Getting to Dio Dulce

Because we were wrapping up out time in Guatemala, we left from Hotel Asjemenou, on the Arch Street in Antigua instead of Santa Rosa. We left most of our luggage there, in a place that they assured us was safe. We had to leave Antigua about five a.m, and nobody was particularly happy about it. We were supposed to be picked up at our hotel, and we started waiting outside about ten minutes before five. By 5:15, nobody had come, and the hotel manager who was standing outside with us, said that you need at least an hour to get to the capital. (We were catching a bus at six that would then get us to Rio Dulce just in time to get on out sailboat, so timing was crucial.) AT about 5:20 the guy finally showed up, right before we were finally going to give up and call a taxi. He drove like a maniac (yes, even more than is normal in Guatemala) to try and get us to the bus station in Guatemala City on time.

We were unlucky though, and hit morning rush hour traffic. We told him that it was really important for us to get to the bus station on time, because otherwise our plan for the next two weeks was completely messed up. He got on the cell phone and started talking to the driver and everything, and it sounded like he won us a couple minutes. We showed up at the bus station at about 6:03, thinking that, especially since this was Guatemala there was no way the bus would be gone already. We all got out the the driver went to go find the bus that we were supposed to be taking. However he came back a bout a minute later, through our bags in his car again, saying that the bus had left just a couple minutes earlier.

We think that partially because he knew it was his fault, he started chasing after the bus. We caught up with it a couple minutes from the station, and drove alongside it honking and generally being obnoxious until the bus driver finally got the message and pulled over. So, we got on the bus in Zone One in Guatemala city. The other Americans on the bus later said that they were worried about us, because they hadn't seen the chase, just the fact that there were three Gringa girls getting on the bus at six o'clock in the morning in Zone One of Guatemala City. the six hour bus ride after that, was pretty uneventful, but none of us could really sleep so we were all a little tired and grouchy by the time we got to Rio Dulce. However, we were there and that was all the mattered to us at that moment.