We got up in the middle of the night and took the hotel shuttle to the airport. Paul and I thought it might avoid a large sad airport scene. So we kissed Kier goodbye while she was mostly still sleeping, also part of the plan, said good-bye to Paul in the lobby. It worked, no scene. Cali was too groggy to be sad.
Once on the plane, the pilot came on the loud speaker and said, “In light of recent events, we hope there are no crazies on board, I mean, given the full moon and all.“ Madi looks at me and says, “What is he talking about because that was just weird.” Isn’t there some pilot 101 class in not freaking out your passengers, especially the young ones? I think he was trying to be funny, but really, we’re mainly interested in him tending to his important dials and buttons. Leave the stand-up to your flight staff.
The couple across the aisle started their New Year’s Eve early, had three Bloody Mary’s each, in quick succession, passed out and snored until we got to Florida, all before 6 am. Perhaps they are on to something. The woman in front of us was already in the Central American spirit, bartering for her mixed bag of peanuts. The flight attendant told her it costs $4, the woman said, “It’s only worth two, I’ll give you that.” Flight attendant say no abruptly and walked away. I think she’d heard that one before.
Cali had a couple of bloody noses on the plane, but other than that it was smooth and uneventful. They listened to music, played games on their touches, ate pringles.
The airport in Fort Lauderdale was crowded, a was getting that Guatemala feeling at our gate. We sat on the floor and ate our lunch. When we got on the plane both the people sitting in front of us and behind of us were nannies with 2 children. So I guess we looked like we fit right in.
When we got off the plane it was smooth. That terminal is so much more modern than the make shift one we arrived in three years ago. Rumor then was that the government had diverted education funds to building a first class terminal.
Rolando was waiting for us. Cali was feeling sick, even the Dramamine wasn’t helping. So I gave her a ziploc bag and hoped for the best. While driving through the city the one thing we noticed was that the chicken buses that run in the city are now all painted red. The other chicken buses that go on the rural routes are still colorful. All of them sound like tractor and spew out thick black smoke. We tried to put our windows up when we were driving behind them.
Cali didn’t end up getting sick, and slept most of the way. Madi and I recognized many of the towns we drove through. In Solola Cali woke up. We were getting close to Pana. We wound our way down the mountain towards the lake. This always makes me a bit nervous in the dark since there are no guard rails, but Rolando is familiar with the roads.
When we got into town there were people everywhere in the streets, it was New Year’s Eve. The Mayan women were wearing their fanciest tops, with gold and silver threads woven into them. They also had shiny threads braided into their hair wrapped across their heads.
When we got to the house, luckily the neighbor was home since we didn’t have a key. He’d sent his housekeeper over to sweep up, but said she couldn’t find any bedding. Well this will be interesting. I guess we’ll spend the first few nights in a hotel until we can find sheets. Last time we were here I had to go to Solola to get sheets and the stores will be closed tomorrow. Turned out all the bedding was there, so we quickly made our beds and walked into town.
We walked downtown to the Circus Room. It’s tradition that we eat our first and last meal there. We ordered a pepperoni pizza. Now Cali was feeling better and Madi wasn’t feeling well. At this rate I’ll never have to feed both of them at the same time. We also had our first limonada con soda.
We were all exhausted. We went to an internet place tried to call home, but there was no answer. I know Paul and Kier both had lots of plans, so I’m sure they didn’t hear their cells going off. I would have sent an email but the guy didn’t seem to know how to make an @ sign and they don’t have it on their keyboards.
We tuk tuked it back, but not before the girls got little bags of water. You make a tiny hole in the corner and squeeze it into your mouth. They love these, and it’s one of the first things they wanted to get. Nothing like a tuk tuk ride down small streets, dodging small children, sleeping strays.
Even though we were only out for a couple of hours, one of us stepped in doggie doo, children tried to sell us things at gringo prices, Cali got snagged on barbed wire, so we are officially initiated. We went to bed at around 9 pm.
At midnight we were woken up by the sound of hundreds of fireworks going off. I’m not talking about the wee crackers, although there was plenty of those, too. I can’t tell you how loud they were, as if they were exploding right above the house. Then you could hear all the firework debris coming down on the roof. At first I thought it was raining and stuck my head outside. But What was coming down was the packing of the fireworks, which looked like shredded pieces of newspaper. It was coming down in chunks everywhere like a ticker-tape parade. They were so loud, woke up Madi, but Cali slep through it. I was trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal, but I was a bit worried one of the fireworks would misfire and set our dried leaf roof (there’s a fancy name for it, but that’s what it is) on fire.
Since we already did a fire last time we were here, I knew it wasn’t impossible. I remembered from the fire that happened next door to us on our last visit, that the fire truck has to drive all over town to pick up the volunteer fire fighters, which took about 20 minutes. So even if they could find all the volunteer fire fighters, who were probably out partying, there wouldn’t be much to save once they arrived. Good thing our bags were still packed. So I was up for a few hours, just making sure the house didn’t burn down around us. See, isn’t this fun?