After having yet another busy week at Los Gozosos, a well deserved day off was spent on some interesting experiences. We left our place at 8AM this morning to catch a bus to Antigua and this bus ride was something I've never experienced before. The weather was cloudy with a definite chance of rain, temperature was I'd say around mid-late 70 degrees F and very low percent of humidity. The buses in Guatemala that are school buses in the States reminded of jeepneys in the Philippines because they're also decorated in different colors and designs. Our bus was completely jam packed with 3 people to a seat and people standing on the aisle. Some of us were able to squeeze in seats and others stood. I stayed standing the entire time and actually had fun because every time the bus stops to pick up another person, just when you thought you couldn't fit another person in the bus, people standing on the aisle were forced to move back to make room I thought more of it as a puzzle. So I first stayed standing near the front because for some reason i didn't decide to move back till midway the ride so people that were getting on would squeeze pass me and I'd get really close to people who were seating down repeatedly saying "losiento" which means sorry and give an awkward smile afterwards. Throughout the entire ride everytime a person leaves 3 more would be picked up on the spot, it was quite entertaining to see how many people could fit in despite the bus's actual capacity of 73. Once we got to Antigua I got to jump off the bus from the back!
In Antigua, we visited a coffee estate called Filadelfia that offered a variety of activities such as canopy, mountain biking, paintball (which I would have loved to do!), coffee tasting, coffee tour, mule ride…etc. Five of the group went on the coffee tour that lasted for an hour and 15 minutes while Rachel and I went on a mule ride for 30 minutes. Now, I've never actually seen a mule in person and when I saw mine I got a bit nervous because those things were huge! As I sat on the saddle, I honestly freaked out a bit because I've never really rode on an animal before so it was something I was not used to. I learned that my mule's name is Cartel, 30 years old and definitely a stubborn mule. There were only 3 of us that went on the ride- me, Rach and our guide, Manuel. Cartel liked to be ahead of the pack so throughout our ride I was about 30 yards in front of the others. Never ridden an animal also meant having no knowledge in how to handle one so the first few times that Cartel wanted to stop and do his thing our guide would rush up to where I was on his horse and ordered Cartel to stop and keep moving. Manuel, not knowing a word in English, stayed behind with Rachel having conversations in Spanish and I alone in the front decided to get to know the mule by speaking to him, I figured it wouldn't hurt since nobody was around. I thought it was quite odd for Manuel to not be up front and actually be our guide, instead I found myself looking back each time to figure out which direction to take next while making sure Cartel didn't trail off. The rest of the time Cartel would stop I copied what Manuel would say or gestures to make him move again so I figured out how to reign a mule on my own despite our guide's absence to do his job. Either way, I had fun! After our ride, we went to the estate's restaurant and I enjoyed their delicious coffee and nachos for breakfast. We later met up with the others and took bunches of fun pictures.
For the rest of our day off, we visited the other group of ladies whose ministry is in Antigua and the market to do some shopping. Afterwards we took a jam packed bus once again back to Chimaltenango and I was able to sit down for the entire ride, however, by this time it had been raining so you can only imagine the stench when the windows weren't down. Our day off was long but good. Tomorrow we get to spend the day helping at a fundraiser for the children at Los Gozosos!
