I’m sorry I didn’t get a blog up sooner! We did arrive
safely in Antigua, Guatemala on Tuesday night. It was a long trip and we didn’t win the
race, but we made it down safely with very few problems. Over all, I enjoy the
adventure but I’m not sure I liked racing from country to country. The challenge of trying to figure out how to
get to a new country with only $50 to spend was very entertaining, but it was
hard to get somewhere fast when you’re not the one driving.
Our “great plan” was for Miguel (from my blog Miguel and
Miguelito) to drive us all the way down to Antigua
in his little red car. We thought it was
a great idea! We didn’t have to worry
about taxis, busses, or any other form of crazy and unreliable transportation.
The best part was that he had offered to take us, and he was very excited about
it! What we didn’t realize was that he
was going to take his two year old son and 13 year old daughter along for the
ride.
When the three of them showed up at 5am on Tuesday morning
we crammed all our stuff and 7 people into a little car and started on our
way. It was tight! I ended up in the front seat with absolutely
no leg room and a two year old asleep in my arms. The other girls squeezed into the back seat
with bags under their feet, and they immediately fell asleep leaving me to try
and hold a conversation with Miguel in Spanish (my Spanish is pathetic!).
When we got to the first small village, Miguel decided to
pull over for coffee. Of course, there
isn’t a Dunkin Donuts drive thru… stopping for coffee means sitting down and
slowly sipping coffee. The competitive side
of all of us started to come out and it took every ounce of self control not
rush him too much. When he was done he
bought a bottle of orange soda for his son and we all jumped back into the
car.
Miguelito drank almost half of the bottle of orange soda,
spilling the rest, and bounced around the front seat. He was on my lap, climbing on the middle and
even trying to get onto his father’s lap. It was hard trying to control a child when you can’t speak the language
and when the father doesn’t discipline him at all. The girls burst out laughing when my best attempt
at correcting Miguelito was “No, no, no, porque your dad is trying to drive!”
Of course, the orange soda proved to be the worst decision
ever because shortly after he downed the soda, it reappeared all over Miguel,
Miguelito, and me. At that point, I just
gave up on winning the race. We stopped
several time while little Miguel threw up, and finally he fell asleep again in
my lap and we were able to make a bit of progress in our journey.
When we finally reached the border, Miguel realized that he
did not have the proper paperwork for his car with him and he was not able to
cross the border with us. He was very disappointed
but we all knew that it was probably all for the best. Luckily, one of the other all girl teams was
at the border and we were able to team up and get a taxi together for the last
leg of the trip. They had run into a few
problems as well and we all knew that it was best to finish the race together. We finally arrived in Antigua
at around 9pm tired but safe!
