Adventures in Guatemala, Part IX: The Long Road Home

Adventures in Guatemala, Part IX: The Long Road Home

On Tuesday, December 13, 2011, we awoke to a beautiful morning on Lake Atitlan.

One of the things I had really wanted to do at the lake was to go out on it in a canoe or kayak.  So the hotel arranged to have a guy meet us at the lake at 7 a.m.  While we waited, we saw this guy in a traditional little wooden boat fishing for breakfast.

We had to wait a few minutes for the kayak guy to show up...

...then we suited up.  (I stood downhill for this picture so we'd line up better)

It was so awesome to be out on this beautiful lake surrounded by volcanoes in the calm of the morning.

Then it was time to shower and quickly get ready to go.  Our house had an indoor and an "outdoor" (open-to-the-sky) shower, which was a bit of a novelty.

We had a nice breakfast that was included with our stay.

This is the house we rented.  It was lovely, and we wished we had more time to spend there.  But alas, it was already 9 a.m. and our flight was at 1 p.m. in Guatemala City, so we needed to bust a move.  In fact, we had meant to leave 45 minutes earlier, and we were surprised it was so late.

So we headed back up the hill towards the main road, seeing more familiar sights along the way, like the modes of transportation and delivery.

Most of the people we saw near Lake Atitlan had traditional clothing, including many of the men.

We tried to stay back from this particular chicken bus. Gasp!

And here was our last view of the lake as we pulled back onto the main highway.

Every hillside seemed to be utilized for farming (in this case, carrots, it appears).

We saw lots of flat tire repair places, almost all of which advertised using a tire painted with "pinchazo".

We were cutting it really close on time, and then, just as we got to the top of the hill near the valley of Guatemala City, traffic came to almost a complete halt. For the next hour and a half we poked along at just a few miles per hour, knowing that our chances of catching our plane were going down by the minute.

Maria Marroquin (who lent us the car, the daughter of Grandma and Grandpa's friends) called and said her driver would be waiting for us at her house to receive the Yukon, and that he could drive us to the airport.  We got a little lost on the way to the house, but ended up only going a couple of blocks out of our way before finding our way to the house.  The driver was waiting for us, and took us on an exhilarating ride to the airport.

In this picture you can see that the time is 12:58, and our flight was at 1:30.  Not looking good.

And sure enough, when we got to the Delta counter, there was nobody there, and we were hosed.  We just stood there for a second trying to figure out what that meant for us. Then we scrambled to talk to everyone we could get in touch with and, no, there was no way we were getting on the plane.  One lady said that since we had flown with frequent flier miles, we would have to basically come once a day until there was room on a flight for us (!).

Linette realized that the children's singing group that she was in charge of had a performance the next afternoon that she would now miss, and she wasn't sure the show could go on without her, so she and Stephanie each took a moment to cry a bit as we wondered what we were going to do.

Neal is a gold platinum turbo member of Delta (or something like that), so here's me hoping and "praying" as Neal talked with the airline to find us a reasonable option home.

Fortunately, he was able to switch our flights to the next day (for $150 each), so it could have been worse.  That left us with the quandary of what to do until then.  We thought about calling the Marroquin family once more, and they were so gracious that I'm sure they would have put us up for the night, but we just hated to impose on them after all they had done.

We didn't find a reasonable hotel option, so Linette called a gal in our ward (Janice Carlsen) to get the number of her cousin (Shelly Smith), who had come to Guatemala recently.  Shelly had given Linette the idea of bringing baby blankets down, and had stayed with some friends who worked for the LDS church and were living in Guatemala City for a few years (Caelynn and Garth Reed).

Amazingly, Janice, Shelly and Caelynn all answered the phone on the first try.  Linette told Caelynn that we had missed our flight out of Guatemala City and before she could even finish the story, Sister Reed said, "It sounds like you need me to pick you up.  Give me about 15 minutes and I'll meet you out front."  What an angel!

