We wrapped up our time in Arroyo Palenque with a few tears and a love for a family and city we didn’t anticipate. On Friday, we headed down to pitch our tents by a beautiful river and reunited with the rest of Team A and Team B. It was a great two days of debrief and recounting what the Lord did in each of our areas. We were instructed that we would be racing to Guatemala on Sunday and that we were not to leave until 12pm.
On Sunday morning, at 5am, we heard a car horn blaring repeatedly. We were all wondering what was going on and were kind of annoyed with this supposed car alarm that wouldn’t go off. Then, we heard our host Samuel yelling, “AMIGOS, AMIGOS!!!” We stumbled out of our tents to find a letter telling us the race was starting NOW! The first instruction was to jump in the river and get a team pic of us up to our necks in water.
After that, we started packing our tents and bags in a hurry! Our team had arranged a driver that didn’t show up. So arounjd 6am, we were hailing an open back truck to take us to the border of Guatemala.
We were full of adrenaline for about the first hour. Then, the hard wood seats, windy roads and constant exhaust fumes were making us sick! Soon thereafter, a few of us traded out so we could sit in the front with the driver. 4 hours later, we arrived at the border. We were the second team there! From that point, we boarded what looked like a party bus (which was in fact a school bus with crazy paint on the outside) and rode two hours, cramming 3 people per seat.
Can you see Parker??
He loves my team mates, Hannah and Becca
When we arrived at the station, we rented another van for a 5 hour drive through the most georgeous mountains I ever saw. We arrived at our destination, Antigua, around 8:30pm. We ran around the city like crazy looking for a coffee shop that would be our meeting place. I ducked my head in a restaurant to see if anyone had heard of this coffee shop when alas, I saw the SUPER BOWL playing on the television! It was at that point that I proceeded to tell everyone in the restaurant that I was from Chicago. GO BEARS!
We found the coffee shop and received our instructions for the next day. We were to race up a small mountain to a cross where we would pray over the city for an hour. Then, we needed to find the square and get our picture taken next to the fountain. Our team strategized a bit and sent half the team to the mountain and half to the square (as we only need to race 4 people at a time). I stayed in the square and about an hour later, we saw Josh sprinting to the square where we were one minute behind the first place team. Second place, baby! It was so fun. Here is our victory shot:
We are in the beautiful city of Antigua, Guatemala. It is a tourist city with cobblestone streets and a volcano at the end of the road. It has been a refreshing change from being in the middle of nowhere, Mexico. We have run into a lot of travellers and many people speak English.
A bit of sad news: Josh has been moved to team L.O. and we will continue on as 6 people. Pray for us as we make this team transition! It will be rough not having him around as we love him soo much!
My team and I will be leaving on Friday for Lake Atitlan where we will be doing ministry in a school. We aren’t sure at this point exactly what we will be doing daily, but we are thrilled! It will be a beautiful place and I am excited to learn more about the Guatemalan culture.
Lake Atitlan
