Today we were supposed to come back home, but we didn’t. Joe and I said goodbye to the rest of our team, then got on the bus and headed to Antigua (a 1 1/2 hour ride from Pana) for the biggest celebration of the year in Central America. All week people were partying all over Guatemala, leading up to Good Friday.
The holiday is called Semana Santa and Antigua was the place to be. There were all kinds of processions, floats, and beautiful paintings in the street made from colored sawdust.
Of course, there was lots of food. Since the food is really cheap, Joe and I got really experimental and ordered everything. We had no idea what was in half the stuff, but it was soooo good! At a quarter to four, we headed back to the place where the shuttle was coming to pick us up to take us back to Pana.
It never came! We waited an hour and a half but no shuttle. This was a problem, since we were stranded with limited money. E verything was back in Pana. We found several travel agencies and were told the same thing, no shuttle after four pm. To add to the complication, we tried to book a room several days back, but we were told unless we booked at least 5 months in advance, we weren’t going to find a room.
Guess what! We found a room! It was in a hostel attached to a travel agency. We checked into our room and headed back out on the town. About half an hour later, I started feeling bad. I mean REALLY bad. I had to get to the room, NOW! Unfortunately, a procession blocked the way to our hotel and we couldn’t get there. So, I sat down on the curb and started to cry.
We made it back to the room where I spent most of the night in the bathroom that we shared with several rooms on the floor. I’ll spare you all the details, but I’ll just say it was a really rotten night for me. It turns out it was the unpasturized ice cream I ate that day. We did catch the shuttle the next morning, but I have no idea how I made the ride without making the driver pull over every five minutes.
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