Sometimes, even when you are in Guatemala and you don’t have to worry about a job, or what to wear (because you literally have like 3 options..), or you don’t gotta worry about gas money…you still have the ability to have a bad day. And y’all I let myself have a bad day on Sunday. Okay, so it’s our first free weekend and y’all, I’m pumped. A group of us decide to go to Lake Atitlan for the night. They had me at volcanoes and ferry ride. So our big ol 28 person group takes over a chicken bus and after a nauseating 2 hour ride, we get to the lake! From there, we jump on a little boat and feelin like we are in the middle of the next Jurassic Park movie, soak in the amazing beautiful scenery around us. I ended up hikin a big ol mountain to a waterfall, swam in the Guatemalan water, ate some yummy din din and even got to watch the UK game. Yes, I was with 2 Florida fans. And no, I don’t wanna talk about it. Alright so Saturday was filled with laughter and joy and awe. Seriously it was an awesome day!
Now enter Sunday. I wake up to my phone alarm at 4:45ish because a group was gonna go watch the sunrise. I raise up and smack my head on the ceiling beam because my top bunk didn’t have much head room. Well of course, I hear a few people moving around and then I think “Han, you are gonna regret not goin” so I rolled outta bed. I was smart to wear my pants for the day to bed the night before so all I had to do was grab a drug rug and a wool blankie to keep me warm. We take the 15ish minute walk to the cute little bridge that we had discovered on Saturday thinking it would be the perfect spot. Remember, this is before coffee and sunshine, so it is dark. We sit and start to get situated when all the sudden. Yes. THE BRIDGE BREAKS. So me, the drug rug, the wool blanket, and the Kate Spade covered iPhone in my pocket all get submerged in the water. Apparently this bridge wasn’t built to hold 12 people, so 10 of us fell in. Oh and good thing I wore my clothes that I packed for the day. So we go back to the hostel to discover they don’t open till 8 and they are the people with the towels and the coffee so we’ve got 3 hours to sit and be cold. I go back to bed. Wake up and get me some coffee to discover that they don’t got ATM’s at this here little island. And check out is at 11. And it’s 10. So we hop onto a ferry and rush to the ATM and then have to pay a ferry to come back only to pay and get right back on the ferry to go back to town. Well then I remember that I accidentally ain’t been drinking enough water so my head is hurtin. We go try to grab food before we leave at 2 and it takes forever. We get our food and scarf it down then walk to the bus pick up. On the way? A bus drives by and they think it’s funny to pelt us with water. Like big ol splashes.
Exhausted yet?
Well I try to sleep on the way back and by the time we get back I’m just so ready to take a shower and lay in my tent. I walk over to my tent only to discover AN ANT INFESTATION ALL OVER MY TENT. Not just all over my rain fly either. They are also crawling all over my tent. So I don’t know what to do and I just decide to stand and cry and tell everyone I’m tired. Then the boys are ever so kind and we get a system down – sweep the ants off and then have about a 3 second period before they swarm back. So we sweep, unzip the tent, and I jump in. I would have taken a picture of the ants crawling all over the tent – but oh wait, I didn’t have a phone. So I had to pack up all my stuff that had exploded all over and then we would sweep, unzip, and chuck out all my belongings. And repeat till it was empty. When we lifted up my tent it was amazing to see the humongoromous ant hill that had formed.
But you know what? Nobody got hurt when we fell in the water. And guess what? One of the 2 people that didn’t fall in can’t swim. Talk about God watching out. Also, I got a hostel T-shirt when all my clothes were soaked and y’all know I love me a big T. Turns out the bus that threw water and soaked us? Today is Independence Day for Guatemala and that is one of their cultural celebratory things to do. A puddle had been forming under my tent this whole month and now that I’ve moved it, the ground is drying out and I think since we’ve treated it, ants won’t be coming anytime soon. There is always a silver lining should you choose to find it. But sometimes, you just have to wait till the next day to look for it. That was Sunday. It was a long day. Lookin back now, I can almost laugh at it. I’m over being a diva and today has been so much better. Life is still life and sometimes it’s hard. I’m just thankful I have the opportunity to live life in Guatemala for a little while!