She picked us up at the airport and drove us to their apartment building to unload our bags.  We were in luck, because she had just taken some visiting family to the airport that morning, so their two spare bedrooms were available.  They had a huge, beautiful apartment that consisted of half of an entire floor on a high-rise building.  They have very strict rules they have to abide by there (no walking down the street, for example), and high security at the apartments (they need a key for the elevator to open at their private stop), so as Caelynn said, "We live in a prison...but it's a beautiful prison!"

The view of the city and its surrounding volcanoes was amazing from their apartment.

Caelynn took us shopping at a nearby market, where I was able to buy a beautiful blue blanket.  We also got an adorable nativity set with little clay people with traditional Guatemalan attire.

We picked her husband Garth up from work on the way home, and I recognized him as a guy that often rode the same bus with me to work, since they lived in Riverton about a mile from our house.  We had a great chat, and he showed us the pool on the roof that had the "disappearing edge", which is very disconcerting from 30 stories up.

We helped them make dinner, and after dinner we chatted for a little while before I said "If you have things to do, I don't want you to feel like you need to entertain us all night." With that, they jumped up and got some things done that they did clearly need to work on.

Meanwhile, Linette called a bunch of people to see about the singing group performance that she would not be there for (using their "Magic Jack" phone, that does calls via the Internet, so it was free).  She thought about canceling the performance, but between Sharon, Kelsi, Erika and our friend Valaura (who knew how to set up the sound equipment), they decided that "the show must go on."

The city was beautiful at night from the apartment.

Garth Reed dropped us off at the airport the next morning and we were on our way.  It was so nice of them to put us up for the night and rescue us from our predicament!

Linette thought her black bean sandwich was so delicious.  I thought it sounded nasty.

I took a picture of these instructions in memory of the lengthy instructions we had received on how to operate the security system on the Yukon, which had basically come down to "push the button."

Linette gave our final Spanish Book of Mormon to the Guatemalan lady next to us on the plane on the way to Los Angeles.

I remember Grandma Merrill telling me how she liked traveling, but that she felt relief each time she touched down in the United States.  I couldn't help feeling the same thing when I saw this sign: "Welcome to the United States."

We had a marvelous time with great adventures, and had met wonderful people all along the way.  I was nervous going to Guatemala because of the reports of crime and violence that have been going on there lately, and the Reeds confirmed that Guatemala City is pretty scary with its gangs and kidnappings.  But we had no troubles, and we felt blessed to have been able to have such a neat experience with so many good people without having any run-ins with the bad.

I still have Grandpa Merrill's world map on which he put pins for where he traveled.  Maybe I'll need a new color of flag to show where we have been.  I'm so glad that I will be able to put a pin in Guatemala.

It was great to see the kids again.  They had done wonderfully in our absence (as far as we know:).  The singing group performance went off without a hitch, and my parents were there to see it.  One person commented, "Maybe we don't need Linette after all!" to which Kelsi responded, "Yeah, as long as we have four of us to take her place!"

Here are pictures of Valaura Arnold, Kelsi and Erika each helping the kids sing.

And the two groups of kids, glad they could perform their Christmas songs.

The night we got home, there happened to be a Merrill cousin party going on at Sharon's house, so we imposed our Guatemala adventure stories and photos on the group before having a brief Christmas sing-along.  (My parents were leaving the next morning so it was our only chance to show the pictures before they left).

And we of course had a few gifts from Guatemala for the kids.

And here is the blanket I bought on our "bonus day" in Guatemala City.

We will always treasure this trip to Guatemala.  I have heard it said that when this life is over, all that will really matter is who you loved, and who loved you.  As we love and serve one another, we lay up "treasures in heaven" that often bring us joy in this life, and which will be one of the few things that truly matter in the next.  We often don't realize the good we have done or the lives we have touched, but those things become treasures that we will someday discover.

We went down to Guatemala happy to do a little good by delivering some baby blankets and visiting people.  But we received so much love in return, and connected with such neat people that we came away with much more than we had anticipated.  When our friend Neal met a man he had baptized, and when Linette got to visit a gal she had brought into the church, we got to take a little peek at the "treasures in heaven" that are laid up there.  I believe that these things are but a hint at the fulness of joy that awaits us there as we live worthy of it.

