. Carl Sandburg back to Galesburg, arriving around 10:30 a.m.
Now, if there is anything about Latin America that is a truism, it's that no plan remains unchanged. So stick around and discover what actually happens to Don and Linda as we experience our new 2010 adventure in Guatemala.
