Semana Santa in Guate…

 

We never intended to go to Guatemala City, but it was semana santa (and every hotel outside the city was booked) and Ana had to fly out of there on Good Friday so on Wednesday we left our Jungle Tree house and headed for the city.

For anyone who like us didn’t educate themselves on Guate (as it is known in Guatemala), it started as a group of 13s mall pueblos but soon they grew together, instead of having 13 little cities they joined to become one city of 13 zones.  Anyone who has been to Paris is probably familiar with the arrondissement, the way that the different zones of Paris are defined, the difference between that and the zones of Guatemala are the way that the zones are arranged and the addresses in them.  In Paris it is still parts of one city, but in Guate each zone has a Main Street or a 1^st Street, therefore you can have 2 addresses that are exactly the same but one is in Zone 1 and the other in Zone 8.  Driving into a city like this, especially without having a clear idea of where you are staying or if any hotel will accept dogs, on the busiest weekend of the year, is well, CRAZY, but that is what we did.

The whole way from our Lodge in Tak’alik we were happy to see the lines of traffic going the other way, it made us hopeful that we would easily be able to find a room in Guate.  Never the less, once we arrived in the city we were completely overwhelmed.  Realizing that we had a snowballs chance in hell of finding a hotel that had adequate parking for us and would take dogs we did the only logical thing, we found a Taxi and put Sosa in it with the mandate of don’t stop until we have a place to stay.  The Taxi driver was happy enough to oblige and for the best bang for a buck took us to a small hostel in Zone 13 (next to the airport) that was certified in Fromm’s as being “safe”.  Unfortunately that hostel was full, but they called another and we were in.  The parking at the second hostel was great, BUT the rooms were really icky and they wanted our dogs to sleep in the yard.  One of the guys from that Hostel called another and finally we had a place to stay but we had to park at the airport.  Once we convinced Fritz that our house would be safe we moved in, shortly thereafter I succumbed to my 3^rd day of the Watermelon flu.

On Holy Thursday after about 11 hours of sleep I woke everyone up (with my coughing) at the crack of early.  I knew I was done for the day and wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and rest (and catch up on the blog) but I also wanted Fritz and Sosa to go out and explore.  They left the hostel around 10 and told me they would be back early.  Twenty minutes later they were back, there was a problem with our ATM card and we couldn’t get any money out… basically we were broke.   After what felt like 2 hours on the phone (but was closer to 20 minutes) with Charles Schwab the problem was resolved and off they went.  

As I rested in the comfort of my bed they waited for a taxi in the lobby for over an hour until finally the hostel owner Jorge took pity on them and took them down to Zone 1.  There (as I was told) they saw a procession and some other stuff but the Cathedral was closed and Jorge wasn’t too keen on taking them to the Mercado (we think for safety reasons).  That evening I was still feeling too yucky to go out so we ate in our room.

On Good Friday Sosa left (we miss her already), and we thought about going out to do some errands but everything was closed, and I didn’t really feel good enough to face the crowds at the procession so we literally spent the whole day in the hostel watching TV and catching up on emails, and napping, lots of napping.  I wish that I could write more about our time in Guate, but besides seeing at least 2 (I think 3) volcanoes erupting (smoke only) from the window, and tons of men carrying big guns guarding everything from the gas station to a chicken truck (not a bus but a truck selling chickens) I didn’t see much.  I would tell you Fritz’s version of the city but well I am writing the blog so you will have to ask him about it.