Thank you for taking the time to relive these experiences with us.  It was a grand adventure and a powerful experience that we will never forget, and it has, I hope, changed us for the better.

Adventures in Guatemala, Part VIII: Lake Atitlan

Adventures in Guatemala, Part VIII: Lake Atitlan

Monday, December 12, 2011, it came time to leave Quetzaltenango and head to Lake Atitlan.  We had had such an amazing experience in the previous few days that we were sad to leave, and we tried to hang on to the feelings we had felt.

We bid good-bye to the lady who had taken such good care of us all week at the Casa San Bartolomé bed and breakfast.  Linette even gave her a Book of Mormon as we left.  

Neal and Stephanie were kind enough to have a seat for the picture so they wouldn't tower over her.

And with a wave, we headed out.

We dropped by the "Xelapan" bakery for one last round of tasty pastries on our way out of town.  While in the central park, I saw this cool nativity display that went for 30 feet or so.

We stopped at a gas station where we saw these moms with their little kids dressed up for the Virgin of Guadalupe Day, or something like that.

Fortunately, these prices are in Quetzals rather than dollars.

Still, though, that's about a hundred bucks (at about $5/gallon) to fill up the tank.

Once again, it was fun seeing all the people carrying stuff on their heads and/or babies on their backs.

Everywhere we went, we saw volcanoes.

There had been a big landslide the day before, requiring President Uchtdorf to take an alternate route back to Guatemala City.  It appeared that the strategy was to dig dirt from the uphill side of the road and throw it down the other side until it filled up enough to pour some new asphalt.

We had to wait briefly because only one direction could go past the landslide area at a time.  So I jumped out and took a picture of our car (and the chicken bus in the background).

I had dreamed about visiting this lake for years, having seen so many pictures in Grandpa's slides, and also having had Grandma's painting hanging on our wall for many years.



Because of the timing of the dedication, we were only going to have one day at the lake, so I was a little worried about being able to do everything we wanted to do in that short time. I sort of wished we had a few days to sit and relax and enjoy ourselves there.  But we made a valiant attempt to "do it all!"

Finally, we got close enough to see Lake Atitlan.  I took a few pictures out the window on the way towards the lake, most of which were rubbish because we were moving too fast.  (I have a friend from Australia at work, and our new favorite word is now "rubbish".)  But I happened to catch this shot as we drove by, and I love how it includes the lake, volcanoes, a shady tree, and a young Mayan gal in a traditional outfit.

Here is the town of Panajachel (pan-ah-hah-chel), at the north end of Lake Atitlan.

We rented a 2-bedroom house at the Hotel Buenaventura, near Panajachel, so we went there and checked in.

We checked out the place really quickly, and wished that we could be there for more than just one night, especially since we were planning to be out for most of the day exploring the lake.

I thought it was funny that they used soda bottles embedded in cement as "translucent lighting" into the bathroom.

Everything was so beautiful there.  (Especially that middle part...;)

Once we were settled, we walked up the stone driveway to the nearby nature reserve to do some zip lines.

Here we are posing for the dorky hat picture.

We had to hike way up a canyon, across suspension bridges and through thick jungle.  The guide said that the vines grow 15cm per day.  (As my Grandpa Wilson used to quote, "What the jungle will reclaim, it first sends the vine.")

We also saw a monkey.  In a tree.  Eating a banana.  Seeing a monkey in the wild was one of the goals on my "list" for the trip, so it was great to check that one off.



One of the suspension bridges crossed in front of a beautiful waterfall.

Here are some steps sticking straight out of the rock.

Finally it was time to zoom down the zip lines!

I was blown away by the view as I sailed down the first zip line.  On one side was the waterfall...

...and on the other side was a panoramic vista of Lake Atitlan and its surrounding volcanoes.

Woo-hoo!!!

There were 8 zip lines and it took an hour or so to go down all of them.  We used a glove with a thick leather pad to slow down at the end of the run.

There was also an awkward obstacle course at the end.

