GoForth and Blog

I spent my last night in Copán hanging out with Loli and her family, and in the morning I thought I’d take in a little hike since I’d be spending the rest of the day on the bus to Guatemala City. I was going to hike to Los Sapos- another small ruins site in the mountains with great views of the city. The LP said it was about a one hour uphill walk, which I assumed meant an easy 45 minutes for me. Well, after 45 minutes up steep mountain roads in the blaring sun, sweating buckets, desperately in need of a bathroom, I passed someone and asked how much longer to Los Sapos. He said half an hour. I took a picture of the view from the height I was at, found a shrubbery-covered spot on the side of the road, turned around and headed home. Good enough.

I said my goodbyes and promised I would come back as soon as possible, and took a shuttle to Guatemala City. Because the other 2 folks in the van were going on to Antigua, I was graciously left in the parking lot of a movie theater in Zona 11, and had to pay $7 for a taxi to my hostel in Zona 1. This was a 10 or 15 minute ride. My 4 hour ride from Copán to the parking lot cost $10. Whatever. I arrived at the hostel, which my 3-year old LP had recommended as a backpacker favorite, and wished I had shelled out the extra $5 or $10 to stay someplace nice, near the airport, to just avoid the city altogether. My hostel was… weird, creepy, not very clean feeling… I was glad I was only there for the night.

Promptly upon being shown to my room, I had a knock on the door, and then a voice: “Sorry, but you’re the first normal looking girl I’ve seen here and I wanted to say hi!” Lacey, a girl from Hawaii, became my buddy for the evening as we braved the sketchy nighttime streets of downtown Guate searching for a friendly place to have coffee and a functioning ATM. The night passed without incident (thankfully I didn’t see a roach in my room until the morning, so I slept), and I woke up at 4:30 am for my 5 am taxi to the airport, to begin the next phase of my summer.

Having decided at sort of the last minute to go straight to Bogotá, and not to spend the first week traveling as I had originally planned (I made the mistake of reading the State Dept’s travel warning website for Colombia, and got a little freaked out), I was not entirely sure that all communication had been successfully transmitted and that there would be people waiting for me at the airport. It wasn’t going to be a huge problem- I made friends during my Miami layover with an American who was going to Bogotá to visit family, and also with the Colombian mother of the adorable 2 1/2-year old whom I was sitting next to on the plane, so I had people looking out for me, plus I had several phone numbers… but still, it was a huge relief when I was hesitantly approached by a young guy at the airport exit, who I knew right away was Gloria’s son, Leonardo. Gloria and her daughter, Soraya, were at the other side with a sign for me. They took me home, fed me grilled cheese and hot chocolate, and before long I was snoozing away my first night in Bogotá.

Take me Home!