The race to Guatemala began with a few twists and turns, literally, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
To throw everyone off, the media team gave us a clue during debrief that said that we were leaving on Sunday at noon, and that we were racing to a lake below Antigua.
So we all went to bed unpacked, thinking we would have a nice calm morning to get ready… boy were we wrong!
At 5:00 in the morning we were all rudely awoken by car horns, pots and pans banging, and voices yelling amigos, amigos.
Tired and grumpy, we all scrambled out of our tents and were given an envelope with new instructions for the race.
In big bold letters at the very top it read:
Change of Plans, THE RACE STARTS NOW, get to Higher Grounds coffee shop in Antigua, Guatemala.
Our first task was to get in the river as a team and get a photo submerged in water to our necks.
The day before it had rained, so we all began to frantically try to pack up wet tents, and wet clothes from the river in the dark.
We called for a van to come pick us up, and formed an alliance with the Hupomones from team A, so that our ride would be cheaper.
We were the last team to leave, and immediately we thought we were doomed, as right out of the gates, a few miles down the road, Alissa’s backpack flew off the top of the bus and broke.
We hurried and fixed the problem and off we went.
It was a roller coaster ride to say the least.
We quickly learned that in Mexico it’s best to close your eyes and never look up when driving down the road.
Tailgating and passing at the last moment possible is just the start of the craziness.
We frantically drove up and down, side to side, through the mountains of Southern Mexico.
Along with that came immediate carsickness from all the motion sensitive people in the van.
And alas… Amy threw up out the window of the van.
But we kept pressing on, and surprisingly, although we were last to leave, we passed up all the other teams, thanks to our crazy driver.
Our driver could no longer drive us at the border, so we quickly scrambled to unload packs, and fill out visa forms.
We expected to wait for a few hours and catch a bus, but as we were walking down the street a van pulled up beside us.
He agreed to take us for a reasonable price, so we hurried and loaded the top.
Lynette noticed that he had a VERY low front tire, so we switched vans and were off!
Then we were given the amazing news that our van driver had drove the Media team yesterday, and he knew exactly where to take us!
He also understood that it was a race, and was even crazier than our prior driver.
We made it to Antigua with only one gas stop and a few side of the rode bathroom breaks.
He drove the van right to where the Media team was waiting, and bummer, we were told that it didn’t matter who got there first, and that there was a whole new race in the morning.
All 60 people began to trickle in, and we spent the night in a church.
7:00 the next morning we were let loose, and we frantically took off running to race to a cross on the side of a mountain.
Our team had no idea where it was located, so we jumped in a van with another team, and was dropped off at the bottom.
We ran a paved trail of stairs, and before we knew it, there we were, at the cross.
Our next task was to pray over Guatemala for exactly one hour.
So we sat as a team, enjoying the beautiful view of the volcano, praying, singing songs, and reading verses in the bible.
At one hour we began running back down the mountain, and all the way downtown to the park, where the finish line was at a fountain.
Our whole team ran the entire way, and it paid off, because we were the first B team there, therefore we won the race.
We gave a cheer of celebration, and then scattered about to explore the beautiful city of Antigua, Guatemala.