Another couple and their two daughters were part of our group, too.  The guy was there with his family for 6 weeks and had been learning Spanish from a personal tutor.  We asked what he did for a living that allowed him to go to Guatemala for 6 weeks.  He said that he had worked for Microsoft for 13 years about 13 years ago.  So he basically could do whatever he wanted for the rest of his life.  (He helps run a small company now, but said that they sort of liked it when he left on vacation).

Survivors.

The zip lines were every bit as fun as we had hoped.  After that, we went back to our hotel and hired a boat for a "three hour tour" to a couple of villages on Lake Atitlan.  There isn't really a road to get to some of the villages, so transport is by boat (or by foot trail).

Neal and Linette had both been looking forward to getting fried bananas (platanos), and hadn't come across any all week, so we had the chefs at the hotel whip some up for us, even though they were technically closed.  They made them to go, and they were ready just in time to take them on the boat with us.

So yummy!

The four of us got our own private tour of the lake.

It was a gorgeous day.

At the first village, Neal and I each got cool Guatemalan shirts.

Pretty much everyone we met was in traditional clothing.  These folks were still living traditional lives and making their clothes and things to sell by hand.

This lady shows how the weaving is done, sitting on one end to keep pressure on the fabric as it is weaved.

These young gals were just adorable, with a little whining lilt to their voices.  Each was trying to sell Linette the same sort of thing, so she gathered four of them together and told them that she would buy two shawls from each of them.  (A fifth one showed up, too, so she bought from her as well).

Off to the next village!

At this village, the sales people were pretty aggressive, which wasn't too fun.  This little boy followed Neal around the entire 40 minutes we were in town, saying "Diez!" every 4 seconds, trying to get Neal to buy a little doll for a dollar.

On the other hand, look at the little girls in their deep blue outfits.  This color of blue appeared to be the hallmark of this village.

The sun was starting to set at this point, so we hopped back in the boat to head back to Panajachel.

We got mobbed by vendors in Panajachel, too.  It is a tourist town, and I think we were the only tourists in the whole city that evening! Fortunately, Neal said he could "shop with the best of them."

Linette felt bad because we were fresh out of cash by this point, so she was really no use to these vendors.

I escaped the vendors to take a couple of pictures as the sun went down.  Plus, I was all out of cash, and we were tired of borrowing from Neal!

Finally we found a restaurant right on the lake (though some kids followed us to our table and wouldn't go away until we finally bought something from them).

Stephanie got this sunset picture by turning on her flash.

We bought some pens from this boy.  Within about 60 seconds, he could wrap a pen in thread with one of our kids' names spelled on it.

The menu had almost everything on it, including "filet mignon".  Sadly, this is how that particular choice turned out.  Ugh.

We also had some trouble getting our credit cards and passports back in a timely manner.  Linette finally said "¡Ya no!" and marched downstairs to see what was going on.  The credit card processing involves an old lady calling somewhere and reading the digits by hand, so it took a while.

Finally we rode a "tuk-tuk" back to our hotel.  

It is basically a motorcycle that seats two passengers reasonably, or four if one gets real chummy with the driver, as shown here.  It barely made it up one of the hills.

We had the guy drop us off at the entrance to our hotel (mostly because we didn't think it could handle the cobblestone driveway), and then had to almost feel our way down the pitch black driveway to get back to our house.

One of the reasons we had picked this place was so we could sit in the hot tub at night and look at the lake.  But alas, the hot tub only works during the day, because they need the electricity at night for the lights.  Doh!

So we just sat by the lake for a few minutes, where we saw a guy snorkeling with a flashlight.  A guy in an accompanying boat said that he was night fishing.

That night we got to enjoy our rented house for a couple of hours before going to sleep.  Here we are playing a round of "Hand and Foot" (thus the foot on the table).  The girls had beaten the boys soundly the night before.  But we pulled into the lead on round two this time.

It was interesting to me that visiting Lake Atitlan was the thing I was most excited about before the trip, but although the zip lines and boat ride were great, nothing could hold a candle to the spiritual and emotional connections we had been making through the rest of the week.

Still, though, it was a grand adventure in its own right.

Tune in for the final installment in Episode IX: The Long Road Home, in which we make a desperate race for the capitol.