The time is 11:40 pm and three other teams were with us in Guatemala City, strapping on our packs, and hiking through our neighborhood to get to the gate for the bus to pick us up. The bus was 1.5 hours late. But wait, that isn’t the bus the squad leaders picked out. Those are actually the “buses” they said they didn’t want. We were faced with a van and slightly bigger van to get all 31 of us and our 62 bags and 3 guitars inside.
Let the adventure begin.
We set out on our “10 hour ride” and I was stuck in the back, pretty uncomfortable since buses aren’t made for 6′ people, especially the seat with the wheel under it. I was also really carsick. “Only 9 more hours,” I told myself. Great. I moved on up to the front and took more Dramamine and was much better. We stopped every couple of hours for bathroom breaks and I slept probably 8 hours through the night.
We crossed the border with pretty much no issue. Easy. Now we’re in Honduras. Headed to Valley of Angels. Gonna see our squad in a couple hours. Well, we start driving and drive and drive until our bigger van is getting really hot in the front because the engine was under our feet and we’re going 2 kmph. This isn’t good.
For quite a while we went on at the pace of a slow snail. Until finally we pulled up by a lake and hotel. I personally thought we had arrived and was pumped. (Keep in mind it’s probably 11am and all we’ve eaten since 7pm is some sweet bread.) Turns out, we’re lost. Actually, the driver has no idea where we’re going and hasn’t for hours because we’re 4 hours away (in a normal pace bus). So we take this time to stretch and grab some more snacks at the resturant. Update: the bus won’t start. Solution thought of by drivers: tie the big van that has 25 of us and our bags to the little van that has 6 of us and most of our bags. Good.
This wasn’t going to fly. So they told us we’d have to get a public bus. All of us. With our bags. Funny.
After some more minutes, a new bus showed up, we shoved four people and all our big bags into and on too of the van, and we were off! “Just 3-4 hours!” Ha. We got comfy in our bus and headed off with visions of dancing squadmates in our heads. About 8/9 most of us passed out and were aroused by the bus stopping and a stranger jumping on. However, at this point, no one really cared enough to do anything except go back to sleep. We still don’t know who this fellow was but we assume he was helping our driver since, surprise, he was lost too. Time passed..who knows how much at this point. At 10:15 pm (keep in mind, we were scheduled to arrive at 10 am), we pulled up to our hotel with squadmates screaming our welcome. Never have I ever been so happy to see these people.
All of us on the bus were torn though..because all we wanted was some food and a mattress. Not to be bombarded by all these people who have been waiting to see us for twelve hours! We stumbled into eat and ate cold spaghetti, not even thinking we could warm it up. It was something other than bread or cookies. Bed time.
That was the story of our first travel day. What a day. But through it all, we kept a great attitude. God kept me from getting a migraine or from getting car sick the rest of the trip. We got to enjoy each other’s company in our crammed bus and get to know each other better. Welcome to the world race!
